Pepeha

Five years after learning te reo Māori at lunchtime, I’m about to coordinate a kapa haka group in Tainan. First, I practise my pepeha.

Learning te reo Māori in Aotearoa five years ago, I’d have laughed if you’d told me that one day I’d be coordinating a kapa haka group in Tainan for an international folklore festival.

The Māori teacher used to come to our workplace at lunchtime. It was always fun to shift my focus from flood modelling and mapping to culture and language.

I particularly remembered the pepeha — the way Māori introduce themselves. It doesn’t say something like, “My name is Ting and I’m a flood engineer blah blah.” Instead, the pepeha talks about a person’s connection to land, local community, ancestral history and lineage before saying their name.

Today, I refreshed the te reo Māori I learnt back then. I spoke the words out loud on the balcony of my local library.

When I spoke about my mountain and river, memories of hiking with my mum when I was a kid came vividly back to me. I even used to swim in Jingmei River when the water quality allowed it.

That was more than 40 years ago.

I’m still missing the introduction of my local meeting place (marae), my family’s migration routes (waka) and ancestors (tīpuna). Still some work to do on those...

Here’s my shorter version of the pepeha:

Ko Zhinanshan te maunga — Zhinan Mountain is the mountain (指南山)

Ko Jingmei te awa — Jingmei River is the river (景美溪)

Nō Muzha ahau — I am from Muzha (木柵)

Ko Ting tōku ingoa — My name is Ting.

In a few weeks I’ll be standing beside people who say this without thinking. I’m still missing my marae, my waka, my tīpuna. But I know where my mountain is, and for now that’s enough to start.