Vaughan Rapatahana


tolaga bay tapahi

he aha ngā poro rākau kūwawa ai ki runga tēnei one? he aha ai? ko te ‘tapahi’ nui nō te ono rākau o tēnei rohe. te moni ki mua te taiao te apo ki mua te atamai. he aha ngā poro rākau kūwawa ai ki runga tēnei one? he aha ai? ko ngā poro nui nō te ono rākau o tēnei rohe te moni ki mua te taiao te apo ki mua te atamai. ko he moumou nui ko he paraiti weriweri kāore he tangata e hiahia kia kite kāore he kirikiri kōura ināianei kāore he wāhi kia pārore kāore te hī ika ki konei ko te mutunga o tēnei one kāore he one i te katoa anō!

why are there strewn logs on this beach? why? it’s the massive slash from the forestry of this region money before the environment greed before common sense why are there strewn logs on this beach? why? it’s the many off-cuts from the forestry of this region money before the environment greed before common sense it’s a massive waste it’s an ugly blight nobody wants to see no golden sand now not a place to relax no fishing here it’s the end of this beach it’s not a beach at all anymore!

so the theft continues                       na reira ka haere tonu te tāhae

so the theft continues -     less manifest this time around - but still white fingers in the cake, eh poking, ever poking into the core while licking off the icing. they stole our language they stole our land they stole our lot it is PC now for them to pray, to sing, to bless the food & to patronize with obsequious palaver and hollow words –      including a few words of our own - about how best to ‘close the gaps’ to ‘accelerate achievement’ to ‘make full and fair settlement’ to ‘equal up our Māori’ into good brown clones.                but our language is not widely taught our land is not returned our lot remains the same. so the theft continues a masque/psychodrama plaything a mighty falsehood even now 180      years      f u r t h e r      on. they stole our language they stole our land they stole our lot.

na reira ka haere tonu te tāhae -     iti te whakitea i tēnei wa huri noa - engari ano tonu maihao mā i roto i te keke, eh e wero tonu ana ki te iho i te mitimiti i te pani reka. i tāhaetia tō tātou reo i tāhaetia tō tātou whenua i tāhaetia tō tātou rota kei te PC ināianei ma rātou ki te inoi, ki te waiata, ki te manaaki i te kai & ki te whakaparahako i ngā kōrero patipati me ngā kupu huakore -      tae ana ki etahi kupu o tā tātou - mō te pehea pai ki te ‘kati ngā āputa’ ki te ‘whakatere paetae’ ki te ‘whakahanga whakataunga katoa, me te tika’, ki te ‘orite tonu tō tātou Māori’ ki ngā pūrua pākākā pai.                engari e kāore te whakaako whānui tō tātou reo e kāore te whakahokia tō tātou whenua ka rite tonu tō tātou rota. na reira ka haere tonu te tāhae he huna/whakaari mea hianga he teka whakahira noa ināianei ko    180    ngā    tau   i    runga    atu. i tāhaetia tō tātou reo i tāhaetia tō tātou whenua i tāhaetia tō tātou rota

Vaughan Rapatahana (Te Ātiawa) commutes between homes in Hong Kong, Philippines and Aotearoa New Zealand. He is widely published across several genre in both his main languages, te reo Māori and English, and his work has been translated into Bahasa Malaysia, Italian, French, Mandarin.
 
 
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