Uncle Riki

Tu Tangata, Issue 23, 1 April 1985, Page 34

Uncle Riki

To all my Ngai-Tahu Kaumatua, since the death of our Rangatira, Uncle Riki, an awareness of the staggering numbers that have followed, has bought an urgency to solve this serious problem.

Being a Ngai-Tahu youngster I feel a strong need to express my feelings and thoughts in hope, that somewhere amongst my exposure lies an answer. When a child lies before us in a coffin acceptance to this death is rarely achieved silent are the questions we ask ourselves searching the mind for an excuse that will allow our sleep to come easy. Why us? What are the causes? Could there have been a prevention? The guilt! the maybe’s, the if 0n1y... should not only haunt the subconscious of the parent but also the entire Ngai-Tahu family. This message of death is so clearly read as a cry for help from the suffering youth. We must listen... to their call. If recognition is given, we as a people must unite and answer this call. Our strength will return allowing our ‘hearts to beat as one’. To you my elders; there is no time for sickness that may lead to death. Replace your worry with wisdom and lead the youth from ‘Troubled Water’, I can see a pathway to the heart of the youth. The answer lies in your willingness to gain his confidence, restore his mana so he may live as a Maori, (first) in the world of the pakeha. Your aroha will allow the time and patience necessary to understand the many difficulties facing the youth who questions his identity. I ask only a moment of your time to listen. I will unfold the reason and a solution. To leave the womb with Maori blood immediately you are born into the pakeha world. Early child years provide one set of values for the Maori home, totally contrasting the learning process in the pakeha schools when he reaches adolesence (the time of questioning) he is faced with ‘great confusion’ who am I? what am I, (Maori or pakeha) and with whom do I belong??? His search for answers are seen in his many frustrations! Often rebellious

conduct witnessed by society labels him as a misfit, an out cast. His real reasons ignored by parent, teacher, and society. We tend to forget that this adolesent, has not reached a maturity to express clearly, his ‘true feelings.’ So what, happens to this youth? We abandon him!!... leaving him alone to find his own way. The loneliness he feels is undeserved. To keep warm from the ‘Lonely Cold’, he will clothe himself in false securities! We must ask ourselves as parents, teacher, why has he turned to these alternatives. His ways! His attitudes to seek our attention are varied but... always is his reason the same. We can observe his frustrations from many angles. 1) The depression he feels as a failure in the schools of the pakeha and the work-force. The classic cliche, “I’m just a dumb Maori!” 2) The cunning with which he steals. 3) The aggression with which he fights etc.... Alcohol and a variety of drugs are offered to help ease the pain, prolonging the problem only helps to make his situation uglier. The kids that are going through this identity crisis are often the result of the parent(s) who never found their own. The results and facts of this are behind prison walls, in mental institutions, on the streets, in various types of gangs, in your average school kid, but the one that finalises the result lies before us in a coffin! Perhaps a suicide, perhaps an accident, perhaps an overdose, the causes are not important because there is always a reason. This is true of both Maori and pakeha in todays world but harder still for the Maori youth because he carries an extra burden! His identity as a Maori! What is this that makes him different to the pakeha he has grown up with his colour, his poverty, his failure to compete academically and many other questions that grey this area blurring the root of his problem. What is the essence of Maoridom that makes him different to the pakeha. His spiritual being! Acceptance of this gives him an identity and his want to seek the knowledge of his tipuna. What does that word “spiritual” mean to a youth something about God, or could it be Jesus many varying answers usually connecting this

word to someone else’s religion never to himself or his inner-being. The experience of a tangihanga to me, it is the Taw beauty of living’. It allows me to share my soul, when all heart-beats become one! We all have to find our own spirituality so help the youth my elders, to recognise and accept his spiritual being. Be there just to listen. He does not need your answers, he has to find them himself, but your presence will give him the assurance he needs to seek and find his answer. Once he has established his spiritual identity then he will want to learn language, the laws of tapu, marae protocol, whakapapa etc. Uncle Riki found his way to the heart of the youth. His perception enabled him to see into their world. His answers were not so much in the words he spoke but in his humbleness. If we the Ngai Tahu are to regain our strength as a family we must follow this great example, our Paramount Chief has left to his people. Gather the youth in ways of a wananga or hui and allow him time to express his confusion. For there is the answer. Ka ruia he kakano kei te rangatahi Kia tipu ai te hua. Whangaia ki nga tupuranga. Tena Kotou, Tena Koutou, Tena Koutou Katoa.

Ngaire Tainui, Akaroa