A vision for Aotearoa - restoring community, care and creativity by reimagining marae
Guest post from researcher, teacher and cultural translator Hemi Hireme. Sharing his vision for how the philosophy of Ranginui and Papatūānuku can unite diverse communities and inspire our future.
I’m honoured to be able to share this guest post from Hemi Hireme who I shared a rich conversation with last year (Part 1 and Part 2). I was particularly inspired by Hemi’s vision of marae as economic, political and cultural centres. We have kept in touch as his ideas have developed further. I’m very excited to see them take shape here. I hope this piece can spur more conversation and development of the idea of centring marae and the philosophy of Ranginui and Papatūānuku in Aotearoa.
What's the core problem you are addressing, how did you become aware of it and how did it make you feel?
The core problem I am addressing is the loss of community and care in our society. I first became aware of it reading Max Harris’ ‘The New Zealand Project’. In the book, Max is promoting the concept of the 3 Cs – community, care, and creativity. I felt excited with the concept because in it I could see the reimagining of marae as a central focus.
Can you describe the journey you have been on since first becoming aware of this problem? What has been your compass or guide in this journey?
I was a year into teaching contemporary Māori issues on a Bachelor of Humanities programme at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi when Max’s book came out in 2017. For the previous three years I had been primarily on study leave thanks to a doctoral scholarship from Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. Over this time, I had been able to fully immerse my mind in the discipline of decoloniality as a doctoral candidate registered at the University of Oulu in Finland. I was simultaneously able to fully immerse my soul at our papakainga in the middle of Te Urewera. My earliest lived experiences showed that Aotearoa was once populated with caring, creative, communities, and my soul believes that it is possible to restore those same communities. My mind, on the other hand, insists that this restoration of community will not be possible until we first restore the balance between our minds and our souls.
What 2 or 3 key things have you learnt in this journey that you wish everyone in Aotearoa knew?
The two key things I wish everyone in Aotearoa knew about both concern the relationship between the mind and soul. The first is the very influential philosophy of Rene Descartes and his famous dictum ‘I think therefore I am’. This philosophy separates the mind and soul and became the ‘universal law’ for defining a superior human being. This superior human, Descartes argued, is someone who is a rational thinker. Conversely, an inferior human being is an irrational thinker, prone to irrational acts like empathy, care or concern. As such, the ‘I’ of ‘I think’ is a very specific ‘I’ who possesses a superior rational mind. According to Descartes, women cannot be the ‘I’ because they are too emotional (read irrational). Indigenous people are also irrational, as they still live in a ‘state of nature’. That leaves only 6% of the world’s population – white males. But, according to Descartes, not all white males think, only the elite, educated ones. So now we have, from the 17th century, the ‘universal law’ for superior humans that continues to this day – to be a superior human is to be an elite, white, male. It was on this day that the mind left the soul and shacked up with the money. Today elite, white, men have the money and power, while the rest of us only have each other. Cartesian dualism helps us understand why the restoration of caring, creative, communities is such an urgent and vital task.
The separation of the mind and soul creates two different entities, or a duality. Dualities create hierarchies – old and young, rich and poor, white and black, educated and non-educated, males and females. Consequently, at one end are old, rich, white, educated, males. At the other are young, poor, black, non-educated, females. This reflects the privileges and entitlements of some, and the poverty, racism, and sexism, of others.
The second key thing I wish everyone in Aotearoa knew about is the non-duality of Ranginui and Papatūānuku. If duality creates separations, non-duality creates community. It is not a matter of you AND me, but rather a case of you ARE me.
Ranginui and Papatūānuku is a non-dual philosophy that can overcome the separations of Cartesian dualism. Most commonly known as the Māori creation story, Ranginui and Papatūānuku offer much more than an indigenous explanation for the beginning of life in Aotearoa. Understood as a philosophy for living, Ranginui and Papatūānuku have the potential to ground the quest for caring, creative, communities. Rather than create hierarchies of superiority and inferiority, the philosophy of Ranginui and Papatūānuku creates a science of wholeness. This wholeness can be seen in the central role of whakapapa (genealogy) in Māori life; a genealogy that connects humans to humans, and humans to nature. There are no separations. Famous examples include sayings such as ‘Ko au te awa, ko te awa, ko au’ (I am the river, the river is me) and ‘ko au ko koe, ko koe, ko au (I am you and you are me).
What's your vision for Aotearoa?
Caring, creative, communities, brought together on the marae, under the mana of the hapū, and united in our diversity. Ranginui and Papatūānuku, I believe, is a living national philosophy that will lead Aotearoa forward together in the 21st century.
How do you imagine this vision becoming real?
Ranginui and Papatūānuku, as a living national philosophy, should be taught at all levels of our educational journey. As a non-dual philosophy, it should be a constant reminder that looking behind and reaching back is as vital to the future of this country as looking forward and moving ahead. Under a living national philosophy of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, to quote Parekura Horomia: “No-one should be left behind”.
What steps are you taking?
I am currently developing illustrative resources for a Substack page and a web page. The Substack page will be called ‘The Marae Commons Project’ with a byline – ‘Connecting communities for climate action’. This Substack will encourage reimaging our marae as not just the cultural centre of our communities, but also (as they were in pre-colonial times) the political and economic centres as well. It was on our marae that people came together to discuss and action the needs of the community. I believe our marae, and the people of the community, can play a much more significant role in challenging decisions and practices that impact negatively on the health and wellbeing of Ranginui and Papatūānuku. From participating actively in local and regional council decision-making processes, to monitoring local commercial discharge outputs, protecting the environment is a responsibility and obligation of the hapū and can be achieved with more inclusive participation from all the community. Environmental crises is not a Māori crisis alone, it impacts on all of us, including elite, white, men.
The webpage will be called ‘Ranginui and Papatūānuku: A non-dual living philosophy for Aotearoa’. This page will include resources, commentary, and articles with the goal of starting a national conversation for a national philosophy.
I hope to have both the Substack and the web page activated shortly.
What are you up against? What makes it hard?
When the UK joined the EU in 1973, Aotearoa was left to find its own way in a global economy. From the mid 1980s the government started using Māori culture as a ‘national brand’ in the marketplace. By the mid-1990s Māori cultural capital was being turned into economic capital. Today Māori face a crisis of ‘spirit’. Almost everything in te ao Māori is for sale. And like Descartes, a new ‘thinking’ class of Māori is increasingly dominating the ‘soul’ of the culture. Māori culture does not separate the mind from the soul; it is thinking and doing together.
For example, te reo was never spoken of by itself; it was always te reo me ōna tikanga. By itself te reo is just words. Tikanga requires correct action. It is a cultural crisis when we use words like manaakitanga (caring), whanaungatanga (community), and kaitiakitanga (protection) at the same time our communities face increasing homelessness, hungry mokopuna, and an uncaring leadership. Communities need to make our leaders more accountable.
There are a few places in Aotearoa where the mind and soul have not been separated. The marae is the most prominent, but so are our wahi tapu (sacred places). Both of these places are increasingly under threat. Our hapū are under tremendous burden to keep the soul of our culture alive. There is much work that could be done, and increasingly less people to do it. The people of Aotearoa came together to save Ihumatao. I would like to think that our hapū also extend te ringa aroha (the hand of love) to their broader community to share the workload in defence of the soul of this country.
Our infatuation with education has produced a minority of qualified achievers who take all the resources and make all the decisions, while the majority, who chose a more humble and caring life, are marginalised. Coming together in action on the marae is a restoration of the mana of our hapū and gives back to the community the dignity stolen when Descartes considered the mind more important than the heart.
What do you need? What are you missing?
I have spent eight years developing this proposition with the many Māori adult students from my classes. They range across the social and cultural spectrums – marae people, urban diaspora, professionals, community workers, unemployed, fluent speakers, non-speakers. From this privileged position I have identified many of the common patterns that face Māori and our communities. What I need now is to join communities of thinkers and doers to share the ideas and practices of Ranginui and Papatūānuku as a national living philosophy. I would like to thank you Loo for the opportunities you have given me through The Good Energy Project to share these ideas.
Who has shaped and influenced your path and your vision?
Obviously, there are many people who I would like to acknowledge but for now I will limit it to three.
The first is a kaumatua of mine from Tūhoe who spent most of his life in Te Urewera. I was in my young teens when I heard him say ‘He whakaaro Pākehā tēnā’ (That is a Pākehā idea). I don’t recall the context of the conversation, but what struck me was the idea that there could be different ways of thinking, and in particular, a Pākehā way and a Māori way. This interest in thinking was to drive my journey through tertiary education, from when I enrolled thirty-five years ago, to this day.
The second person is my sister. She raised her five children alone to become wonderful adults. She died too early and will always be my biggest hero and a person with the biggest heart.
The third is a Pākehā colleague I worked with. Our boss told a racist joke and of course, I laughed. My friend looked me in the eye and said, ‘What are you laughing for?’ I didn’t have an answer. Not long after that I left that workplace and enrolled at university, looking for answers.
I believe beginning a conversation for a national living philosophy of Ranginui and Papatūānuku is a worthwhile step in the right direction.