Month: November 2016
I didn’t know who was failing, me or him – on having a child who can’t read.
When I was five I learnt to read. Each letter had a name and a sound. When you lined the letters up and ran the sounds together, just like magic, you could hear yourself reading. It was incredibly simple. So it came as a shock to me when my own son, at the age of […]
MoreIT’S NOT THAT ONE CULTURE IS BETTER THAN ANOTHER. BUT PĀKEHĀ NORMS AND VALUES ARE SO DOMINANT IN NEW ZEALAND, THEY’RE INVISIBLE TO A LOT OF PEOPLE. PĀKEHĀ OFTEN THINK CERTAIN WAYS OF DOING THINGS ARE NORMAL, WHEN IN FACT THEY’RE FOLLOWING CUSTOMS AND RITUALS THAT ARE BASED ON A SET OF VALUES THAT MAY BE ENTIRELY FOREIGN TO OTHERS.
Walking in Two Worlds
There’s a saying, a whakataukī, that reminds us that the kūmara doesn’t speak of its own sweetness. My Nanama was big on that. Waiho mā te tangata e mihi: leave it to others to sing your praises. In te ao Māori, being full of yourself isn’t cool. Trouble is, most of the time, we’re living in a […]
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