REFLECTIVE INSIGHT #005 - THE LION AND THE KORU: OUR ETHIOPIAN WHAKAPAPA
A shared signal
I was driving out to Mt Manaia with some whānau the other day, just soaking in the views of our beautiful hills. We were listening to a song by Unity Pacific, and it hit me just how much of our story here in Taitokerau is tied to a land thousands of miles away.
Most people see the red, gold, and green flags at Waitangi or during our festivals and think it is just about the music. But if you look deeper, those colours are not just a fashion choice. They are signals of a deep connection, what we might call an invisible thread, that links our struggle for sovereignty here to a global movement.
Prophets and promises
This connection did not start with reggae music in the 1970s. It goes back much further. In the 1800s, our own prophets like Te Kooti and Ratana were reading the Bible through their own eyes. They did not see a story about a foreign people needing "saving" by the British. They saw themselves.
REFLECTIVE INSIGHT #002 - REFLECTIONS ON TE WHAIAO - FINDING LIGHT IN THE TRANSITION
The grey space
Have you ever woken up early in Taitokerau, stood on the grass, and watched that grey time just before the sun pops up? It is not dark anymore, but it is not quite light yet either. In our traditions, we call this Te Whaiao. It is the shimmering space where things are changing.
Lately, it feels like our whole community is standing in that grey space. We are leaving behind old ways of struggling and looking toward a future where we finally thrive. It can feel a bit scary when you can’t see the whole path yet, but Te Whaiao is actually a place of great power. It is the bridge between what was and what will be.
The light inside
As I look at the Pōhutukawa trees starting to turn red along our coast, I am reminded of the light that Ihu brought into the world. He talked about a light that the darkness could never put out. This is not just a nice story; it is a description of the very energy that holds the world together.
REFLECTIVE INSIGHT #001 - THE POWER OF CONNECTION: WHY THE BOTTOM LINE IS A LIE
Sitting on the porch
Tēnā koutou, e te iwi. Pull up a chair here on the porch with me. Lately, I have been sitting with a couple of books that might seem like they come from different worlds. One is about the deep secrets of quantum physics, and the other is an old Māori translation of the Gospels.
At first, you might think a scientist and a preacher have nothing to say to each other. But when I look at them through our Ngāpuhi lens, they are telling the same story. They both say that nothing in this world lives by itself. Everything is connected, from the stars in the sky to the mangroves in the Hokianga.
The tickle effect
In the world of science, there is something called entanglement. It sounds fancy, but the idea is simple. It means that when two things are connected at a deep level, they share one life. You could put one part on the moon and keep the other here in Taitokerau.