Whakapapa Workshop Handout 2024 TE

Created by Vicki Roberts for Association of Christian Spiritual Directors in New Zealand

Whakapapa and Spiritual Direction with Vicki Roberts

An opportunity to contemplate and engage with the wisdom and insights that Aotearoa’s first people’s offer around identity and belonging. (whakapapa) The expectation is that connections will be made within your own sense of being grounded here in Aotearoa, and that this can offer you new tools to use in your Spiritual Direction practice.

Vicki Roberts, Ngā Ruahine,Te Atiawa, and of English, Scottish descent on Dad’s side. His grandad, my great-grandfather was born in Taranaki in 187I, so proudly tūturu (original)Taranaki. I am a newly minted Spiritual Director who lives in Tauranga Moana, with husband Paul and two of our four adult children. I enjoy all things ‘competition’ and luckily for my husband can live with losing! I am a Rugby momma, who unfortunately for our children, is (apparently) clearly heard on the sideline.

Tēnā koe! (literally translates to ‘there you are”)

It is a greeting used to acknowledge “hello to one person” in the language of the first people’s here to these beautiful islands we call home. And whether there is just you and me at this Workshop or others, the invitation is to ‘settle in’ and contemplate all things ‘origins’. These few ideas here are resources to ponder and explore further, not necessarily what we will cover.

Our training event is named Tatau Pounamu.

(noun) enduring peace, making of peace, peacemaking – literally ‘ greenstone door’, a metaphor for lasting peace. When peace was made, a precious gift was often made to symbolise the event. (Te Aka Māori Dictionary)

Within our Christian tradition (from our Hebraic roots) we recognise that this doorway is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, from the Tribe of Judah.

In Aotearoa New Zealand we also recognise that this doorway is through Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi 5 Feb 1840 He Tatau Pounamu

Which very simply stated 3 things:

• Rangatira (leaders of their tribes) recognise Queen Victoria of England has kawenata (governance) in the land .
• Rangatiratanga (leaders exercising their leadership over their tribal areas) continues.
• The Queen agrees to protect equal rights for all New Zealanders.
  

This agreement recognised that the original people known as “tangata whenua” would continue doing life, as they had for hundreds of years (1) and that the Tangata Tiriti – the people of Te Tiriti o Waitangi under the authority of Queen Victoria (3) also had a governing role in the land.

Whakapapa as a transitive verb means “to give history” (Te Aka Māori Dictionary) (verb) (-hia,-tia) to recite in proper order (e.g. genealogies, legends, months), recite genealogies(noun) genealogy, genealogical table, lineage, descent – reciting whakapapa was, and is, an important skill and reflected the importance of genealogies in Māori society in terms of leadership, land and fishing rights, kinship and status.

It is central to all Māori institutions. There are different terms for the types of whakapapa and the different ways of reciting them including: tāhū (recite a direct line of ancestry through only the senior line); whakamoe (recite a genealogy including males and their spouses); taotahi (recite genealogy in a single line of descent); hikohiko (recite
genealogy in a selective way by not following a single line of descent); ure tārewa (male line of descent through the first-born male in each generation).
(Te Kākano Textbook (Ed. 2): 3; Te Māhuri Study Guide (Ed. 1): 13-14; Te Kōhure Textbook (Ed. 2): 237-240;)

Tēnā koutou katoa from Tikanga Keri Opai 2021 Upstart Press Ltd.

Ko Ingarangi te whakapaparanga mai (English is my ancestry) (cf Kōtirana (Scottish), Aerana (Irish) Wēra (Welsh), Tairana (Thailand) Samoa, etc.)
Engari – but/however

Ko te whenua tepu (placename where I grew up)
Ko te kainga (place is my home)
Nō au (I’m from place) (these 3 pick and mix as fits best)
Kei au e noho ana I am living in (place)
He au i I am a (job title) at (name of organisation)
Ko au I am (name) can say just first name or both

Tēnā tātou katoa Greetings to one and all

Traditional karakia

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