‘The stories of living’

GRADUATION DAY: Hana Tukukino completed a Bachelor of Arts in psychology at Waikato University. Picture supplied

Hana Tukukino of Tolaga Bay talks to Loren Sirl about her life teaching and advocating for Māori.

Hana waved goodbye to her grandmother at just 13 years of age. From the tiny town of rural Tolaga Bay she left for boarding school, Te Waipounamu Māori Girls College in Christchurch, in 1953.

Her journey was just beginning for her life as a counsellor, trainer, advocate and educator — a working life that was recognised in 2011 with The Queen’s Service Medal for Services to Māori.

Last week Hana and her husband Wally celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary, choosing to celebrate the event in Hamilton surrounded by those people who had influenced their lives.

In the 1960s the couple were offered a house in Mt Roskill, Auckland. “We were a part of that pepper-potting experiment, putting Māori families with non Māori families,” said Hana.

Pepper-potting was a government and Māori Affairs concept of the 1950s and 60s, bringing Māori people into urban areas to integrate with Pākehā neighbours to encourage the merging of two cultures.

“We didn’t realise it was an experiment. We were just so grateful to have a home,” recalls Hana.

Four other Māori families lived in the street. Across the road from Hana and Wally’s house was Hay Park School and Hana got a job there as a teacher.

The first conflict she encountered was when the children from the four Māori families called her “aunty”, a term she regarded as one of endearment and respect.  The principal wasn’t too convinced and wanted the more formal address of Mrs Tukukino.

“There was no way I could have them calling me Mrs Tukukino at school and aunty at home,” said Hana.

Eventually the principal saw that even the naughty kids changed under her teaching and that calling her aunty helped create a more relaxed learning environment. The principal started to look at how things were being done, and recognised the good changes.  “Those were the little changes that were happening in that school,” said Hana.

Lex Grey from The Māori Education Foundation and founder of the Playcentre Movement was doing the rounds of Auckland and was introduced to the four Māori families. The meeting evolved into a new early childhood programme being developed which focused on Māori tikanga in learning.  In 1965 the families started the programme. There was opposition from the then teacher training college, upset at the programme’s direction.

Eventually, Lex Grey formed the Van Leer Project, which came about after a visit to Australia where he came across the project designed to foster wellbeing in early childhood Aboriginals.

Funded by Sydney University, the project enabled Māori women to work alongside Aboriginal mothers.

“Our idea was to look at how they learn,” said Hana. “We wouldn’t go in and talk about what we do, we would talk about and look at what they learn and try to work with them.”

Hana spent significant time in New South Wales and Queensland.  The project grew as more Māori couples were sent from New Zealand to work with Aboriginal families.

“We got the idea that their stories and their songs should be collected, because like our moteatea these told their history and whakapapa and they were losing this. The generation of younger ones did not know what the grandparents knew.  We sang a lot — that’s how we showed our appreciation. They taught us and we taught them.

“We knew how important the waiata were, and when those young mothers didn’t know them, we thought, we had better collect them,” said Hana.

They were asked to collect these songs and history to pass on to Sydney University for storage.

“It turned out to be a successful experience, and it all started with Lex Grey. I came back more knowledgeable,” said Hana.

In 1970 Hana returned to continue her work at Hay Park School, Auckland.

“One of the things I wanted to do in my life was to become far more knowledgeable about classical music, and I’ve never had that experience.  When I went to boarding school, I really enjoyed  the English poets and I loved Shakespeare.”

When the visiting schools inspector heard soft music over the loud speakers at Hay Park instead of a clanging bell, he was very surprised. Hana had convinced the principal that classical music would be a better option.  Over time the principal had quite a collection of pieces playing, “and I still haven’t had enough classical music!” laughs Hana.

It was the 1970s and Hana and Wally decided to move to Hamilton after an offer to work as a tutor at the Waikato Polytech.

“We realised that there was a need for Māori to be taught Māori. Even though the boys were coming to do apprenticeships they needed to understand their Māori-ness, because what was happening was, we were asking them to leave their Māori-ness behind and step into a new focus altogether on plumbing or electric apprenticeships, and it was really quite hard for them to do.”

“The instructor would come to me and say, ‘these guys are hopeless’.”

Hana suggested running a Māori session with them. “What on earth for?” he said. Hana explained, “I think there’s another way of looking at it.They can find ways to cope. They are blessed because they are carrying two forms of thinking. One is polytech standard and the other is Māori; they’ve got Māori interests and Māori thinking going on in their head sometimes and they don’t even know that”.

To begin with only a small number of students were allowed to attend Hana’s classes. She faced some barriers getting to know the boys, Hana recalls, with shrugging shoulders and minimal conversation.

Hana got them to move to chairs that represented the different regions of the country they had come from. The students looked bewildered.

“You guys from the east who like horses, just tell me what’s so good about a horse?” Hana asked them. “Well, that got them talking,” she said.

“It was all about giving them confidence, learning about their own history, uplifting them and letting them know they were important, giving them the opportunity to hold their head up high.

“Tell me about your horses; tell me about the sea up there — I can’t imagine a beach that’s 90 miles long,” Hana would say.

“Oh Nan, you can see the sun going down right at the end,” was the enthusiastic reply.

During this time Hana had a supportive head of department who was open to making changes.

Hana held anti-racist workshops at the weekend.

“We managed to get training packages from government departments and they would send their staff to the workshops.  The classes were a success and then we began to study colonisation and the steps for de-colonisation.

“(It was about) understanding racism and understanding your personal racism and working it out. . . opening it up and looking at what happened historically and what we can do now to fix it up.”

Hana and Wally established Te Korowai Aroha o Aotearoa, a national programme enabling indigenous education and training.

They returned to her hometown of Tolaga Bay when an opportunity to buy long-lost family land came about.

Hana and Wally continued their fruitful work, setting up Te Whare Hauora o Te Aitanga a Hauiti in Uawa, an educational and support service benefiting many community members.

Hana has led a rich and dedicated life, full of what she calls simply, “the stories of living”.