Mary Kippenberger: The university grading that wobbled my whole world

Mary Kippenberger speaking at a Treaty and Me Forum at St Matthew's Church in Hastings. Photo / Stephen Robinson

Mary Kippenberger has worked in Te Matau-a-Māui Hawke’s Bay as a social worker and guidance counsellor for 41 years. On Thursday, she spoke at a Treaty & Me forum in Hastings on the topic ‘Imagining Matariki 2050′.

An alternative viewpoint can be found here.

OPINION: I grew up in an affluent community with the belief that New Zealand was the poster child for egalitarianism.

I believed without question or curiosity that the playing field was level and opportunity knocked on all doors without fear or favour.

It wasn’t until I was in my 20s that reality began to set in.

It was the late 70s. I was studying at Auckland University.

One of my classes was ‘Māori Society’ with Emeritus Professor Ranginui Walker.

The first term’s work was on Te Tiriti o Waitangi. I worked hard. I dotted ‘I’s and crossed ‘T’s. My bibliography was the stuff of academic dreams, not a comma nor an italicised title out of place.

I sat back and awaited my just reward … an ‘A’ I assumed, an ‘A plus’ I expected.

The resulting ‘C’ with the comment ‘You don’t understand’ wobbled me off my self-imposed pedestal.

What did I need to understand? The next term’s work was Takaparawhā (Bastion Point). I credit Ranginui Walker with changing my life.

What I was about to learn would be a pathway to activism, would send me to prison, would make me a better parent, future grandparent and I hope a better person. Tangata Tiriti.

There are many books and articles outlining the history of our country. I recommend Paul Tapsell’s Kāinga’, People, Land, Belonging. Short and powerful, accessible and wise.

Allocated space for this article does not allow a listing of why colonisation equates to trauma but perhaps this would help: Māori offer Pākehā a room in their house. Pākehā say, ‘No, we’ll have the house thanks but you can have the shed’.

Tīpuna navigated uncharted seas using the stars as their guide. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, people brought their knowledge, their whakapapa, their relationship with the land, the animals and the waterways.

They learned and adapted. The forests were full of birdsong and medicine, the waterways teemed with food and life. Te Ao Māori was steeped in a culture of balance. To upset that balance would be to poke the taniwha.

We have poked the taniwha. Our western way of life has poked the taniwha. The climate is warming, the floods are devastating, the fires, the tornadoes. We are losing animals, insects and plants to extinction.

Where will my great, great, great-grandchildren live? Will they live, these mokopuna who I will never meet? What is the difference I can make today for them tomorrow? How do I walk well as an ancestor?

Is there hope? Yes. We need to heal our relationships. We Pākehā need to move over and share the power.

Then together we need to build a sustainable relationship with Papatūānuku (mother earth) and to be guided by Mātauranga Māori. (Māori knowledge). The world will be all the kinder for it.

The series continues

The Treaty & Me free Thursday lecture series continues at 7pm on July 11 at St Paul’s, Napier, where Hawke’s Bay Regional councillor Martin Williams, co-founder of Asians Supporting Tino Rangatiratanga Kirsty Fong and Tiriti educator and podcaster Gywn John will discuss what honouring the Treaty looks like.

July 25: St Matthew’s, Hastings. Living a Treaty-based future – a youth perspective, Te Uranga Lee Belk, Piripi Winiata, Layla Christison and Henry Lyons.

Email: ttaotearoa@gmail.com