TE KAUHAUNUI
KAUPAPA 1 — HĀMIORA KAUHAUNUI: Love, Bro
By Chris Winitana
"Faster than a bullet. Strong enough to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Faster than a train." The first voice goes, "Who the heck is that?!" Second voice: "No way!" Third voice: "Wrong!" Then Hāmiora calls out, "Nope! It's me! Hāmiora Kauhaunui! The one and only!"
Hāmiora Kauhaunui — the man, the expert, the legend. He starts talking to his diary, his laptop.
"Bro, my heart is absolutely wrecked about my older brother. He's totally lost the plot. He's completely gone! Totally stuffed! He's got it bad for a girl!"
The diary asks, "Hāmiora! What's wrong with him?"
"Ha! Your brain's completely fried! My brother's lost all his marbles."
"What are the signs?"
"This week, how many times has he kicked my bum? Why? Because I messed with his hair gel! The dude's obsessed — he's gotta be pretty again before Mum sees him, then he preens his feathers."
"Any other signs?"
"Yeah! He stands in front of the mirror for ages. I'm amazed he hasn't worn out the glass! He stands there, flexing his muscles, turning this way and that, looking so full of himself. Then he goes, 'Kia ora! Kia ora pēpi!' Yeah! Kia ora! Kia ora pēpi! That's all he says, like a million times! Then the magpie starts laughing at me, I grab him, and suddenly I'm the rugby ball getting kicked around."
"Mm!" the diary goes.
"The shame of it! What's with him acting like a puppy dog? I've seen him chasing this girl around, tongue hanging out of his mouth. So embarrassing!"
The diary says, "It's love, Hāmiora! Your brother's got love sickness!"
"Too right! He's got it bad! The short version of all this, bro, is this: When you fall for a girl, you start posing, your nose gets all wrinkled from sniffing around, you start talking to yourself like 'Kia ora pēpi.' Next thing you know, you're completely bonkers!"
Hāmiora finishes talking to his diary. "Anyway, my dear diary, my big love to you, you hold all my thoughts, my dreams, my jokes too... see ya!"
Then he turns to the girls: "Girls, you're absolutely right, that lip gloss is the bomb... see ya!"
KAUPAPA 2 — HĀMIORA KAUHAUNUI: Mischief, Bro
By Chris Winitana
Hāmiora starts up again with his diary. "My diary, my laptop, how you doing..."
"I'm good! How are you?"
"I'm feeling a bit dodgy."
"Why?"
"Because of my little brother Hēmi! He's the baby of our family. He's also the apple of Mum and Dad's eye."
"What's his problem?"
"No matter how naughty he is, he never gets told off, never gets smacked, his ears never get boxed... like this morning. I grab his blue pants, he wants the red ones. I grab his short-sleeve shirt, he wants the long-sleeve one. Then his mouth starts wailing, his voice goes up the scale, and Mum comes running to judge me."
"H-Ā-M-I-O-R-A! Do your job properly!"
"But..."
"How many times have I told you..."
"But..."
"Na-na-na-na-na!"
"See! I got the last laugh in the end; I swapped his socks, one red, one black. He looked exactly like a clown. No way!"
One time he messed with my maps. All my treasures were scattered. Some under the bed, some in my shoes, others under the mat. My best map turned up twenty-four hours later... in his undies. Ewww! Gross! I was fuming!
The diary asks, "Does your little brother annoy your older siblings too?"
"Yeah! They've all got stories about him!"
The family voices ring out: "H-Ē-M-I! Don't use the cat's brush on my hairbrush." "H-Ē-M-I! Cat food is not for my pet fish, leave it!" "H-Ē-M-I! I told you, if you stick that pen up your nose, it'll get stuck — Mum!" "H-Ē-M-I! Look at the floor! Someone's gonna have to carry you to the toilet!"
"Mm! Your little brother's a real menace, eh!"
"Yeah! Sometimes I just lose it!"
Then Hēmi appears: "Hāmiora... if I eat these lollies, will my teeth rot?"
"Yeah Hēmi! Dad! Show him your ghost teeth!"
"Ewwww! Your teeth are rotten, Dad!"
"That's what happens if you eat those lollies! I'll hold them! No way! Too late! I ate all his lollies!"
"What's the verdict, Hāmiora?"
"The verdict? Goes like this! God made little brothers, but He didn't make little brothers for Himself! He's an only child. Don't forget, if your dad tells you to pull his finger, don't — pull his toe instead..."
Then the countdown voice is heard again: "Two, one, release..."
THE VOID
Stories from Te Kupu-nui
By Chris Winitana
My name is Te Kupu-nui. My house is Te Whakaaro-nui. My tribe is Ngāti Kerewa Whara. Welcome, come on in to my house of stories!
Hey! Hey! You want to know about Te Kore — the Void. What are its ways? What are its customs? Aiii! Those are massive questions! They've blown the circuits of many computers. Even the supercomputers of the Western world — those folks in white coats and glasses — their brains nearly explode! Smoke pours out their ears!
Do you have the answers to my questions? Do you have the cord? Or are you wandering lost in the dark? Listen up — everything in all worlds, all heavens, all universes, begins in the eye of Te Kore! Whatever it is, its source is in Te Kore.
Some numbskulls, the thick-headed ones, think Te Kore is just the time before the world began, and that's it. Then comes Te Pō — the Night, and after that Te Ao — the World. And here we are living in Te Ao. So, they reckon, Te Kore is finished, Te Pō is finished too. Wrong! That's a crooked thought. Te Kore hasn't finished! No! Te Pō hasn't finished either! No! No! No! These three aren't time periods. No! They're three different states of being.
And here's the thing — these three states exist together, all the time, everywhere.
The Makaka spiral symbol is the key to unlocking this concept. Picture three circles in your mind. The first sits inside the second, and that one sits inside the third. The big circle is Te Kore. The one sitting inside it is Te Pō. The one inside that is Te Ao.
Now, can you see the meaning of these circles, the meaning of the Makaka symbol? Te Kore is the parent. Te Pō emerges from its eye. And Te Ao emerges from the womb of Te Pō — this world we live in.
Let's flip this around so it really sticks. Because of Te Kore, there is Te Pō and Te Ao. Because of Te Pō, there is Te Ao. Say it again — everything in the world follows this whakapapa. Its spirit is created in Te Kore. Its form is shaped in Te Pō. Its physical form is born in Te Ao. And this process is happening all the time, everywhere. Not just at some beginning called Creation or the Big Bang. Sure, our ancestors had names for the beginning of things. But this is happening every second. Every moment. Continuously! Never ending!
Because of this state of being, everything in the world is being born, growing, living, decaying, dying. Te Kore feeds, Te Pō shapes, Te Ao is the fruit — the place where things born in Te Kore finally appear.
Look, if you haven't grasped these little thoughts of mine, no worries! Let me keep going and explain.
Te Kore is pure potential. Te Pō is the womb where that potential is shaped. Te Ao is the realisation of that potential.
Does "potential" make sense? It's the power of something to become what it's meant to become. Like us humans. First you're a spirit — your potential, your spirit, comes from Te Kore. Then you're planted in your mother's womb — that's Te Pō, a warm nest. Then you're born into the world — that's your fruit, your physical form in Te Ao Mārama. That's your whakapapa: Te Kore to Te Pō to Te Ao. From potential to nurture to physical form. From spirit to mind to body. These are all faces of a person, and of the whole wide world.
If you've never seen the Hīnātore (glow), let me put it this way. There's one life force in everything, but each life force has its own unique form. All those forms are realised from Te Kore to Te Ao.
A seed, a shoot, a tree.
A baby, a teenager, an adult.
A chick, a fledgling, a bird.
A caterpillar, a cocoon, a butterfly.
So, little ears, every second, every moment, Te Kore is doing its royal work — renewing the world. The potential of all things is seen in its eye. That potential is nurtured in Te Pō, baked like a cake. And the rising of that cake is Te Ao Mārama.
What is Te Kore?
The potential of all things.
What is its custom?
To renew all things.
What are its ways?
It renews all the time.
By Te Kupu-nui
THE NIGHT
Stories from Te Kupu-nui
By Chris Winitana
My name is Te Kupu-nui. My house is Te Whakaaro-nui. My tribe is Ngāti Kerewa Whara. Welcome, come on in to my house of stories!
Hello again, curious ears! Our topic is this thing called Te Pō — the Night. What is its nature? What are its customs? What are its ways?
There's no point talking about Te Pō if we don't talk about Te Kore and Te Ao.
First, these aren't words that point to a time. Like morning time, midday, or midnight. Those are time slots. Six in the morning is morning. Twelve noon is midday. Six at night is night. Listen carefully — Te Kore, Te Pō, and Te Ao are not time slots.
They're three states of being that our old ancestors saw when they looked deep into the darkness of the world, the night, the void. The big question they answered was this — how does the world begin? How does the world start? How does the world renew itself? What are the powers, the life forces, the sacred energies that build the world?
So they dived into the source of all things, into themselves, to find the answer. That's the real meaning of the saying "seek the hidden thing." That's Tāwhaki's climb. That's the deep dive. That's the karakia. That's why we do karakia ancestral presence — to get used to this natural custom of theirs. And as you grow older, you'll already have their forms, their ups and downs.
Anyway, back to the question — what is this thing Te Pō?
Let me use a metaphor. Say Te Kore is a seed. Inside its belly is the blueprint of its tree. Inside it are the roots that will anchor the tree to the earth. Inside is its trunk to hold the branches. Inside are the branches to hold the leaves. Inside are the leaves to hold the seeds. And the tree's cycle begins again.
All the power of the tree is inside the seed, even though that seed hasn't been planted in the ground yet.
That's exactly the nature of Te Kore. Inside Te Kore is the potential of all things. Inside the seed is all the potential of the tree.
Planting that seed in rich soil, the seed's transformation from Te Kore to Te Pō — that's the shift.
Then the seed sprouts, roots grow, fibres spread. It happens because the earth has the power to feed it. The life-giving waters of rain fall from the sky and soak the earth. They feed the seed. The earth's own nutrients soak into the seed, feed it, make it grow. The warmth from Tamaterā's rays hit the earth, warm it, and the seed lives.
So it sprouts. The purpose of that seed is to hold to the earth. It roots, it grows the parent of its own roots. It spreads fibres, sending out root hairs to find food to strengthen the seed.
That's the nature of Te Pō.
Like a womb where the potentials inside that seed begin to be realised.
From Te Pō, those tree potentials become purposeful, they grow. The shoot, the root, the fibre — those parts of the seed grow inside the womb of the earth.
The breaking of the seed's shoot through the earth's surface, to be touched by Tamaterā's warmth — that's the shift from Te Pō to Te Ao.
That's the physical realisation of the seed, with all its potential powers, into the light of Te Ao. Inside the bright world where the tree's potentials take physical form. Its roots, its trunk, its branches, its leaves, its flowers, right up to its seeds. Then one of those seeds falls to earth, and the tree's cycle begins again, producing offspring.
Its meaning is this — you're being drawn into the nature of these words.
Even though it can be hard to explain Te Pō, it's easy using the seed metaphor. We all know what seeds look like. That's why our ancestors chose the seed — sprouting, rooting, spreading, growing — to carry these explanations.
So, kids, how do you weave these stories as a crown for your heads?
Turn it this way.
Te Kore is like a seed. Inside it is the power, the sacredness, the life force — the potential of the tree.
Planting that seed in rich soil, and the growing of its shoot, its root — that's Te Pō. The growing of its shoot above the ground is the shift to Te Ao.
Te Pō is a womb.
Te Pō is a warm nest.
Te Pō is like a pregnant mum. Inside her the baby is growing.
Te Pō's power holds all the time, everywhere. Because she is pregnant with the world all the time, everywhere. The potentials living in Te Kore are being nurtured.
By Te Kupu-nui
THE WORLD
Stories from Te Kupu-nui
By Chris Winitana
My name is Te Kupu-nui. My house is Te Whakaaro-nui. My tribe is Ngāti Kerewa Whara. Welcome, come on in to my house of stories!
You've come back again, friends, to wet your ears with my words, Te Kupu-nui's words. So come in, enter my marae. Our topic to examine is this thing called Te Ao. There's Te Kore, there's Te Pō, there's Te Ao. These three live together. But listen up — these aren't separations of time, but different states of being.
Did you know our ancestors were deep thinkers? Just like the great philosophers of the Western world, of Japan, of everywhere. They studied their world so they could hear, so they could see, the powers and sacred energies that organise and weave the world and all its parts.
There were two paths they followed to reach understanding. One was the study of the physical world — examining the physical things of the world that are born, grow, decay, and die. They carefully observed the world so they could reap its fruits for their survival. Food, shelter, clothing, tools, medicine, adornment, celebration, legacy.
The second path was the study of the spiritual world through karakia. There they saw the weaving of the world, the night, the void. Through this deep study, they truly understood the powers and sacred energies that settle the changes of the world on its foundation.
So these three — Te Kore, Te Pō, Te Ao. Te Kore is the seed holding the potentials of all things. Te Pō is the beginning of those potentials taking form. Te Ao is the physical realisation of those potentials. The meeting of all things in the world of light.
Let me return to our ancestors' metaphors to carry these thoughts. They used the tree to model their ideas about the powers of the world. The potential of the tree, all its parts, are held inside the seed. Even though it's just a seed, it's not yet a tree. Inside its belly the power of the tree is pressing. That's Te Kore. Inside it is the potential of all things, whatever they may be.
Then comes Te Pō. That seed is planted in rich soil, and eventually it grows. The shoot, the root, the fibre. That's the rooting of the seed to hold the tree. Like a womb where that seed is slowly being baked into the form of the tree inside it. That's the seed's transformation to realise its potentials so the tree can stand tall. That's Te Pō.
Then comes Te Ao. When the shoot, root, and fibre are firmly held in the earth, then it turns toward the light, toward Tamaterā's rays. That's the seed's shoot growing, reaching up into the bright world. It buds, it curves, it spirals, it settles. That's the physical realisation of the tree's potentials, seen from its planting in the earth. Then the world is bright.
So Te Ao is the fruit of Te Kore's potentials, created in Te Pō. It takes physical form in Te Ao.
Kids, understand this. Te Ao lives inside Te Pō. Te Pō lives inside Te Kore. In other words, the waters of Te Kore flow to fill Te Pō. The waters of Te Pō flow to fill Te Ao. The flow of water from one state to another is the changing of the world on its foundation.
Let me plant this question in front of your noses — how does the world end? First, what is ending? How does the world become nothing? How does the world take physical form?
Here's the thing. The world is dying all the time, everywhere. The old man's daily walk. The flowers blooming, then withering, then dying. The clouds gathering in the sky, then the rain falling, then ending, then the clouds disappearing. If it's from Te Ao, it's dying and rejuvenating.
Decay is the boss of the world!
But wait, flip it around. The world is renewing all the time, everywhere. Babies being born even as old people die. New flowers blooming even as others wither. New clouds gathering.
The question is, how does this work? Is the death of one thing the rising of another?
The trio of Te Kore, Te Pō, and Te Ao are in charge. It's known that inside Te Kore are all things, all worlds, all heavens, endlessly. Inside Te Pō's womb all things are being baked, everywhere in all worlds. Inside Te Ao's body all things are taking physical form, everywhere in all worlds.
So Te Kore, Te Pō, and Te Ao exist together. Because of these powers, we live, and the world we live in continues.
A world created from Te Pō.
A night seen from Te Kore.
That's the understanding of our ancestors.
Tīhei mauriora!
By Te Kupu-nui
THE SUMMIT OF THE HEAVENS
Stories from Te Kupu-nui
By Chris Winitana
Our topic before us now to think about is the nature of the Toi o Ngā Rangi — the Summit of the Heavens. So settle your backsides down! Stop fidgeting! Keep your noses on the topic! Be like your mountain that sits below and above. Only then will your thinking stand straight, like a mountain reaching into the vast sky.
There's a word with a similar spirit to the word Toi, and that's Pū. But friends, I'm not talking about the gun and its bullets. No! No! I'm talking about the pito itself — the navel, the source. Toi, Pū, and Pito — these three words have similar meanings. These days, because Māori have been so drawn into the Pākehā faith — Christianity — the Toi o Ngā Rangi has become just another word for the Christian heaven, where the Big Father in the Sky lives high up.
That's not how the Māori world sees it. First, our view is different from the idea that there's a Big Father in his own home, his own private heaven, sitting up there. The thing is, every thing in the world, right down to us humans, has its parentlessness, its parent-fullness. That parentlessness lives inside the thing itself, and everywhere, at the same time. If you're wondering what Io looks like — is He just a made-up god? Or is He the Big Father in the Sky? Wait, more explanations about Him will come. For now, let me say this carefully — Io is an ancient Pū from the high schools of learning from Hawaiki long ago, but He's been dressed in different clothes — Pākehā clothes.
At His sacred centre, what I'm talking about is parentlessness. He's not a god like the Pākehā believe, holding the world in His hands. Nor is He a person with a body, a voice, judging people. If you're loving, the gates of His home open for you to enter. If you're bad, you're thrown into Satan's fire. Yeahnah. Io is the endless power, not a person, not a god. Beyond those two forms.
Io is a different power, the source of the world. And it is this power that holds Te Kore, Te Pō, and Te Ao together. Moving together, existing together, all the time. The world's potential is held in the source of Te Kore. Rising to Te Pō, the creation of that potential. Then rising to Te Ao, the physical realisation of that potential in the light of the world. That's Io. An endless power that gives life to all things. Sure, these thoughts are hard for the brain, for the intellect, but the world itself, you, will learn and see the truth of these words from your elders. Because the world itself is the physical realisation of these things.
One question remains — if what I'm saying about Io and His nature is true, then why in the stories of Te Kauwae Runga, or in Tuhi Māreikura, does He look like the Christian Big Father in the Sky? Fair question. With a fair answer. The nature of those books from our old expert ancestors is the joining of two ideas. Io's idea for the chiefs from old, from Hawaiki itself, was parentlessness. And what the Pākehā brought from overseas was parent-fullness.
In the end, it seems the two ideas were pushed together so they could survive when Māori were being smashed by red-coated soldiers on one side, and white priests with the Gospel on the other. But that's just a guess. Enough of that, let's get back to the summit of the story — the Toi o Ngā Rangi. Toi, Pū, Pito. To really understand the meaning of these words, we need to look at the symbol of Makaka-nui-o-te-aha. There probably won't be any argument about the nature of that symbol from our ancestors long ago — the Makaka spiral symbol. In Māori study, Makaka spiral has two ends — one end from outside to inside, then the other end from inside to outside, making two. But besides that, the end from inside to outside is the true toi of the spiral, the true centre from which Makaka was born. To them, all things in all worlds begin in the form of the spiral of Makaka. It has an end, a summit, a source. From there it grows.
Growth comes from the centre itself. And as it moves from the centre, it feeds its growths so they hold form. Sometimes two lines emerge from the centre, one to one side, one to the other. Those two lines are equal, common and sacred. One is female, one is male. They're not fighting, but working together. Between them both worlds turn. These two lines unfurl a spiral that chase each other to complete. The male power and the female power.
Makaka is the spiral takarangi with a centre; the summit of the heavens, te toi. To make these pretty heavy words easier, say this — everything has its own toi, its own heavens, its own heavenly summit. Inside the toi of those heavens is its centre, its form, its life force that arranges all its forms to completion. The Toi o Ngā Rangi isn't a place outside of you. No way, friends! It's a state inside you, inside all things in all worlds, everywhere.
Because your own Toi o Ngā Rangi has already been decided — you are you. You're not someone else, you are you. In your own toi is your own endless power. There is Io's ihorei. There are the sacred houses. The sacred waters. All things are inside you. The whole world is inside you. All worlds are inside you. You are the world. The world is you! Unique!
Let the adze strike!
Haumie! Uie! Tāiki e!
By Te Kupu-nui
THE SACRED HOUSES
Stories from Te Kupu-nui
By Chris Winitana
Hello again, you flat-nosed ones! You've come back to rub the clump of earth until only one grain remains. Then you'll realise — you are that one grain being talked about! From that, your pīnati mind will be clear. Even though it is only one grain of earth, that grain connects to its clump, that clump to its earth, that earth to the wide world, to its heaven, to its heavens. That's the power of the Māori world! Whakapapa. One set of named names.
All things are connected, whatever they are — nothing sits alone, lonely! Let's get back to our topic — the sacred houses inside the Toi o Ngā Rangi. Let me return to the talk about the Toi o Ngā Rangi to warm up your thoughts. Every thing in this bright world has its own Toirangi, its own Toi o Ngā Rangi. The Toi o Ngā Rangi isn't a place, like your house or your mountain. Nor is it the sky standing above us. No! It's a state both inside and outside all things. The Toi o Ngā Rangi isn't a heaven where some big god lives like a person.
And the work of that big god is to organise you. No! Boys, girls, you have your own toi, your own pito, your own pū. You have your own pito. The world also has its own pito. They're the same. Like the ocean and its one body of water. The world has its ocean. You have a body of water from that ocean. So even though you have your own pito, and the wide world has its own pito, you are a blood descendant, a bone descendant of the wide world spinning on its foundation. No separation is seen! Let's keep following this path.
Inside you is the Toi o Ngā Rangi, inside the world is the Toi o Ngā Rangi. One is the ocean, one is a body of water from that ocean. One is the clump of earth, one is the single grain from that clump. One is the tree, one is a leaf from that tree. One is the cloud, one is a single raindrop from that cloud. One is the wind, one is a single breath from that wind. One is the garden, one is a single flower from that garden. Isn't that amazing?! But it's true! It's the same for the many heavens — the heavens before the Toi o Ngā Rangi. All those heavens are lifted up, sitting together, existing together, on you, inside you, all the time, everywhere. Never can it be escaped.
These heavens aren't physical things like your skin or your bones. Nor are they a place you travel to. No! These heavens are states. Different levels for the body to climb. Climb the first, understand its nature. Climb the second, understand its nature. And so on for all heavens. So these heavens are levels of understanding. And there's the challenge thrown before us. What is understanding? Let's make it easy. What is the thing that illuminates our bright world? Yes, right! Tamaterā! That's the beginning and end of understanding in the bright world. Nothing in the bright world lives without its rays, its warmth. Its rays touch all things, everywhere. Just like the power of human understanding. A person must understand their world. They must know all its foundations. As a person understands those foundations, they understand its heights. A person understands their body, and must understand their breath, their spirit, their life force, their heart, their mind, their sicknesses, their strengths, their fruits, their mistakes. Must understand all their relationships. That's understanding — the beating down of darkness.
Those many heavens point to the levels of understanding for people to climb. Right up to the Toi o Ngā Rangi, up to the person's own centre. A person must understand their own centre. If they understand their own centre, the world's centre follows, because they are one and the same. An ocean, a body of water. A tree, a leaf. A garden, a flower. What else! Our ancestors say that only Io is at the Toi o Ngā Rangi. There is His tūāhu of Ihorei. There is His house of Matangireia. There is His marae of Rauroha. There is His house of learning of Rangiātea, with three schools inside — aronui, tuauri, and tūātea, two sacred stones — Hukatai and Rehutai. There is His sacred water of Wai-o-Rongo. There is the house of the chiefs of Moe-ariki. Four chiefs inside — Rehua the chief of all these heavens, Pūhaorangi, Ruatau, Aitūpawa. There is the guest house of Tāwhirirangi. There is the door of that heaven — Ururangi.
Friends, understand — these houses aren't houses to visit, no, they're houses of instruction. These houses point to the path a person must follow to enter their own centre, to hold it, to make it firm. They also point to the nature of understanding at each level. For example, if a person's longing is to see their own unique power, they must enter their toi, their core the middle of the body. They must dive into the Wai o Rongo so their eyes can be washed open. That's the tohi. The Wai o Rongo is the current of Io's voice, through it alone can a person enter their toi. A person must hear Io's voice. To hear, they must close their mouth, listen, truly listen! Let the Wai o Rongo wash over them. The water of Rongo will carry them before their tūāhu to be enlightened, to see their ihorei, their uniqueness.
Then they'll understand — one main root, many spreading fibres. They must enter Matangireia and its customs, to follow their main path, seen in their ihorei from their tūāhu, and Tamaterā, whose only work is to illuminate the world, to make a person understand, to warm them. They must reach up to Rauroha, which shows the vastness of Io's power, so they can care for all people, everywhere, all kinds, in all worlds, because they're fibres of one main root. They must enter Rangiātea, the heaven of Io's voice heard in all space.
His voice has three divisions — the voice of the person that makes a person understand, the voice of the world that makes our world understood, the voice from beyond the heavens that makes all things understood. The first voice is karakia words to unite the mind. The second voice is karakia words to settle the body. The third voice reaches Io's open heaven. Aronui, tuauri, and tūātea. Hukatai carves, Rehutai explains. Then, the person must sleep like a chief — one eye closed, one eye open, to care for their people. And they must also care for the commoners, the strangers — the people from Tāwhirirangi, the guest house. And the person has reached the level of love — Io's breath presses on the chest, and love is the sign.
So, flat ears, half-closed eyes, you must guard your own centre, don't leave it behind, or you'll end up destitute. You must settle your own heaven's toi. Blow away the mist sitting on your pito so you can see yourself. These are the great lessons from your ancestors shown in the carvings, the tāniko, the kōwhaiwhai, the tukutuku in our houses everywhere. Open the door of your house so your love can shine out...
By Te Kupu-nui
THE COMPANIES
Stories from Te Kupu-nui
By Chris Winitana
Greetings! You've reached the topic of the Apa. There are two groups of Apa. One is the Apa Māreikura — the women. The other is the Apa Whatukura — the men. These Apa move in the Many Heavens. You understand the meaning — you have the Toi o Ngā Rangi. It's your centre, your essence, your core, your line, your source, your summit, your understanding. You have it all the time. Wherever you go, you have the centre of your own understanding. Your understanding of your world, your worlds, its places, all its parts.
Your understanding is being challenged by your own heavens — the Rangi Tūhāhā. Each heaven has an understanding. Each heaven has a test for you to complete. Those tests are tailored to you yourself, not someone else. Those tests are wake-up calls for you to understand all the states of the world pressing on you. What is the purpose of those tests? And at the Toi o Ngā Rangi, shown by its sacred houses, are the paths to climb from one heaven to another. Those houses also show the nature of that heaven and its explanations, its understandings. A person's work is to carefully follow that mapped path.
Now, if the pīnati understands these words, then maybe they'll really understand the meaning of the Māreikura and the Whatukura. Yes, the Māreikura and the Whatukura guide the paths for you from one heaven to another. The right question to lay before your noses is this — if a person's work in the bright world is to follow understanding so they're truly like Tamaterā, how does a person know the right paths to follow? How does a person navigate the Rangi Tūhāhā to cross over and climb to their centre of understanding? The questions must keep coming. How does a person know where one heaven begins, where its end is? And how do they know how to cross from that heaven's entrance to its end?
So, the work of the Māreikura and the Whatukura is this. Their work is the sending of signs to inform the right path for each person. Then, the person's work is to follow those signs. But this work isn't guesswork, no, it's physical work. Why do I say it's physical work? Let's think carefully, we must also keep unpacking these thoughts, or we'll just go round in circles and end up with our noses in our feet. Why is this work difficult? It’s like this because the signs of these Apa, the Māreikura and the Whatukura, are spiritual signs.
Let's dive into that pool of thought. The signs of these Apa aren't word signs, or hand signs like when we give directions to each other. For example, if you want your little brother to give back your stuff, you give a word sign, or a hand sign. You might say, "bro, give me my stuff." Or you stand there, hand out, pointing for your stuff to be returned. With directions like that, your brother knows what you want. But what if there are no words, no speech, no talking, no tongues? What if there are no hands, no bodies, no feet, no eyes to show what you want? Then what do you do? Well, you must send your true desire from your mind to another's mind, mind-to-mind, like Harry Potter and them, or blood-sucking like Edward from Twilight. What they do is send their directed thoughts into the mind of someone able to read thoughts. Pretty amazing, eh?
Through that, the power of words, the power of hands, and those directions become small. Kids, that's how the Māreikura and Whatukura work. Then comes this huge thought. What happens if there's no mind of the sender and the receiver? How do you send messages, send signs? Well, a person would die at that question! They'd die, because we have physical bodies, we have minds, we have thoughts. That's our world — a body living in the bright world. A body made to live in the bright world. A person won't look at deeper thoughts when they're busy holding their body together. They'll keep believing the hunger of the body is the beginning and end of the world.
Here, I say, that conclusion is true for inside the bright world, the physical world. But remember, there are three worlds in the Māori world — Te Kore, Te Pō, Te Ao. Te Ao is the physical realisation of Te Pō. Te Pō is the physical realisation of Te Kore. Te Pō and Te Ao are fruits of Te Kore. If we follow this conclusion of our elders, what we'll quickly see is that our bodies become small. Our spirits become big. The body is the younger sibling, the spirit is the older sibling. The body is the child, the spirit is the adult.
So friends, back to the Apa being talked about — their work is to send spiritual signs to us so we can hear spiritually. No words, no speech, but signs directed straight at you. A person's work is to spiritually listen to those signs. And to send through their spirit their world of directions. That's the meaning of the saying — your spirit guides in front, your heart listens in the middle, your mind unpacks the fruits of those two — the Spirit and the Heart. The great work of the Apa is to send spiritual signs to you to light up the path you're walking. Like their torch signs that brighten your way. If that path is wrong for you, a sign appears to follow. If that path is right for you, another sign appears to follow. Whatever the nature of the path you're walking, there's guidance to help you. The hard thing is sending your spirit ahead of you as you go, that's one. Listening to the signs of the spirit, that's two. That's the power of the Apa. They draw near through the eye of the heart.
Now, this question. What is a spiritual sign? The Wai o Rongo, or Rangi-ātea — the current of Io's voice! Io has a voice. By His voice Te Kore, Te Pō, and Te Ao were made physical. This is a true voice, like our voices talking right now! But it won't be heard by your ears. It won't be heard by your mind. It's heard only by the eye of the heart. The eye of the heart sits between your ribs. By Io's breath the Rangi Tūhāhā were made. That's His voice. The Apa's work is the apahau — the current. The voice of Io sent to you. That's the apahau, speech from your elder, from your ancestor. That's why they're called Apa — their work is apahau, voice from the spirit world, signs from within.
To hear, you must enter the Wai o Rongo — settle down and listen. For its heaven to rise above the Ātea beyond your mind, turn tuauri to tūātea. The Whatukura's sign is stone; you must be like a stone, settled, solid, not rotting inside. The Māreikura's work is to plant love inside you. When you hear Io's breath, it will draw you through its heavens. The one desire of Io's voice is to return to the mouth of its parent — that's His dying wish. So you are carried by His breath. That's love — the breath of ancestors, the breath of the world, the breath of Io. So settle down, close your mouth, close your skin, let Io's breath press upon you. It will show you the steadfastness of the world through your skin!
By Te Kupu-nui
THE WORLD OF STARS
Stories from Te Kupu-nui
By Chris Winitana
Keep your eyes on these spider-web threads of mine, friends, so you can see the woven lines of thoughts. But don't rush the reading or let your impatient heart lead you, your my lose the learning in the deep of you! But enough of that!
Let our canoe fly on its sacred current. From the story of our ancestors, Te Ao Whetū — the World of Stars — which doesn’t mean a lot to us modern folk. It's hard to understand these stories now because our thoughts have changed. Our world has become small in foundation, height, body, and spirit. We feed the body of our story but not the soul, poor thing!
The Western world has one view, the Māori world has another! The Western view believes in a Big Father in Heaven on the one hand and then science on the other. Scientists with big brains wearing white coats and glasses! If they can’t see it with their eyes then it does not exist even though you know it does – like aroha, and wairua and mauri! Western views don't meet in the middle. They’re like two boxers slugging it out in the boxing ring! Their task is to beat each other up!
Big talk but empty. But it’s okay. All the voices of the birds of the forest make the morning chorus. Everything, everyone, has a point. Like our elders from long ago with their thoughts from beyond the clouds, from their source, seeds planted by hand, by heart, by spirit. Their noses led them here to Aotearoa.
But I can see your eyes drooping with sleep! Wake up! Splash your faces with water to refresh yourselves! Let’s talk the science of the world of stars and their children Te Ao and Te Pō.
Our forebears used natural technology to connect with the world around them. Nothing fancy. Certainly not like the modern tools we have today. They carefully observed nature by living within it and tilling their thoughts to make sense of it all. How did they examine the world without special tools? Easy! They used their body tools, like every other creature in creation; the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the hand, the mind. And then, the heart, the spirit! These are their tools. Cool right?!
Experts carefully examined the world and its many faces. From the physical to the spiritual Just like the western world and its two takes. Spiritual over here, physical over there. But the difference is this — our ancestors' pathway of body and spirit lived together without fighting. Body and spirit go together. One doesn't work well without the other.
So the expert sits to do the expert's work. Listening to sky and earth and its nature inbetween, through their body and its tools. If the topic is fish, then catch the fish. Feel for the fish. Know the fish, the weapon of water. If it's a tree, climb it and stretch up to the sky. If it's water, wind, fire, earth, stone, plants, birds, insects, the dead, soil, whatever, the expert lives with it to know its inherent power. Of nature. They dive deep to hear the unique voice of the elements – the gods. Who are the elemental power of nature – nothing more. The old men's work is the namingt of names, karakia —listening inward, not listening outward. A listening of the body, a listening of the spirit in the centre of us. Through deep examination they saw the elementals, the ancients — they saw the foundations of the universe.
Are you still following these explanations? Or have you wandered off to dreamland? Wake up, settle your feet on the ground!
Te Ao Whetū carefully names the structure of the hidden world that is creation. Its customs and way. The world is a circle, like Papatūānuku, like all the Star Worlds of all the heavens. The fruit of the circle and of the spiral is the great striving. Everywhere it strives because its form is a spiral, its type is a spiral. That's the work of the spiral. In nature, you'll never see a straight line — never. All things in all worlds in all heavens are curved. That's a design by the gods. The world must curve. Why? Because curve holds power. Energy power.
In the world of stars, the Sun is one half. The Moon is one half. Te Rā strives to grow with its power and Te Marama does the same. Their powers are different. Te Rā is hot Te Marama is not. Te Rā of the sun is day. Te Marama of the moon is night. And so on. They are opposites who strive to complement. Not dominate. They strive to fill their worlds to complete.
At this level, the life of the Sun and the life of the Moon fit together in complement. The sun knows the moon. The moon knows the sun. Until they learn their union belongs to something else. They belong to the sky. Ranginui e tū iho nei, the great sky that stands above. Through this understanding the world grows and changes. Sun and Moon strive to fulfill and complete their purpose.
This is the nature of the world. This is the nature of the world of stars – the observed understanding of complement. Where opposites meet in the middle. Not like boxers fighting out of their corners. But as two different things who know they belong together. Who know they are not opposites. They are complements. Two things completely different who agree to have a cup of tea.
The world of stars Te Ao Whetū – where worlds meet in the middle to make something new. Continuously. And this new is called life.
By Te Kupu-nui
THE CURVE OF POWER
Stories from Te Kupu-nui
By Chris Winitana
Oh! Hello again, you seeds! You've come back to the warm house of Te Kupu-nui! Don't miss the party! My words have been waiting for you. Let’s go before the dam breaks.
Settle down, suss up and let’s go. To the growth of the shoot. To the children of Te Ao Whetū, Te Rā and Tau Ana Te Marama, descending to their children Te Ao and Te Pō. The world of stars of Sun and Moon, and their children Day and Night.
The world of stars shows the circle and its power. Manifested in the spiral, te takarangi o Makaka-nui-o-te-aha. All things in the world have a circular form, a curve, a spiral path. Everything in creation follows the power of the curve. There are not straight lines in nature. That’s because nature curves. Nature is curve.
Stars in the sky are circles. No world is seen that's a triangle, a square, or any other shape. Because the curve of the sky is a power that makes circles.
Look at your own body. Does it have straight lines? Right down to the marrow of the bone. It appears straight but if you look through a magnifying glass, you'll see it's curved. Look at the straight posts of your own ancestral house. To the eye it seems straight. Grab a tool to measure and you'll see it's actually curved.
What is the power of the circle the power of the curve? The curve is one part of the circle. Curve completes circle. Curve joins circle. Curve is stronger than straight. Curve has potential and this potential is endless. Like a bow. Not the rainbow of Uenuku. I mean the bow to the arrow, the curve to the line. Like the indigenous of The Big Turtle, America with bow and arrow perfected.
The bow makes a held curve. A string holds from one end to the other. The arrow sits, the string is pulled, the bow bends into a big curve, the arrow is released. The curve strength of the bow hits the arrow and sends it flying. That's the potential of the curve I'm talking about. If the bow was straight, the power would be reduced. Our ancestors saw this in nature. Spiral makes creation.
Where does the curve's power come from? And the answer — from the nature of the curve itself, from its bending. Examine a straight line. Draw a straight line. One end goes to one area, the other end goes to another. Because of its straightness it has no power. No part of that straight line is struggling, pulling, or fighting with another part. The power is the same from one end to the other. So it's called powerless, strength-less.
But the curved line — because of its own bending, every little part of that curve is fighting. And that curve keeps going, connects to its other end, and makes a circle. Everywhere in that circle power is bubbling up, fighting. Every little curve of that circle is fighting its companions on both sides for power.
This is the origin of our kōwhaiwhai that decorate the ridges of our sleeping houses. It's not by chance that circles and curves are the form of our painted rafters. No! This is a design from the careful examinations of the skilled hands of old. Makaka-nui of the spiral is the parent model, the kōwhaiwhai descend from its power. To our tāmoko tattoo and its spirals and circles, lines and curves. To our ancestral posts in our houses. The bloom of the study of nature by our old people by living inside it connected. Not outside it divorced.
Circle strives. It is built in to its curve. The tension of curvature where everything is balanced to precision like a top spinning perfectly forever. Circle strives with all its might to make better. Better, is connection. More connect, more better.
Hot connects cold. Black connects white. Right connects left. Up conncts down. Small connects big. Female connects male. Moon connects Sun. Day and Night are born, Each new generation strives to realise its power. Held in the core navel of our bodies. Where connection builds strength. And knowledge. And understanding. And better.
The power of the curve. The power of circle. The power of Sun and Moon.
By Te Kupu-nui
THE BOND OF WHAKAPAPA
Stories from Te Kupu-nui
By Chris Winitana
You restless ones wanting to get outside to play! Hahaha!, No way! We got work to do. To understand and know the world of nature of Sky and Earth of Ranginui and Papatūānuku that we live in.
The science of the old people is whakapapa; the naming of names. Like the names of The World of Stars, Te Ao Whetū. Let’s unpack it some more.
Why did our ancestors name all things in their world, right down to us humans? Why did they name all states of the world — the wind, the fire, the earth, the water, the stone, the bird, the fish, the insect, the carving, the tāmoko, the kōwhaiwhai, the house, the tāniko? And all their whakapapa of names falls to us their descendants. So we can name the world we live in.
And in naming our world, they made it like a person. So we could could relate better. And connect better. To be better in nature. The whakapapa of named names is our story of wairua spirit and tinana body living together. Like descendants living together with ancestors. The ancestor has passed onto the world of wairua. The descendant lives now. Whakapapa connects them. Forever.
The world has a named lineage of whakapapa. The human has a named lineage of whakapapa. The whakapapa is the same.
So, we've reached the second question — what is the whakpapa connection exactly specifically? Back to the words about Te Ao of day, Te Pō of night, Te Kore of potential. Te Pō is a fruit of Te Kore. Te Ao is a fruit of Te Pō. Te Ao and Te Pō are fruits of Te Kore. Te Kore is the parent! Te Kore is not nothingness. Te Kore is everythingness available to become.
Io is its twitch to become.
Inside the vastness of Te Kore all life exists. Like a whole tree exists in a seed. Like a curve exists in a circle. Like power and strength and weaving and striving live in the curve. Te Kore is the foodstore of Rangi and Papa holding the four sacred foods of nature; air, water, earth and fire.
Our own little universe, our own little world Papatūānuku, is just one little speck in the everythingness of Te Kore. Like one single grain of sand from all the beaches of our world.
Te Kore is a state, not a place, not a time.
Everything has its own path. Its own lineage of genealogy of whakapapa of named names so we can relate to it. We humans have our path. We are designed in spirit and body for our path. The bird has a path. The stone, water, leaf, ant, fish, reptile, animal, mammal. Papatūānuku has a path by which she appeared with her own form.
From the nature of each path comes its fruit. An apple tree grows apples. A passionfruit vine grows passionfruit. The human seed in the the human womb grows humans. We have a head which looks like this. Eyes, ears, two legs, two hands, a body, we stand, we walk, we run, and then, we have a brain, a mind. That brain, from our unique spiral path of Makaka-nui, was gifted to us through our named whakapapa of connection. To the world, its nature and its creation. Te Kore is everythingness. Io twitches it to life. Sparks the synapses. The human is the fruit of this. The bird is the fruit of this. The world is the fruit of the whakapapa of connection. The many universes are the fruit of together.
Back to our brains! The mind is a treasure. The brain's job is to figure out stuff. All the stuff received by your ears, eyes, nose, tongue, hands, and the brain itself. These feelings of yours hit your brain, a lightning flash appears inside you, stored for later. But the brain’s job is to decide the physical feelings of the human. What you think it all means to you. The mind does not go out. Nor does it come in. It only knows itself. It can’t see connection. It can’t see Te Kore. It can’t see whakapapa connection. It has to be trained to see. It has to be moulded to go beyond itself. Basically you got to close the mouth of the mind!
And open the door of Tāwhirirangi — Ururangi. Open the eye of the heart sitting between the ribs. Where lives the bird of Rehua — its ribs are its wings, its head is the eye of the heart beating between. The eye of the heart closes the mouth of the mind. So we can hear the voice of the world. The sound of life humming in our veins. In the veins of creation, in the tree and the flower, the insect and bird.
Eh, my typing hands are getting weak. Let me end this; we are a people of lineage, of whakapapa. We connect first as our zero line. We are so good at connecting, we formalize it. We have a special place called the Marae purpose built for connection, and test of connection. Laboratory tests happening every day in our world on our marae as we connect and test the connection to keep it live and well, ready and willing.
Whakapapa connects us to our world from Te Kore, Te Pō, Te Ao.
Hawaikī. Rangiātea. The seed.
By Te Kupu-nui