For context, I'm pākehā, my wife is part māori. She has a moko kauae. Our daughter is adopted. She is not māori. Would she be allowed to get a moko kauae when she's older? We have gotten mixed opinions on this, including people who believe my wife shouldn't have a moko kauae, because she is mixed. Any opinions would be appreciated. Ngā mihi.

Kis ora, I hope this is an ok place to ask this. I am pākēha with a Māori pēpi, a kaumatua i know is going to do a blessing for my son. I would love to give a koha, but I don't know what is appropriate. I want to give something meaningful - is pounamu best? Is cash offensive? Or is anything OK? I so appreciate what he's doing for my son and the way he's giving up his time to do this so want to show how much we appreciate this.

My workplace uses the word "mana" and the phrase "mana-enhancing" constantly, and I've started wondering if it's become a bit of a token phrase that gets said without the practice behind it actually being there.

As a Pākehā, my understanding is that everyone is born with mana, passed down through whakapapa. I've also earned that respecting someone's mana means genuine curiosity being willing to sit down and actually understand how someone thinks and lives and, if you're in a leadership or management position, actively uplifting the people around you rather than just talking about it.

I've also heard that mana carries a kind of inherent equality that everyone starts with but I'm unsure how it can be taken away or gained.

Am I off base here? Genuinely keen to hear from Māori folks or anyone with a deeper grounding in te ao Māori both on whether my understanding holds up, and on how you personally feel when you hear "mana" used as workplace jargon without much behind it.

Just a little background first, I grew up around bush and spent a lot of my time as a kid alone wandering around it looking at plants trees and birds. Its still my favorite place to be and honestly I wish I could live in the hills, I feel calm, my mind slows down and I just feel happy.

I spend a fair amount of time on DOC tracks and also off track, from time to time I find what appears to be an old unkept track and it got me wanting to look into old routes Maori would take through the Ruahine ranges. Another way to connect with the land is to tell the story how it was once used, record some of the routes that were taken in the past. I understand that alot of this information might be lost but I was hoping someone here might be able to point me in the right direction.

I appreciate any help and please excuse any spelling mistakes.

I am not māori. I wasn't even born in Aotearoa, but moved here when I was 13 to attend boarding school. While at school I took a great interest in māori culture and also took Te Reo Māori at school. I also made good friends with a māori girl while I was boarding, and ended up spending the majority of my holidays with her whānau, when I didn't fly back to my home country. When I was 15 I go my first kirituhi, and two more before I was 18. Once when I was talking to my friend's mom about my tattoos I referred to them as kirituhi, and she laughed and said that they were basically tā moko, since I am her daughter. I found that very sweet, but did not take it too seriously. I know I am not māori, I don't have whakapapa, my tattoos cannot be tā moko. I recently met up with my friend. While we were talking I brought up that I was looking into getting another kirituhi. My friend got really upset and yelled at me that I was considered whānau, so my tattoos would be tā moko, and by calling them anything else I was disrespecting her mother. But I'm not māori? Am I in the wrong?

Kia Ora everyone I hope this is okay to put here for anyone that can relate to this.

I am exhausted and envious I pour so much of my heart into uplifting my people and yet I feel such a divide.

I am envious of other iwi and what they do for there people and it is a tough pill to swallow right now when I have dedicated so much of my life my time into being Māori I’m surrounded by te ao Māori yet I feel my iwi will never in my lifetime have what Ngāi Tahu has have what Ngāti kahungunu have.

I give so much to my culture and I feel I don’t get anything back compared to others and maybe that is where I’m messing up as they say comparison is the thief of joy right…

You can whakapapa to an iwi, turn up to your marae, learn te reo, participate, volunteer, support kaupapa, bring your children into it and still look at another iwi and think, Why don’t we have this?Why doesn’t my iwi have these opportunities for our people. And… feel so discouraged.

I’m lucky on one side is that I had a first generation pakeha mum who promoted our culture in our whare learnt te reo taught te reo and her family when they moved here immersed themselves in the culture that I really am grateful for but I feel like my whānau have given soo much to being Māori and don’t see anything in return when you at pouring so much into it and you see others who don’t give a crap receive so much.

Having a Pākehā mum who is first-generation New Zealander but has immersed herself in te reo and Māori culture more deeply than some people who have lived here for generations really illustrates something important whakapapa and cultural participation aren’t the same thing.
Being Māori isn’t something you have to constantly prove through how much you contribute. Your whakapapa doesn’t become more legitimate because you attend more hui, speak more reo, volunteer more hours or do more for your marae.
But at the same time, it’s completely okay to want that reciprocity.
You shouldn’t have to pretend that you’re satisfied simply because you’re grateful to belong.
You are completely allowed to say
I love my iwi. I love my marae. I love being Māori. And I wish there were more opportunities for our people.
Those things are not contradictory.
And perhaps genuinely the saddest part is that people who care deeply can eventually become exhausted because they’re always being asked to give time, knowledge, labour, money, energy, attendance without ever seeing the infrastructure, scholarships, housing opportunities, employment pathways, education programmes or financial benefits that other iwi have been able to build.
You don’t have to stop caring. But you also don’t have to measure your worth by how much you can give.
Sometimes the people who are deeply invested in their iwi are actually the ones who eventually help create the thing they wished had existed for them.
And if you’re thinking, “I don’t want to spend my whole life just contributing and watching everyone else benefit,” that’s a very reasonable feeling.
You deserve to benefit from being part of your iwi too. Not because being Māori is transactional, but because a healthy iwi relationship should have some element of reciprocity he tangata, he tangata, and all the infrastructure around that should ultimately strengthen the people.
And I think you can hold both truths at once:
“I am incredibly proud to be Māori.”
and
“I wish my iwi gave its people more.”
Neither statement diminishes the other
J

(* I am sorry if my paragraph is not well written I am not a write I’m just here expressing a perspective that I believe many can relate too my only intention is to create a positive discussion and share opinions in hopes to understand my feelings a bit better )

Hello,

In my local graveyard in Essex, U.K there are two Māori war grave from the First World War.

I wanted to ask if there is anything that should be traditionally left at the graves/anything that should be done to the graves?

There is good general upkeep but I was curious if there is any kind of flowers, objects, offerings, etc. that should be left.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Got kicked from r/nzpolitics for asking this, so hoping someone here will be more understanding :)
I'm not Māori nor born here, so the politics of the Māori roll/seats has never been explained to me.
What's the criteria for being on the Māori roll, and what does having Māori seats try to achieve and how is it supposed to work?
Now it's election season, there's a lot of discussion around this and I'd genuinely like to know what the score is. What I can find online is ... vague.

The Māori Electoral Option closes at 11.59pm on Thursday, August 6.

The Electoral Commission says applications submitted online, by email or uploaded through its website must be received by midnight to be accepted.

Paper enrolment forms returned by post can still be accepted if they are postmarked or date-stamped before midnight on August 6, provided they are received by the Commission no later than noon on Tuesday, August 11.