Whānau (2021)

To all of you who have played a massive role in KaHana's life — especially you mum, for helping me raise him. You’ve always been there, allowing me to be a young mum, a young person, and helping me grow as a mother. So thank you.  

– Renei Ngawati acknowledges her family and mother at Te KaHana’s 21st birthday, early in this documentary

I did end up going to university in 2012 and studied indigenous cultures and languages, and I just learned a whole lot of different stuff and how religions came here way back, and it was like a little bit of a form of colonisation. And I realised how colonised I was as well in my thinking and my own personal biases, and I didn’t like it.

– Rachel Ormsby reflects on a significant turning point in her life

Coming from a whānau, or iwi as we are, hunters and gatherers type of living  . . .  kaare anō i whakamana. Ko ngā ahuatanga o te aō Pākehā me whai atu tēnā huarahi, e pono ana au me hoki atu ki tō haukāinga, kia rongo ai koe, i te mana o te whenua, te mana o tō...te...te tū o te tangata ki runga i tōna te ūkaipō.
It’s not valued. European ways are the paths that are promoted. However, I believe that one should return home to engage with the prestige and honour of the land and to value living in your place of origin.

– Mereana Maika on the importance of returning home

...our children are brought up amongst taha Māori and that more than I was. I think they could be a bit more, which would be good.

– Travis Ormsby on the importance of growing up in your Māori culture and identity

There was never a question of our whakapapa and where we were from...we always knew that we belonged here. We are products of parents moving from rural areas, starting a life — the whole urbanisation thing — starting a life in the city and navigating being Māori.

– Renei Ngawati acknowledges her parents' journey away from home

Growing up in kōhanga, I went through reo rumaki at school. I was always in the Māori unit, and then I went into mainstream, and then I went back into wharekura at college and then back into mainstream, so I kind of had the best of both worlds. 

– Pianika Ormsby reflects on the pathway through her school years