r/Maori

kia ora, im in need of some advice. a woman i know from work (not that well) has gifted me a Taonga of her late husbands, she's not Māori but her husband was. she speaks very little English and gifted it to me because she sees me wear my taonga every day. i tried very hard to give it back to her and explain the significance of it but i feel as though i cant get threw to her, given the large language barrier, iv tried showing her articles and videos and all sorts of stuff to explain to her why its not mine to keep and it should be cherished by her but she just brushes me off and says ill enjoy it more, she has mentioned several times that im not wearing it and asks why. im just not sure what to do with it considering she just wont let me give it back. i feel terribly guilty about all this, what do i do???

Kia ora, I’m sure this sub and the NZ sub likely get a similar inquiry as this on a regular basis and I bet many of you are tired of it. But I wanted to ask nonetheless as it felt like the right thing to do.

Back in February I wrote a formal letter to the Ngāti Toa requesting permission to perform “Ka Mate” in full (not the sports/All Blacks version) for my brother who was graduating from navy basic training. I had a video prepared for submission to ensure that the Haka was performed not only respectfully but correctly and with mana. I made this request primarily because my father was not able to attend due to illness and I thought it would be a gesture my brother would appreciate. We aren’t Māori, not even Kiwi at all, we’re Asian-American whose only connection to the Māori are extremely faint and increasingly rare linguistic and cultural similarities through an extremely distant shared origin, however, my dad instilled in us a deep appreciation and admiration for the Māori culture and people and many others when we were kids. The first time I was ever exposed to the Haka was when my dad showed it to us on Encarta Kids over twenty years ago. Neither of them knew how significant that exposure would be for my development and my interests as ever since then I’ve had a fascination for the many cultures of the Pacific. My dad is a marine biologist who routinely took us to work trips out at sea and regularly bombarded us with random facts (sometimes factoids) about maritime cultures and naval history. I love my mom but I definitely took after my dad and his love of the ocean and world cultures more lol. While the Ngāti Toa public relations office were initially very responsive, once my request got handed over to the Haka committee it may have ran into some problems as I never received approval nor rejection and so I never performed it. Now however my dad isn’t in the best of shape, I try to be optimistic but I know he doesn’t have much left. That said, I wanted to ask if it would be acceptable for me, a complete outsider, to perform a Haka for my old man without the consent of the Iwi who has ownership? (done in as respectful and as culturally appropriate a manner as possible of course.) Thank you.

I (18F) am Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāpuhi, and Te Aupouri, and I really want to get a moko kauae.
The only issue is, I am white, like REALLY white. I’m so what that I am basically pink. And I have blue eyes. I don’t look Māori at all.
I am really worried that I will offend fellow Māori if I get a moko kauae, or that I will be seen as a pakeha stealing culture, because nobody can tell I am Māori. What do I do?

I want to gift a colleague and friend earrings when she leaves our workplace (she has been a massive part of inspiring and shaping the culture within our team and the work we do as well as inspiring myself personally). I'm contemplating pounamu.

Her work is heavily involved in Māori culture (including PhD), and she will be leaving to open a bilingual unit at a kura close by.

I feel nervous to do this wrong.

There are some places locally that I could purchase from, however I also have a set that I carved during a course (it was led by a registered Kai Tahu carver at my kids' marae). They've been sitting there for the right person to gift to but I'm wondering if because I am not Māori, nor a carver - this dampens the meaning and would not be culturally/traditionally acceptable.

Help. This wāhine is so amazing and I really want to do her justice.

Perhaps pounamu isn't the right route at all. I've also considered wood and muka

I'm white British but through the development of my instagram algorithm over time I get alot of videos about indigenous cultural practises from all around the world and alot of these videos are of the Maori people doing the Haka but I can't stop myself from crying whenever I watch it, not in a pity way or sadness but the raw emotion, I just can't stop myself from crying when I watch videos of the haka.

I am a white guy from the U.S., but my YT algorithm knew that I should watch this performance and this song in particular gripped me.

I have a sad suspicion that this particular composition is unique to the team(?) from Nga Puna O Waiorea, and I won't find a similar recording, but either way I'd love to know more about the song, and the genre of music within Maori musical culture.

Hi everyone. I'm really hoping someone can make some suggestions here, because I'm running quite thin on ideas.

Long story short, I'm trying to assemble a drawing, possibly to be used on a pendant, for a story, and I'm trying to include elements of Rebirth, Bonds/Connections, Storms and Death in it.

Two Koru winding into a Pikorua works well for the first two, and the stars of the Matariki above for storms, but I'm having a really hard time working out what to do for Death, since there isn't really a visual symbol (as far as I'm aware) with strong associations to Hine-nui-te-pō like there is for Tāwhirimātea (and I need something visually monochrome, so I can't rely on colour).

The best I've been able to come up with so far is a stylised Pōhutukawa tree, but it feels like a bit of a reach.

Can anyone make any better suggestions for me?

How do we feel about the Peter Gossage books? My mother had a go at me for gifting my nephew the Maui books for his birthday. It's the books I grew up with and I loved the art style but if there's better versions..