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
do
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
it
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
up
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
ah
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foreign
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you