A Manual for Standing Firm

Kia ora e te whānau. We have reached the final post in our series looking at Research Report #268. We have talked about our language, our leadership, and our shared economy. Today, we look at the spiritual "backbone" that allowed our ancestors to stand firm against colonial pressure. In the ancient Ethiopian Bible, there are three unique books called the Books of Meqabyan. These books aren't found in Western Bibles, but for us as Ngāpuhi, they serve as a powerful manual for indigenous resistance.

The Meqabyan Legacy

The Books of Meqabyan tell the stories of righteous people who refused to bow down to greedy kings or false idols. They chose to follow the laws of the Creator rather than the unfair rules of men. This resonates deeply with our own history in Taitokerau. When we look at the lives of the Ethiopian martyrs, we see a reflection of our own leaders who refused to be "trodden down" by foreign systems. Ihu (Yeshua's name in the Paipera Tapu) gave us the strength to know that even if our physical world is under pressure, our wairua (spirit) remains free.

Two Systems in One Field

Living in Te Tai Tokerau, we often see beauty and struggle sitting right next to each other. We might see a thriving marae garden right beside a patch of gorse, or a whānau doing great mahi alongside the "static" of community gossip. Ihu (Yeshua's name in the Paipera Tapu) taught us that this is exactly what the world is like. He told a story about a farmer who sowed good seed, only for an enemy to come at night and sow weeds among the wheat. He was showing us that two different ways of living are currently sharing the same space.

The Problem of Entangled Roots

When the farmer’s workers saw the weeds, they wanted to pull them out right away. But the farmer said no. He knew that the roots of the wheat and the weeds were tangled together. If they pulled the weeds, they would destroy the good crop too. This is a vital lesson for us in the North. Often, we waste our precious energy trying to fight every "weed" or negative person we see. But because our lives are connected, fighting them directly can actually drain our own life force, or mauri.