Kaaore he hoa mooku

Kia ora raa, he aha ai kaaore eetahi hoa mahi hei whakahoki aaku paatai. He uaua te paatai, he ngawari noa iho? Meenaa kei te oho koutou, tuhi mai he whakahoki ki te paatai, "To blog or not to blog that is the question: To hongi or not to hongi?"

To blog or not to blog that too is a question, when, where, how, why, who, what are all questions too. Following on from Angela’s first and second sparks of how we can become regular users of this blogging technique, I have been back through Te Matau a Mauis old bloggers and found useful material - look at Robin Fabish’s blog (my goal is to set up a blog over the next few mornings -as I have promised myself that I am going to get up earlier and work on this project. Note also another fabulous blog is the Positivity blog found when answering the question what are we doing for our senior maori students.
Looking carefully at the cultural implications for us as Maori to hongi or not - I had a look at the article by Hone Harawira - interesting that we are continually been forced to re evaluate our Maoriness in the face of other peoples ignorance, lack of understanding and sometimes their stupidity. To hongi or not is a good question but to be Maori or not is a better one. Being Maori in schools affects all of us - how do you deal with this every day, week, month, year in and year out. Its fabulous being a Maori Pehea o koutou whakaaro moo eenei koorero?

To hongi or not to hongi that is the question

Do I or don't I kiss this one, or hongi that one, or dare I say even shake hands with that one over there. Do I have to speak to this one or be nice to that one? Every day we are faced with issues that make us question whether or not we are Maori or not, are we teachers or not, responsible adults or not. Do we let our teenagers go to that party or take alcohol when we know they are under age?

Human rights are not the norm for all of us, every day many of us are challenged and denied the basics of life. To be Maori is to be allowed to practise these norms, to tangi for our whanau on our marae, to gather and say prayer, to sing, laugh and share jokes, to pass on to our children the values handed down form nanny to moko, uncle to niece, auntie to nephew, father to son and mother to daughter.