May 10th 2014.
Location: Hahuru Marae
Purpose: Poupou Karanga Wānanga
I recevied a messege through Facebook from my whanaunga (family member) who suggested that I do the 'Certificate in Karanga' through Te Wananga O Raukawa by way of a series of Marae based Wānanga starting May 2014. I received this messege a few weeks out from the commencement of the course.
It is probably apt that I give you a little background to the importance of this Wānanga. I am the product of Urban Drift - my Mother was born and raised in the country side of Onepu, just outside of Kawerau town, and moved to the city life of Wellington where I was born and raised. This meant that my only connection to my Mothers whanau was during the school holidays when we would travel to Onepu and spend time with my cousins. As we got older, the trips to Onepu grew further and further apart, to the point where the only trips we would make back there were for Tangi (funerals).
When I received the messege from my whanaunga to invite me to the Poupou Karanga course, I realised it was time to take this oppurtunity to connect back to my Whanau, Hapū and Iwi, . So I enrolled in the course.
May 10th 2014 was the start date for our course, it started on a crisp clear autum day. You could smell the cold in the air. There were unfamiliar faces who were preparing to welcome us Manuhiri (visitors - to the kaupapa, as I had been welcomed on the Marae before), and all of my fellow tauira were also unfamiliar to me. This had confirmed my fear - I was about to start a learning journey with complete strangers - MY FAMILY!
As the Powhiri came to an end, we were soon in the Whare Tipuna (Ancestoral house) to start the round of Mihi (greetings). I happened to have positioned myself (very innocently) at the start of the Mihi line. I was second in line. I have said my Pepeha many times before, but to be presenting in front of your own Whanau is truly dauntuing. I managed to muster enough strength to complete my introduction and I came away somewhat unscathed.
Then we sperated into our respective workshops - Men went to the Poupou Whaikorero and us women remained in the Whare Tipuna for Poupou Karanga.
We were introduced to our Kuia - Ani and Milly. It is very evident they have had a rich life and the knowledge they will impart will be the essence of wisdom learnt from their respective lives.
The start of the wānanga was a 10minute wait while organisers of the wānanga fumbled their way through writing up a Karakia (prayer). It was written on a whiteboard in Te Reo Māori (māori language) and was left up on the board. This made me feel a little inadequate for the proceedings, and one of the Kuia then continued on in Te Reo. I could feel my hands sweating and my heart pounding faster as I felt my distance from my language, and therefore I was starting to think I was out of my depth.
I noticed that one of the Kuia had asked a question in Māori and no one responded. The other Kuia then stopped her and presented a question to us in Pakeha (english) 'Do any of you speak Māori'? To which most of us motioned with our fingers a small sign....depicting a "small amount". She then translated the question and then the kōrero was prompted to us students. The question being: Do we think that Karakia is important as part of Karanga? The group decided it was, as it offered protection from the spiritual realm that Kaikaranga might be privy to due to the nature of the role. I had noticed a few words in the Karakia still starring at me from the whiteboard - words such as Te Atua (God), Ihu Karaiti etc...and I drew my own conclusion that it was a christian prayer.
We disucssed in depth about the importance of protection and strength that one can draw from Karakia, and someone asked about other karakia (drawing strength from Tipuna), the Kuia very boldly said that the Karakia they will share with our group are christian prayers - her time of learning has been post colonisation, and the missionaries were the ones who taught and influenced the prayers she had learnt. She mentioned that the prayers drawn from ancsetors is something she had not learnt and would not attempt to teach us those as it could open up some visitations that could not be closed. Her wisdom got my attention.
My learning style begs me to ask questions, to feel satisfied that I am understanding the general jist of what is being said. I asked the Kuia - "Can an Athiest do the Karanga?" to which I received a surprised response. The kuia responded by clarifying my question and proceeding to answer...her answer was merely "YES". She said that a Karanga is an exchange of words, anyone can exchange words - you don't need to be spiritual to exchange words. But the difference in the Karanga will be obvious. One will be only words, the other will be more then words. I found this responce profound.
I am an educationalist and my 10+ years of educating people has seen me fine tune the art of teaching meathods and techniques. I have adopted tryed and true meathodologies that I know work and are supported by good theory. I therefore become a very critical learner when I have a chance to be a student. Poupou Karanga was no exception. I watched with intrigue as they taught us, and I intially got caught up in my western ways of teaching. I veiwed the 10minute writing up of the Karakia as a sign of dis-organisation and lack of communication and preparation to our wānanga. BOY was I wrong. The Kuia then proceeded to share a little about what this term meant for her and then she beautifully sent the kōrero to us, the tauira. What did we think? As she carefully facilitated our thoughts, the other Kuia would then weave our response together to support the messege they were discussing. I finally understood AKO (Māori teaching technique of reciprocated learning and teaching). I am soon slapped in the face by my own preconceptions, and humbled.
At the conclusion of the wānanga I was full of my own reflections, so I was grateful to hear that some of our Mahi Kainga (homework) was to create a reflective journal. I decided to extend myself and Blog my reflection - in the hope that this might ressonate with others out there. My reflection has bought me to this: Karanga is a tremendous role on the Marae that requires more then just a skill to understand how to call - it extends from the starting place of the Karakia - that which we must be in the habit of doing on a daily basis. To acknowledge that there are forces outside of us that can impact on our Karanga. As our Kuia say, kaikaranga must stay safe, I understand what they mean by this now. So in conclusion, there is no Karanga vs Karakia, they are synonomous.
Location: Inside of Te Whare Tipuna
Purpose: This captures the whiteboard with the Karakia and one of the Kuia.
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