What I Learned from the Maori

standing on the banks of a dutch canal

in eight degrees weather wearing nothing

but shorts

over the cold dark water echoes a call

a call that unto a few weeks ago had

been foreign to you

but today you know and your body starts

to shiver

not from the cold but from purpose and

pride

and you start to move this is how my

relationship with the maori from new

zealand

was officially sealed but i want to take

you back a little bit

a couple of months before this time to

explain to you

how this came to be

at that time i was a student in leiden

maybe a bit too slick

and i was just told i would become club

president of the north royal rowing club

a great honor during this training

period of mine

there was a mention of a project

with the museum of falcon ethnology

and the country of new zealand

i don’t know how it is for you but i got

really curious

i don’t get asked that many times to

help out a country or a museum

so of course i hopped on my bike and i

drove over

at the museum i was welcomed by the

director steven engelsman

and when you think of steven i want you

to think of the most

passionate and enthusiastic man you can

imagine

and while stephen was walking him or

walking me around his museum

and was explaining about all the

beautiful pieces they had and what they

you can start to feel in the air

something big was about to happen

and it was because stephen had a dream

stephen wanted to get away from static

object that it’s

been lying around his museum although

beautiful

there’s no life in them at this moment

and stephen

wanted to create this dream by having

cultures

share their culture and live their

culture through

different types of people across the

world

and he had found a culture that was

willing to do so

that was willing to open up and share

their culture with somebody else

the maori from new zealand

well awesome okay i’m in

done deal right you got the maori the

museum

and us what else

well it’s not that easy

steven told me that i should get a crew

together

because the maori would be understating

the spiritual journey in their most

sacred vessel

the waka maori have long believed and

have proven now

that using those waka they have found

new zealand

and they have explored its borders and

its waters

at that time i was just like you now not

knowing what a waka was

luckily steven had pictures and next

time i mention a waka i want you to

think of this

a beautiful hand carven canoe

a sacred vessel but

just the crew is not enough cause who

doesn’t want to be one of on one of

these

the maori also wanted to make sure that

we were the right kind of people

can you imagine they wanted to make sure

that they don’t just hand it over

they wanted to make sure that it was

well accepted

all right how do we do that

steven already figured out a plan with a

maori they would send over a delegation

that would got to know us and test us

find out

who we are okay

this got me slightly worried

how does that work how do i prepare for

something like that

we are all used to job interviews or

maybe

talking ourselves into a nice internship

position or learning position

and you have to show everything you’ve

done and everything you’ve achieved

would this work the same with the maori

and

how would they judge us all these things

kept

pondering over in my head in the days to

come leading up

to the maori coming over to the

netherlands

and when they arrived and when the

introductions were over

all the anxieties started to fall away

because the conversations were totally

different that i have coded than i could

have imagined

they were personal they were asking me

about

have i always come from this land have i

always

been so close to the water was it

because of my family

was it because of my grandparents

because of my heritage

how does that work for you and what are

your passions

what type of person do you desire to be

in life

questions i never expected and

it was so beautiful that i jumped into

into that warm bath i immediately got

hooked

by those people and they shared their

stories

about how it is being maori in new

zealand that first it is there to

overcome

in the last century and where they are

now

it was beautiful and at that time i

still couldn’t quite understand what it

was

during the talks and during the day we

got to know each other better and better

and at the end of the day the group

elder juana davis got up

and she spoke she gave us

because we were the crew now our their

blessing she said

you’re not quite sure what you’re about

to get into

but you’re the right kind of people

you’re honest you’re open

and you’re sincere you will do justice

by our culture

can you imagine that you travel

all the way across the world to a

different place

and meet up with a bunch of students

you’ve never met before

and you can hand over your entire

culture to them

while i say immediately handed it over

it wasn’t that easy yet

we got the blessing but now the big

group would arrive

the group of maori that would train us

that will teach us

everything there is about peddling a

waka all the insights of maori culture

the hakka carving singing

prayers another big step

and i got thinking how will this go will

they

judge us again do we have to go through

another series of

getting to know each other building up

trust or

how would this go once again but also

it got me really curious to my ancestral

line

how did my relationship with the water

came to be plenty of questions and

plenty of thoughts to fill my head until

the big group

and both wakas arrived in the

netherlands

and when they arrived something happened

that i didn’t expect as well

the maori group arrived we did our

introductions

and they got straight to work they

started training us

right on day one it was incredible

there was this big group of legendary

men and women

master boat builder hector busby

national tremor

treasure tamu tamara and great leaders

like joe conrad and chappie harrison

coming over just diving in they

completely trusted their elders to have

done their job

that they needed to do to find out if we

were the right kind of people

and now they did theirs because they

were entrusted to teach us

and to make us the best maoris as they

could do

it was incredible we dove in

we got engaged and it took me quite a

long time before i understood why

why it was that i felt so welcome and so

engaged in this culture

but luckily i can share that with you

today

because it could be it took me 10 years

to realize that

during this training period even

two great leaders took me aside once

again joe conrad jeffy harrison

and they sat me down

and they said kos we’ve been looking at

you

and we think you should be the leader

of the waka you should be the kaihotu

the captain the first ever captain

outside of new zealand the first ever

non-maori

captain on a waka we want you to take

that responsibility and take it forward

that moment i still get goosebumps

it was incredible everything just lined

inside of me i can’t explain it but

everything made sense

i didn’t need to think of course i said

yes i want to do this

i want to be the leader of that group

and i will take your culture with me

during the next couple of days we

rounded off to hand over

and we came up to the day that it had

started with

the day where they entrusted me with

their waka and their culture

and after those days passed away and the

adrenaline died down

it got me curious and

thinking it started to dawn on me slowly

and it took me

around to this day to figure out what

had happened

it is the trust that the maori have that

is what i want to share with you today

it’s the trust that they have in their

own natural talents

like described earlier today that have

been owned

honed and trained for many years and

passed on generation to generation

that they trust in themselves to do the

job they need to do

and find the job that fits them

it is with that ability to trust

yourself that you come in the position

to trust others

to enable other people to do the job

that they need to do

so that’s how the elders did theirs and

they entrusted the other group to do

their

part and vice versa and beautiful things

happened

because it changed the group and

generation of people from leiden

we all got engaged we all got hooked on

this open feeling

they were so in balance with this

themselves and their world

and the world around them that we just

had to join them

that’s all based on that thing of trust

so going away here today after these

talks

take your time take your time to find

your own talents

and trust them trust within yourself

that you will find your job and your

position in life

that will happen because it’s already

inside of you

and when you find that peace of mind

also give trust to other people around

you

give them their time that they will find

their talents

in their own time and they will do their

job like they need to do

do that go away from here and i think we

all

have a better world in the end to give

to the next generation

the people that will come after us and

that’s something

i would like yeah that’s what i wanted

to give to you today

it is best summed up in the quote that i

got after i sent out an email

to my maori fans if i could do this talk

and if there was anything i needed to

mention

i got a short reply back that just said

this

you just be you

that’s it oh yeah

and there’s one more thing i would like

to share with you from new zealand

[Applause]

foreign

[Applause]

[Music]

you