No Written Language #2
‘Because the early Māori had no written language all we have to go on is oral tradition.’ This is a quote from a book – it doesn’t really matter which one because we’ve all heard it a million times. The idea that Māori aren’t literary because our language was never written down is something that’s […]
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Support e-tangata!
I had been writing for a long time before my first article was published in e-Tangata nearly three years ago. There was an unfinished novel, a few short stories and some scraps of poetry. But mainly, I was writing status updates on Facebook. I was exploring topics to do with language, identity, and finding my […]
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Not hitting rock bottom and quitting anyway.
This article was first published in Matters of Substance, the regular magazine of the NZ Drug Foundation, and republished in The Spinoff on 4 April 2018. I never hit rock bottom. There wasn’t any great reckoning or moment of truth. Just a series of low-bottoms and near misses culminating in the urge to just be done […]
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How do you say “token translation in Māori?”
This article was originally published in The Spinoff on 5 March, 2018. One thing I’ve noticed about being a te reo speaker is just how often people assume I can do translations. I’ve had requests to translate proverbs and prayers, lines of songs, ingredients, whole passages of books and even some wedding vows. Sometimes, it […]
MoreLosing, Gaining, Reclaiming: Knitting with variegated yarn.
In my life, I’ve had three names. I have lost one, borrowed two, and am in the process of reclaiming the first. Each time, I’ve felt the strangeness of the new syllables in my mouth, spoken them so timidly at first that my name seems to dissolve into thin air before it’s even heard. Memeha […]
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