Generation Ngai Tahu – Lianza Keynote 1
The audience warmly welcomed both Sir Tipene O’Regan and his daughter Hana O’Regan at this mornings first key note address as the 2009 LIANZA annual conference got underway.
They engaged in some light hearted intergenerational banter pulling each other up in areas such as pronunciation and family politics.
Intergenerational transmission of knowledge is the topic of the day. What is passed on is filtered. Individuals are “selected” to carry certain aspects of this knowledge. But some is always lost. How are these selections made? What ar
e the effects for Ngāi Tahu (
or even for different generations of O’Regans?)
Technology can have an effect on this. Diamond saws, the efficiency that they offered to some degree replaced the mythology, the stories, the customs of gathering and working that most local of local materials, pounamu. What remains is but a fraction.
But back to the generation gap as Hana and her dad banter and playfully snipe at each other. As the youngest of five children she shares the podium and at least nominally has as much right to be there.
Hana confesses that she is not a reader but points out the various different, exciting media to distract her. The way we access and transmit information has changed drastically between generations. Sir Tipene couldn’t “wait for the video” but recalls his father reading Dickens to the whole family. It was the best of times…
The business of selection, of deciding what we want to know and want to preserve and what may therefore fall by the wayside…and these wonderful tools we have to do it with now.
Ngāi Tahu as an iwi know something about the loss of cultural knowledge. Sir Tipene mentions that there are perhaps a dozen documents upon which much of what is currently known is based.
In pre-European times the focus was on protecting tribal boundaries, whakapapa and mahinga kai were prioritised. Moteatea, karakia and purakau (stories) were maintained through repetition.
With coming of Pakeha people to Te Waipounamu the priorities shifted. New technology like fish hooks and axes arrived and the world expanded for Ngāi Tahu people and literacy was latched upon “taken up avidly” via the vehicle of The Bible, particularly. This led to an erosion of some of the traditional ways of recording as the written word grew to prominence.
Te Kereme, The Claim. The struggle with the new tool of literacy was to secure the claim. Manuscripts, petitions to the Queen, legal documents, letters, written whakapapa information. This became the basis of the claim. This became the focus and priority of the Iwi. There was a major change in the political organisaton of the Iwi.
With the settlement, there was a move away from that looking to the past to the future and a change in ways of communicating. Tahu FM, websites, and books, magazines, many new tools and new ways of transmitting knowledge but there is a gap.
There is a move away from the process of repetition in transmitting knowledge. The written word meant things could be recorded without dedication and mental effort. It can accessed whenever we feel like it. We can Google it. We can watch in on the History Channel. Sir Tipene now knows more about the ANZACs now than he ever did as a child.
Hana feels that the prioritisation efforts of earlier generations ignored culture and language. How could this be the case? Fishing companies and land development have been a priority in recent years. Language is the key to culture. Shouldn’t we have something Ngāi Tahu to say rather than just being Ngāi Tahu and saying something?
Why did generations of Ngāi Tahu not transmit the language to their children? Sir Tipene points out that even Sir Apirana Ngata promoted the use of English by Maori. The expectation was that it would continue to be spoken in the home but slowly but surely it dwindled. This is no unique situation and has occured in cultures all over the world.
Globally world languages are dying and an alarming rate. In 2001, 2912 languages were known, by 2101 only half of those will continue to be spoken. They are more endangered than birds, mammals, fish or plants.
Ngāi Tahu have the worst language statistics of any iwi in the country. Why isn’t in on the tribal wishlist?
Sir Tipene says that it is a systemic issue. Te reo has always been on the wishlist but when you don’t feel something that is essential it gets dropped off the list. You don’t see what you’ve lost until you look behind you…and you don’t always look behind you.
Hana talks about Oriori, lullabies, they contained all sorts of graphic information about warfare, weapons, bloody revenge. In modern times, stories are sanitised. Ngāi Tahu and Ngati Toa and Te Rauparaha’s effect on the people of Te Waipounamu is glossed over a little. Some of the more gruesome facets of this history are sanitised.
What will future generations need to know, to be Ngai Tahu and to prosper? What tools will they need to transmit the knowledge. What songs will they cherish, what poetry, what sense of the enduring struggles, of the claim – what will they know of this? What sense of that dogged determination will they hold?
Terrific banter between two highly intelligent and passionate people. I’d love to be able to sit around the table at their house when debates happen.
The thrust of their talk covered the intergenerational transmission of knowledge and their own generational ‘take’ on the issue.
During their talk they walked the attentive audience through the way a body of Ngai Tahu knowledge had been impacted over the years by the priorities applied to the transmission of information by each generation.
While not particularly heavy in the PowerPoint department the spoken presentation (focussed on the transmission of Maori language) was informative and well thought out.
In the house of Ngāi Tahu memories it is the people, the people, the people, that are most important. He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.No questions at the end because everyone is too stunned (or intimidated). An awesome session. Terrific banter between two highly intelligent and passionate people. I’d love to be able to sit around the table at their house when debates happen.
A great start to the conference. #lianza09
The audience warmly welcomed both Sir Tipene O’Regan and his daughter Hana O’Regan at this mornings first key note address as the 2009 LIANZA annual conference got underway.
They engaged in some light hearted intergenerational banter pulling each other up in areas such as pronunciation and family politics.
Intergenerational transmission of knowledge is the topic of the day. What is passed on is filtered. Individuals are “selected” to carry certain aspects of this knowledge. But some is always lost. How are these selections made? What ar
e the effects for Ngāi Tahu (
or even for different generations of O’Regans?)Technology can have an effect on this. Diamond saws, the efficiency that they offered to some degree replaced the mythology, the stories, the customs of gathering and working that most local of local materials, pounamu. What remains is but a fraction.
But back to the generation gap as Hana and her dad banter and playfully snipe at each other. As the youngest of five children she shares the podium and at least nominally has as much right to be there.
Hana confesses that she is not a reader but points out the various different, exciting media to distract her. The way we access and transmit information has changed drastically between generations. Sir Tipene couldn’t “wait for the video” but recalls his father reading Dickens to the whole family. It was the best of times…
The business of selection, of deciding what we want to know and want to preserve and what may therefore fall by the wayside…and these wonderful tools we have to do it with now.
Ngāi Tahu as an iwi know something about the loss of cultural knowledge. Sir Tipene mentions that there are perhaps a dozen documents upon which much of what is currently known is based.
In pre-European times the focus was on protecting tribal boundaries, whakapapa and mahinga kai were prioritised. Moteatea, karakia and purakau (stories) were maintained through repetition.
With coming of Pakeha people to Te Waipounamu the priorities shifted. New technology like fish hooks and axes arrived and the world expanded for Ngāi Tahu people and literacy was latched upon “taken up avidly” via the vehicle of The Bible, particularly. This led to an erosion of some of the traditional ways of recording as the written word grew to prominence.
Te Kereme, The Claim. The struggle with the new tool of literacy was to secure the claim. Manuscripts, petitions to the Queen, legal documents, letters, written whakapapa information. This became the basis of the claim. This became the focus and priority of the Iwi. There was a major change in the political organisaton of the Iwi.
With the settlement, there was a move away from that looking to the past to the future and a change in ways of communicating. Tahu FM, websites, and books, magazines, many new tools and new ways of transmitting knowledge but there is a gap.
There is a move away from the process of repetition in transmitting knowledge. The written word meant things could be recorded without dedication and mental effort. It can accessed whenever we feel like it. We can Google it. We can watch in on the History Channel. Sir Tipene now knows more about the ANZACs now than he ever did as a child.
Hana feels that the prioritisation efforts of earlier generations ignored culture and language. How could this be the case? Fishing companies and land development have been a priority in recent years. Language is the key to culture. Shouldn’t we have something Ngāi Tahu to say rather than just being Ngāi Tahu and saying something?
Why did generations of Ngāi Tahu not transmit the language to their children? Sir Tipene points out that even Sir Apirana Ngata promoted the use of English by Maori. The expectation was that it would continue to be spoken in the home but slowly but surely it dwindled. This is no unique situation and has occured in cultures all over the world.
Globally world languages are dying and an alarming rate. In 2001, 2912 languages were known, by 2101 only half of those will continue to be spoken. They are more endangered than birds, mammals, fish or plants.
Ngāi Tahu have the worst language statistics of any iwi in the country. Why isn’t in on the tribal wishlist?
Sir Tipene says that it is a systemic issue. Te reo has always been on the wishlist but when you don’t feel something that is essential it gets dropped off the list. You don’t see what you’ve lost until you look behind you…and you don’t always look behind you.
Hana talks about Oriori, lullabies, they contained all sorts of graphic information about warfare, weapons, bloody revenge. In modern times, stories are sanitised. Ngāi Tahu and Ngati Toa and Te Rauparaha’s effect on the people of Te Waipounamu is glossed over a little. Some of the more gruesome facets of this history are sanitised.
What will future generations need to know, to be Ngai Tahu and to prosper? What tools will they need to transmit the knowledge. What songs will they cherish, what poetry, what sense of the enduring struggles, of the claim – what will they know of this? What sense of that dogged determination will they hold?
Terrific banter between two highly intelligent and passionate people. I’d love to be able to sit around the table at their house when debates happen.
The thrust of their talk covered the intergenerational transmission of knowledge and their own generational ‘take’ on the issue.
During their talk they walked the attentive audience through the way a body of Ngai Tahu knowledge had been impacted over the years by the priorities applied to the transmission of information by each generation.
While not particularly heavy in the PowerPoint department the spoken presentation (focussed on the transmission of Maori language) was informative and well thought out.
In the house of Ngāi Tahu memories it is the people, the people, the people, that are most important. He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.No questions at the end because everyone is too stunned (or intimidated). An awesome session. Terrific banter between two highly intelligent and passionate people. I’d love to be able to sit around the table at their house when debates happen.
A great start to the conference. #lianza09
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