Pūrākau
pū: base or foundation
rākau: tree1
Having the power to chart our own course, in ways that are personally meaningful (which, I think, means ‘where’ and ‘how’ we go chimes with aspects of our culture that we see value in), is a powerful feeling.
Autonomy matters.
This is an idea that Leonie Pihama, Donna Campbell and Hineitimoana Greensill explore in their interesting article ‘Whānau Storytelling as Indigenous Pedagogy’, which is based off research they conducted into how pūrākau are used and valued today.
They do this through unpacking the significance of pūrākau as a pedagogy. It was through pūrākau, they argue, that Maori were able “to be our own Creation Story”, thus guiding the “relationships, ethics and responsibilities” people have.
“For Maori, pūrākau are fundamental to understanding our natural world and social experiences and as such are crucial to sharing mātauranga (Maori knowledge) that ensures our survival and cultural sustainability”
Fundamentally, pūrākau take the form of stories, song and narrative. A pretty good pedagogical approach in my book.2 I love the connection the word pūrākau makes between stories as education that creates a foundation of strength and growth.
However, in their work with whānau, Pihama et al saw that all is not well when it came to pūrākau …
There are too many young people in this world at a complete loss as to what they’ve come from. They have this sense that they’re inherently bad because they’ve not known anything else but in fact, scratch the surface and start to help this kid reclaim their stories you know and they actually find all kinds of interesting ways to reframe the way they think about themselves because tipuna kōrero3 matters. It helps people to navigate themselves about the way they think about themselves.4(Whakawhiti kōrero)
The foundation or, the base, matters. Without it, there is nothing solid to stand on, nothing to be nourished by and grow from.
The way that I internalized the information was really through storytelling. And I think that’s an element that’s sort of beginning to miss out for our children because a lot of our stories are being treated by the education system by schools as fairytales. Yet to us they are a profound part of our religion, our beliefs, our values and all the things that are important. (Whakawhiti kōrero)
This is so true. Perhaps this is one way to think about decolonising education - we will know progress is being made when pūrākau are taken as seriously as physics.
Is this me just being ‘woke’? This article about rivers suggests not. Yes, we know about the physics of water, and can engineer all manner of structures to manage their flow. One of the defining characteristics of a colonial attitude towards land is to bend it to the settlers’ economic and social desires. Whole bodies of Western knowledge have been built that help us know how to do this, and they are highly valued - just think of the subjects seen as ‘rigorous’ in secondary school. But physics doesn’t help us with the ‘should we’ question very well.
For some river scientists, mātauranga has clarified questions science has been unable to resolve. What if, instead of seeing a river as a machine to be controlled, something that can be deconstructed, we recognised its mauri and accepted it has a fundamental right to be a river?
…
Mātaraunga shows people can learn to live with rivers. When a flood damaged much of Mātata township in 2005, among the few buildings that weren’t damaged were marae.
The reason was a pūrākau, a narrative applied to the landscape. The river was said to house a taniwha in the form of a lizard, its tail flicking side to side, a sign that people should be cautious.
The story contains a basic geomorphological fact; the lower channel of the river laterally shifts after floods.
As I write this I recall the words of a Maori student in Mel and Di’s English course: “This is the only subject, apart from Maori, where I can be Maori.” I’m starting to get what she meant. In that course, her stories were taken seriously. Accordingly, she was able to live by values that were culturally valuable, and be her own Creation story.
Autonomy matters.
As defined by Jenny Bol Jun Lee Morgan.
Brian Boyd has written extensively about stories, art and play as evolutionary adaptations that have driven homo sapien’s survival. I recommend his book, On the Evolution of Stories.
Can be translated as ancestral stories.
Great article, Bevan. I'd just been thinking about this while watching farmers talking about losing their land to the river and the tons of gravel. There is much food for thought here. Kia ora!
Ka rawe, Bevan!