AUT University: Maori Women in Leadership
Today I have been asked to talk to you about Maori Women in
Leadership and also about my Iwi, Ngati Whatua.
There is a theme that runs through both these topic areas that you will
no doubt be familiar with to some extent.
And that is manaakitanga.
As a woman, as a leader, and as Ngati Whatua, manaakitanga is always
of paramount importance to me.
It is the very reason for my existence.
For within this term, this concept, there are many depths, that reach to
my essence, the essence of my people and the essence of this land and
these waters than surround us.
Manaakitanga is, to use the Pakeha idiom, A Way Of Being.
The Manaakitanga Way of Being is to serve. So that your mahi, your
korero, your actions, are always in the service of others.
And in that way, you find fulfilment for yourself.
It is only too familiar to us all that our modern world champions the
individual.
The right to do what you want to do, to be what you want to be, to be
yourself come what may, regardless of the expense to others
predominates western culture.
At times it is so ingrained we do not even realise we are doing it.
But you know, this path is most often a dead end. There is that old poem
by John Donne that says:
No Man is an Island.
And that is so true. Human beings do not thrive when isolated from
others.
We are social beings.
Our relationships, our connections with others, our families, our
friendships are critical to our wellbeing.
And you know if you ever get the chance to read that poem by John
Donne, he talks not only about how we are connected as humans, he
talks about how the land is all connected, and if the land is diminished,
then so too are we as people.
There are many layers of manaakitanga, much as there are many layers
of service and of leadership.
For we all have moments when we have to burst out and say:
But its all about ME!
To forego ones own needs and wants in the service of others is certain a
lofty goal to attain. And one that is exceedingly worthy of pursuing.
We live in an era that is becoming increasing desperate to define
leadership.
The word gets bandied around endlessly. And in the Maori world no less
than the Western World.
Somehow I belief we have turned leadership into a fiction, through
Hollywood, through television, through our media. We have turned
leadership into something almost cartoonish, and something that can fee
totally out of reach to the average person.
I mean it is a pretty crazy world where Hollywood actors become
Presidents of the USA, or governors of California.
We have set the bar too high. One has to be perfect in every dimension
it seems. And anyone that demonstrates some fallibility, imperfection,
vulnerability, or fault, is here today gone tomorrow.
So given the high expectations of leadership, it seems many do not wish
to step into the role. Or else there are others perhaps not worthy of it,
that step too quickly into leadership roles for their own egotistic reasons.
For me as a Maori woman, I have stepped into leadership roles simply
because there was a job to be done. I have stepped into these roles to
be of service because there is a great need for better outcomes for my
people, Ngati Whatua, and my race, Maori.
As a mother, a grandmother, a great grandmother, I serve my family with
the gifts that I have. And I look for their gifts, and call them to be to fulfil
on those gifts. Sometimes that can mean quite a dose of ‘tough love’ but
sometimes it has to get uncomfortable and challenging to get to work on
fulfilling on one’s gifts.
There is a lovely book called Community, The Structure of Being, by
Peter Block.
He says we need to change the nature of our leadership, from a place of
fear and fault, to one of gifts, generosity and abundance.
• From a belief in more laws and oversight, to a belief in social fabric
and chosen accountability (here you can hear manaakitanga and
mana)
• From a focus on leaders to a focus on citizens
• And from problems to possibility.
Block says great leadership is about ‘convening.’
It is not about a style. It is not about a personality. It is in all of us.
And if we think of our marae, we see leadership occurring in this way in
the kitchen, on the paepae, or where ever there is a need to convene, to
act to contribute.
I think today we see some Maori women rising up in leadership simply
because as women, as mothers, as grandmothers, we are motivated,
without pausing to think, for the wellbeing of our whanau.
Without pausing to think, we know that the wellbeing of our whanau is
dependent on the wellbeing of our communities. And so when we can,
we step up, to protect, to nurture, to fight for our whanau. To advocate
on a large scale for our wellbeing.
For me that has meant stepping up to nurture, to ‘convene’ my Iwi.
Ngati Whatua is an Iwi that covers a vast geographic area. Most well
known to the wider public, are the hapu that make up Orakei here in the
city.
My marae is Puatahi, on the edge of the Kaipara. The Kaipara is at the
heard of the Ngati Whatua rohe. The tributaries of the Kaipara, the
largest harbour in the southern hemisphere, reach to Auckland here in
the south, and to Wairoa, Dargaville and Waipoua in the north.
An old whakatauki, Ngati Whatua Heru Hapai, conveyed how Ngati
Whatua leadership was always recognised from the Heru in the topknot,
coming over the hill. We travelled far and wide to maintain Ahi Ka. Our
leadership was proud and upstanding,represented by the Heru.
So my heart is in the Kaipara, and we are all connected there, the
resting place of our waka, Mahuhu ki te rangi.
For us as for many others, it is a challenge for us to keep in touch,
across the largest urban area in this country, to some of the most remote
places at the top of the Kaipara and the west coast up to Maunganui
Bluff.
We are mana whenua here in Tamaki, and we are Manawhenua across
the great reaches of our rohe. The Kaipara itself is unique for the fact
that Ngait Whatua are the only iwi that exist on its shores, it is
uncontested. Quite a different kettle of fish (abundant as they are there!)
that the many people laying claim to parts of this city. It has always been
the way. It is a rich resource, today as it was in pre European times. And
its richness is what makes it so contested.
So I have talked to you for some time now, and hope that I have sparked
some thoughts for you about leadership, about Maori Leadership and
about my Iwi.
Let’s now Convene a discussion if that is useful to you now.