Suzanne Williams

WE were treated to a further dose of fascinating information from Jack Karetai in Friday’s Beacon, this time on Māori history and the origins of his whakapapa.  

To an ignoramus on the subject, like me, who was very absorbed by the recent funeral ceremonies of King Tuheitia, which were amazing for their (not only) Tainui emotion, organisation and hospitality. They were most interesting.  

For a start, I was not sure of the difference between an iwi and a hapū, though I realised that lumping all Aotearoa Māori together for convenience, was and is, a foreign concept to the indigenous people.  However, describing them as “Polynesian” offers no differentiation between them and the many other Polynesian peoples.

I have always found it interesting that (seemingly) nearly all people of mixed Māori/Pakeha blood elect to think of themselves as, and identify with, their Māori roots, not their Pakeha.  

Is this for practicalities or because of real emotional attachment, or both?  Then I think of Winston Peters and Shane Jones, who while both, I think, are approximately 50 percent Māori, come across as Pakeha and a mixture respectively, and of two generations; is it a generational thing and indicative of the changing of attitudes over time?

Apart from his very readable and well-expressed content, Jack is to be congratulated for his grammar and syntax, which is almost unbelievable in a youngster these days;  and a pleasure to read for a pernickety English language advocate like me.  

Perhaps it has been well proof-read by a very good (and rare) mentor, who is also to be congratulated,

Thank you, and I look forward to the next enthralling instalment.