Christmas about whanau

The Tira Hoe Waka down the Whanganui River has become a regular spiritual observation. PHOTO/FILE

It is only six weeks until Christmas Day and the pressure on many of our families to spend money they do not have has started to build already.

Financial forecasts predict spending growth in these next six weeks will be highest among cafes and restaurants, liquor retailers and department stores.

Commercial advertising and peer pressure play a huge role in influencing our spending patterns this time of the year. Yet there is nothing about commercialism that encourages or reflects whanau values. Christmas time could be just about relaxing and spending time together - where families and friends celebrate kotahitanga and whanaungatanga rather than falling into the spending trap where they will still be paying off Christmas debt well into the New Year.

Christmas is a great time to tell our own stories, our own history and the importance of our own relationships with the land, the water, the forests - to celebrate our spirituality as Maori. For many Maori communities there are a number of events that families plan for each year which reflect our need to not only reconnect with family and friends, but also to the land and our waterways.

Paddlers are now training hard for the National Waka Ama Championships at Lake Karapiro in January. When interest in waka ama or outrigger canoeing was re-introduced to Aotearoa in the 1980s Maori took to it with great enthusiasm. Clubs are now well established nationwide and tamariki right up to kaumatua now paddle. I understand there are well over 1000 paddlers and more than 40 clubs. As canoe faring people waka ama rekindles our ties to Tangaroa, in particular to the great ocean of Kiwi, Te Moana nui a Kiwa on which many of our canoes traversed to Aotearoa.

The waka ama nationals is a great event. It reflects many of our values like whanaungatanga - rekindling ties, kotahitanga - working together for a common goal and hauoratanga - health and wellbeing. I particularly applaud the smokefree kaupapa of the national waka ama championships!

The Tira Hoe Waka, the annual canoe pilgrimage down the Whanganui river every January, reconnects us back to all our marae and pa sites. In Whanganui we talk about Te Taura Whiri o Hinengakau, the long plait of the ancestress Hinengakau, guardian of the upper reaches of the Whanganui river. We are all part of that plait that inter-twines us together as descendants, as whanau and as hapu - that connects us all to te awa o Whanganui.

The Tira Hoe Waka has been going for 25 years. Generations are now growing up with the Tira Hoe Waka as a regular spiritual observation. As they journey down the river towards the city they stop at sites of significance, where paddlers learn about the history of these pa sites and their connections to each site. Initiated by some of our kaumatua many who have now passed on, the Tira Hoe Waka is indeed a significant spiritual event.

The healing - the connections and the strength of our relationships to each other and our environment distinguishes our people as peoples of the Pacific. Mana moana, mana whenua is a basis for our past, our present, our future - and it is when we look to our own stories and experiences that we can be assured of our future.

Other iwi will be celebrating and commemorating their own events including Pa Wars - visits to spiritual sites - family reunions, marae working bees or unveilings. For many who live in the cities - returning home each summer is particularly important - to reunite with their tribal roots. As the Christmas decorations go up in the stores and the brochures enticing us to purchase arrive in the mail - now is a good time to reflect on what values are really important to us and what stories and memories of Christmas we want our children to pass on to our mokopuna.

When we were kids the greatest gift we were given was in being together - often three or even four generations having the most amazing kai and treats that we never had all year. Christmas was truly a celebration of our whanau, of the birth of Christ and because it was the Lord's birthday and not ours, no gifts beyond being together safe and happy were ever necessary. Today we have five generations of whanau who love nothing more than gathering together, sharing meals all day and celebrating our love for each other.