Ko te aro nui ki te arahi i te rangatahi ki te ara toi huarewa e pūāwaitia ai ngā painga o te ngākau. Hai whakatinanatanga ake i tēnei wairua kua pahikarangia a Te Mauri me tōna pahi rangatahi i ngā ara pahikara puta noa i te takiwā o Rotorua – tūturu ki Te Pūtake o Tawa me te nehenehe o Te Whakarewarewa. Ko te karapū whutupōro o Whakarewarewa tō rātou whare kauwhau.
Kua whai take katoa ōna matimati hoki – ko te nuinga o āna kaupapa, he kaupapa rangatahi, ko te manatika rangatahi me te whakatairanga i te reo Māori.
He poupou hoki ia nā Ngati Whakaue ki te Te Tatau o Te Arawa me tōna hiahia ki te whakaara ake tētehi huinga pūkenga rangatahi pēnā tonu ki te pūkenga kōeke. "Kua Māori noa ngā pūkenga o te hunga rangatahi, ka nui taku hiahia ki te whakaakiaki i a rātou kia pūāwaitia aua pūkenga – mā tātou ake tatau e whakatika."
Ko Henwood Trust tōna waka kawe i a ia ki te manatika rangatahi he ahakoa kua puta kē mai ngā pikitia o Jake the Muss nōna e mātakitaki haere ana i te hononga o te Kāwanatanga ki te iwi Māori– ko Jake the Muss te ringa wetiweti o te kiriata anuanu a Once Were Warriors.
Kua rītaia kētia a Judge Carilyn Henwood he tiati-ā-rohe kua puta i tēnā ao whoi ko ia te pou toko ake o te Circa Theatre i Te Whanganui a Tara me te huhua noa atu o ngā taratī e hāngai kaha atu ana ki ngā mahi toi me te whakaari.
Ko Dai Henwood tana tama koia te tangata whakakatakata i a tatou katoa. Ko tōna hoa rangatira ko Ray Henwood kua matemate noa atu ia. Nō te tau 2019 hinga ai tōna rangatira.
Kua whakapiri a mahi nei hoki a Te Mauri ki a Annette Sykes, tētehi o ngā rōia matua o Te Arawa me te kaumatua o Ngati Te Rorooterangi a Paraone Pirika. Ko te whakahau i te manatika e rangatira ai tatou te Māori te take.
Mūia te papa i te huinga tuatahi, ko te tikanga ia ka ara ake anō he hui hai te Āperira a te kaupeka hou. Taihoa e ngaro ai a Te Mauri ki Ruatāhuna, he kaupapa anō tāna, ko Te Kahui Raraunga ( TKR)
He kaupapa a motu tēnei ko te reo te pūtake. Ko Karen Vercoe te tiamana nō Ngāti Pikiao me Ngāti Makino, koi a hoki te tumuwhakarae o Te Arawa Lakes Trust me te tiamana o Te Pumautanga, te māngai hoki o Data Iwi Leaders Group me te pou tokomanawa o KTV Consulting Ltd.
Ko Che Wilson, nō Ngāti Rangi, Whanganui me Tūwharetoa tētehi o ngā pou, rātou ko Kirikowhai Mikaere, nō Ngāti Whakaue me Tūhourangi, ko Jono Kilgour nō Ngāti Rereahu, Ngāti Maniapoto me Ngā Rauru, koia te pouwhakahaere kaupapa. Hai tā te rāngai TKR ko te raraunga mō Te Reo Māori kua kōhia kētia kāre e hāngai tika ana ki te wairua o te Māori rānei e whakakanohi pono nei te wairua o tatou te Māori.
Ko te hiahia o te kaupapa nei he whakamana ake i te reo Māori kia Reo Rangatira kē ki ōna kuhutanga katoa i te ao Māori. Kai te kōpiupiu noa te hoe a te waka i ngā tini ngārara nō tētehi iwi nō tētehi ao kē atu.
Ko te nuinga hoki ehara i te Māori. E mea ana rātou mā te Māori ake te Māori e whakakanohi. He whakamihi nui tēnei ki te mana o tō tātou reo hai tāhūhū mo te mātauranga o tātou te Māori – kia tika hoki te whakawehe i a tātou i ngā whare mātauranga me ngā whakaaro o iwi kē atu.
"Ka nui te hiahiatia ki te raraunga nei e mātau ai tātou ki te ahunga me te oranga o te reo rangatira mō te iwi mō te hapū me te whānau."
Te waitohu o Te Kahui Raraunga Hoatutanga.
He wā nohopuku kia āta whakaarohia e tātou te mana o tō tātou reo tōna ora, tōna ihi, tōna wehi, tōna whakamataku kia tūturu ai tā tātou whakahau – he reo rangatira he reo ora'.
Forget the culture that produced Once Were Warriors, animator Te Mauri Kingi is part of a mission to focus rangatahi attention on setting positive goals.
As part of his mission he accompanied rangatahi on mountain bike tracks around Rotorua, more specifically Te Pūtake ō Tawa and the Whakarewarewa forest. He and his youth groups use the Whakarewarewa Rugby Football Club as a base.
Te Mauri has a number of projects on the go, mainly to do with youth, youth justice and the use of Te Reo.
A Ngāti Whakaue representative on Te Tatau o Te Arawa, he wants to set up a Pūkenga Rangatahi, along the lines of the Pūkenga Koeke, or a futures taumata.
"Our rangatahi have natural talent and I want to encourage them to use it. Only we can fix what's wrong with us."
Working through the Henwood Trust Te Mauri is looking at youth justice, although his observations of interaction between crown and iwi he likened to Jake the Muss — the violent central character in Once Were Warriors.
Judge Carolyn Henwood is a retired District Court Judge and the founder of the Circa Theatre in Wellington and a number of trusts associated with the arts and theatre. Her son Dai Henwood is a comedian regularly seen on television and her partner was the noted actor Ray Henwood who died in 2019.
Te Mauri has also worked with Te Arawa lawyer Annette Sykes and Ngāti Te Roro o Te Rangi kaumatua Paraone Pirika on justice reform, seeking a better deal for Māori.
About 300 people attended a hui in Rotorua in 2019 to discuss that kaupapa and a follow-up hui is plan ned for April next year.
Another big kaupapa before he heads for the hills of Ruatāhuna at the end of the year is Te Kāhui Raraunga (TKR).
This is a nation-wide kaupapa into the use of Te Reo Māori.
TKR is chaired by Karen Vercoe (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Mākino). She is CEO of Te Arawa Lakes Trust, chair of Te Pūmautanga o Te Arawa, chair of Data Iwi Leaders Group and Founder of KTV Consulting Ltd.
Other faces of TKR are trustee Che Wilson (Ngāti Rangi - Whanganui, Tūwharetoa), Rikirangi Gage trustee (Te Whānau ā Apanui, Whakatōhea, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Maniapoto), Pou Arahi Kirikowhai Mikaere (Ngāti Whakaue, Tūhourangi) and the programme manager is Jono Kilgour (Ngāti Rereahu, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngā Rauru).
According to a TKR release, the data currently collected about Te Reo Māori does not necessarily reflect Māori understanding or narrative.
This project wants Te Reo Māori reframed as Te Reo Rangatira and its various functions within Te Ao Māori.
Present approaches are based on, and influenced by, socio-linguistic (and often non-Māori) perspectives of language.
It seeks a data narrative to more appropriately reflect the Māori view of Te Reo Rangatira in our own knowledge systems.
This acknowledges Te Reo as crucial to mātauranga Māori, a deliberate step away from (Western-based) perspectives and is not a stocktake of existing measurement frameworks and measures.
"We want regular and ongoing data that informs us and provides insights about the vitality of Te Reo Rangatira for Iwi, Hapū and Whānau.
"We believe that this will fill current gaps in understanding about the vitality of Te Reo Māori at more Iwi, Hapū and local levels and from a Te Āo Māori perspective.
"This is an opportunity to rethink how we view Te Reo Rangatira, and how it is measured. It is also an opportunity to build a dataset that meets Iwi expectations for vitality of Te Reo Rangatira."
