Mana wahine
Embedded content: https://youtu.be/WhtuXXEQOV0
"I think women right from the arrival on these shores have been critical to Māori development to who we are as a society".
Speakers
Prof Dame Anne Salmond, Evelyn Tobin, MNZM, JP, Miria Pomare, Prof Linda Tuhiwai Smith and Prof Ngahuia Te Awekotuku.
Transcript
Prof Dame Anne Salmond: So many parts of the country you had really strong Māori leaders. The East Coast where I'm from is one of the striking examples and Apirana Mahuika wrote a brilliant thesis about Nga Wahine Kaihautu O Ngati Porou, it's the women leaders of Ngati Porou and many houses named after them, kin groups named after them, they are legendary.
Evelyn Tobin, MNZM, JP: Engari ko taku koa tēnei mea te Māori tēnei mea te rangatira Māori e whakaaro pēnei: He tapu tō te tāne. He tapu anō tō te wahine.
[Evelyn Tobin, MNZM, JP: What gives me joy about being Māori, about Māori leaders who think like this: a man has his sacred power, a woman has her own sacred power.]
Miria Pomare: Well I do have a number of tupuna who signed the Treaty of Waitangi and one in particular Kahe Te Rau-o-te-rangi was one of 13 women signatories, female signatories, to the Treaty and she was a wahine rangitira in her own right and a formidable, inspiring woman.
Prof Linda Tuhiwai Smith: I think women right from the arrival on these shores have been, you know, critical to Māori development to who we are as a society.
Miria Pomare: They were you know, they were leaders in their own right, they were at the forefront of battles, leading men into battle, they were they were at the forefront of decision making around strategies, around, you know, commercial opportunities here in the Cook Strait.
Prof Ngahuia Te Awekotuku: Looking back to the 19th century and the women who signed the Treaty and the very few women who participated in the suffrage revolution and I'm speaking of Māori women of course. You'll note that they are few and far between, you will also note that they are rangatira, that they are women of substance, women of exalted lineage.
Prof Dame Anne Salmond: So many women, powerful women and as you go round the country and you study tribal history, you know, you find powerful women everywhere actually.
Prof Linda Tuhiwai Smith: That we've been in the waka together you know with our men, with our elders, with our children, with our healers, with our spiritual guides and all of those roles were gendered, there were women, there were men, there were you know different concepts of gender.
Evelyn Tobin, MNZM, JP: Ki te takahi au i te mea tāne ka takahi au i a au anō me kī ko te ira tāne i roto i a au. Ki te takahi au i te wahine e takahi ana au i te ira wahine i roto i a au.
[Evelyn Tobin, MNZM, JP: If I belittle a man I belittle myself as well because of the male force within me. If I belittle I belittle the feminine force within me.]
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