Ka pēhea te mātauranga me te tikanga ka whakakitea te ōrite o te tāne me teūpāpae i te Kaupapa Māori?
Ka whakamārama ngā kaikōrero maha, ka pēhea te mātauranga me te tikanga e whakakite ai i te ōrite o te tāne me wāhine? Ko tētahi mātāpuna waiwai o te mātauranga me te tikanga ko ngā atua. Ka kī ngā kaikōrero he tauira a Papatūānuku rāua ko Ranginui i te hangarite i waenga i te ira wāhine me te ira tāne. Ka whakaata ngā wāhine me ngā tāne i ngā tūnga o ēnei atua mā te whakapapa, nā te mea, e herea ana ngā mea e rua ki te auaha i 'te ira tangata' me te whakatipu i te whakatipuranga hou. Ka whakakaha te tikanga i te hangarite i waenga i te wāhine me te tāne mā te here i ngā tāne me ngā wāhine kia haumaru ā-wairua, ā-ahurea te āhua o te whakaoti i ngā mahi o ia rā (tirohia te wāhanga tapu me te noa). Ka kī hoki ngā kaikōrero i te whakaatuhia te hononga hangarite, paparanga kore i waenga i te tāne me te wāhine i te pāpori Māori tuku iho i roto i ngā kupu kore ira i te reo Māori (hei tauira, te tūkapi 'ia'). Ka kī rātou e taurima ana tēnei i te māramatanga ki te ōritetanga i roto i te ao Māori.
Te Ringahuia Hata giving evidence at Turner Centre, Kerikeri
Ngā kōrero a ngā kaiwhakaatu
- “Every part of tikanga and mātauranga Māori was based on the equality and interdependence of Māori women and men.” (Dr Moana Jackson, tuhinga A85, p 6)
- “Wāhine and tāne were thought of as important parts of the whakapapa, without one the other could not survive. In tikanga wahine played an important role in helping link the past present and future. Throughout time Māori history tell us wahine held important roles in society. Mātauranga Māori educates us that everything is descended from a balance of Papatuanuku and Ranginui.” (Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, tuhinga A95, p 4)
- “Māori were a collective-based society, and tāne and wāhine each had important roles that contributed and were essential to the collective. Whakapapa is central to Māori identity and our tipuna respected that both tāne and wāhine linked Māori back to the creation of Papatūānuku.” (Whirimako Black, tuhinga A84, p 5)
- “In Māori terms, any notion of a gendered hierarchy implying the lesser status of Māori women would have been, and still is, intellectually incomprehensible and culturally impossible. The relational nature of whakapapa, and its centrality in the Māori intellectual tradition, ensured that any differences in the roles men and women may have performed were a recognition of distinctive mutuality rather than oppositional worthiness.” (Moana Jackson, tuhinga A85, pp 6-7)
- “Traditional Māori society was underpinned by a cosmology that emphasised and reinforced the dialectical parallelism of female-male complementarity, as personified by Papatūānuku – the earth mother, and Ranginuiatane – the sky father. The relationship between spiritual entities can be seen as important because they elaborate on the relationships which existed in human society. The complementarity of Papatūānuku and Ranginuiatane was exemplified in daily practice by the unique leadership roles which women fulfilled in traditional Māori society.” (Ella Henry, tuhinga A63, pp 5-6)
- “Wāhine, like so many parts of Te Ao, are essentially connected to the whole, and it is difficult to consider mana wāhine on its own, in the absence of the wider context of whānau, and the societal roles within the tribes. Haere takirua is the cultural imperative that both wāhine and tāne move as one.” (Huhana Lyndon me Nicki Wakefield, tuhinga A59, p 1)
- “It is about the balancing of the mana of the wāhine, and the mana of the tāne. Without the balance of wāhine and tāne, you shall not reproduce. That is the ira seed, and the ira wāhine seed … That is how the balance came to be, from the separation of Rangi and Papa. It is also where our tikanga comes from, Papatūānuku.” (Paihere Clarke, tuhinga A141, p 3)
- “Balance of tane and wāhine leadership existed during the pre-1840 time period. The woman’s role was significant in ensuring the continuation of generations, where they were the whare tangata, the producers of the next generation. [Wāhine] also held a wealth of te ao Māori knowledge. The spiritual wealth or wairua that was knowledge acquired from female deities, the physical wellbeing of a woman when procreating surrounded by the practice associated with tapu and noa and surviving in the challenges of the environment. This is also my understanding of the balance between tane and wāhine.” (Violet Walker, tuhinga A66, p 8)
- “My understanding is that the union of ira wahine and ira tāne creates te ira tangata.” (Patricia Tauroa, tuhinga A60, p 9)
- “Te ira wāhine and te ira tankata were not separate. We need male and female together. You do not need male to be above female. We do not need a female to be above male. When you go to a whare you need one voice for the female, and you need one voice for the male. Otherwise, the whare / house cannot speak. Otherwise, you are not being welcomed by that house. When you do not have both, it shows that the house does not stand. It is about tikanka. When you do not follow your tikanka, things start to slip.” (Ema Roriana Weepu, doc A136, pp 18-19)
- “Māori women and their men lived lives influenced by mātauranga Māori. We were in balance with each other and with our environment. We were connected.” (Hinemoa Ranginui-Mansell, tuhinga A129, p 8)
- “One of the biggest reasons I believe that pre-1840 wāhine were considered equal to men, in comparison to te ao Pakeha (where they are not) is through te reo Māori. Personal pronouns and personal possessive pronouns are both gender neutral (ia / tonal tana). This means that you can refer to a group of people with the same word regardless of gender. What this illustrates is that men and women are seen as equals.” (Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, tuhinga A95, p 3)
- “Māori customary lore regards both men and women as part of the collective whole, both formed part of the whakapapa that linked Māori people back to the beginning of the world, and women in particular played a key role in linking the past with the present and the future.” (Tina Latimer, tuhinga A13, p 3)
- “He kaipupuri te wahine i ngā mātauranga me ngā kōrero a o tātou tūpuna, he kaipupuri i te mana o ngā hapu me ngā iwi, he whakahaumaru he tiaki i te hapū katoa, ngā tāngata me ngā tamariki katoa. Ka mahara ake ki ngā kōrero o taku whānaunga a Te Huranga Hohaia, ‘He wahine he whenua e ngaro ai te tangata ki te po ... For women and land do men go down to the night.’ He mahi rangatira tō ia wahine i tōku hapū e ora pai ai te hapū whānui, e taea hoki ai e te tāne te mahi i āna mahi. I tino hirahira ngā mahi a o mātou tūpuna whaea i aua wā mō ngā mahi Māori me ngā mahi a ngā tūpuna, te tiaki tūpapaku, te tiaki whānau tūroro, te tiaki tamariki, te karanga, he nui te mana o ērā mahi katoa. Engari ko te mea nui ki a mātou, ka haere ngātahi te tāne me te wāhine, te ira tāne me te ira wāhine, ki roto i te whakaaro me te whakapono Māori.” (Nora Rameka, tuhinga A152, p [9])
- “Women are the keepers of acknowledge and traditions of our tupuna, they hold mana within their hapu and iwi, they protect and keep safe our hapu and people. I recall the words of my late whanaunga Te Huranga Hohaia who said ‘He wahine he whenua e ngaro ai te tangata ki te po ... For women and land do men go down to the night.’ Women have distinct and important roles within our hapu for our survival and growth and in order also for our men to fulfil their roles and responsibilities. The roles and work of our tupuna whaea were critical in traditional times including the caring of tupapaku, caring for our sick, caring for our children, undertaking responsibilities of karanga, there is mana in each of those roles. An important aspect in our beliefs and practices is that the role of women and men go hand in hand, the essence of men and women, they work together.” (Nora Rameka, tuhinga A152(a), p [9])