Since the 1980s, many Māori have called Australia home, having moved across the ditch in search of jobs and opportunities. Now, almost 20% of the Māori population have migrated to the continent and are facing the challenge of staying connected to their culture.
Watch the full, part two report of a two-part series on Māori living in Australia on TVNZ+.
“I was ashamed to be Māori,” said Australian-born Jayden Wright. “I was, yeah, really hurt. Really, really hurt.”
He said he was ridiculed for being born in Australia by relatives back in Aotearoa.
“[I was] just heartbroken really, like, I’m no different to you. ‘Why are you saying that to me? I’m your own flesh and blood’.”
Wright is part of a generation of Māori born and raised in Australia after their parents, and in some cases grandparents, migrated in the 1980s when thousands crossed the Tasman as job losses and a struggling economy left many families searching for a fresh start.
“I was born in a suburb in the inner city called Carlton. My parents actually came over here in the 80s and then I was the first out of my siblings, the last four siblings, that were born here.”
Kaycee Merito shares a similar story, balancing a life lived between both worlds.
“Not being born and raised back home, knowing my whakapapa until I was, like, 12. All of those things have been like a really big learning challenge for me.”
She said there were some whānau who were too scared to go back to Aotearoa because they were too “whakamā, and that she herself has been questioned over why she would do “Māori stuff” when she’s living in Australia.
It was a theme that was brought to the forefront of the national kapa haka competition, Te Matatini o Te Kāhui Maunga, by the Australian-based kapa haka during the event in February this year.
In a post-performance interview, Taonga o Te Aroha Thomson-Lawrence, the manukura wahine for Manawa Mai Tawhiti, a kapa based in Perth, said they were used to receiving criticism “that comes from home” but they were Māori regardless of where they lived.
It was a sentiment shared by Queensland’s Te Kapa Haka o Te Hau Tawhiti. Manukura wahine Te Waikāmihi Korohina Ormsby said there is often talk of ‘Mozzies’ – a portmanteau of Māori and Ozzie – and being ‘plastic’ but she urged people to let go of their negative opinions.
“Ki te tae atu koutou ki Ahitereiria, he nui ngā Māori e ngākaunui ana ki te reo me ōna tikanga.”
(But if you ever go to Australia, you’ll find many Māori who are passionate about the language and tikanga.)
Doug Petley helps tutor a local Melbourne haka group, Te Whare Haka o Nārama. He composed a mōteatea based off the experiences of three of their kaihaka, including Wright and Merito, who wrote down the kinds of contempt they faced for him to translate.
“I mea atu au ki a rātou, ‘tuhia mai ō koutou whakaaro ki tētahi pepa, ana, tukuna mai ki ahau, māku e whakamāori’. I tukuna mai e rātou ērā kupu, ērā kōrero. I noho au ki te pānui, [ka] tangi. I tangi katoa au.”
(I told them, ‘write down your thoughts on paper and send them to me, I’ll translate them’. They sent me their words, their stories. I sat down to read them and cried. Fully cried.)
Petley, and co-tutor Apakura Poutapu-Matenga, both Aotearoa-born and fluent in te reo, once shared those negative views of Māori abroad.
“Ka pāngia au e te pōuri nā te mea mohio pū ana au, me taku whakapono i ngā tau ō mua, ko au tērā. Ko au tētahi o ērā Māori e takahi ana i te mana o te Māori kei Ahitereiria e noho ana.”
(I felt deep sadness because I knew implicitly that in the past, I was one of those Māori who disregarded the mana of Māori living in Australia.)
“Ko au tērā hoki e whakaaro ana, ‘oh ngā Mozzies’, ‘oh, hōhā – hoki ki te kāinga’,” admits Poutapu-Matenga.
(I was one of those people, too, thinking ‘oh, the Mozzies’, ‘oh, annoying – just go back home’.)
She said since being a part of the community, and looking beyond the façade of a person, she’s seen the “ngākau Māori” within.
For Petley, he said since moving to Australia he’s seen, heard and felt the impact of such negative views on the community.
“I am very, very grateful for Te Whare Haka o Nārama and the community here in Nārama for embracing me when I know I didn’t deserve it.
“But I’m so committed now to ensuring that while I’m here, however long it may be, I’m doing what I can to give them the most of what I know te ao Māori to be, to these people here.”
They are both focused on breaking the stereotype in others and helping whānau in Nārama find their confidence in their Māoritanga.
Poutapu-Matenga said she’s guided by the saying made famous by her kuia, Princess Te Puea Herangi: Mahia te mahi hei painga mō te iwi – ‘Work for the betterment of the iwi’.
“Kei au ētahi wheako, ētahi mātauranga mai i te kāinga nō reira ko tōku mahi he tohaina i tērā, he whakaako ki te hunga o konei kāore i mau i tōku waimārie ki te tupu ake i roto i te ao Māori. No reira ko tōku mahi kē ko te awhi.”
(I have some experience and knowledge from home so my job is to share that, to teach those who weren’t as fortunate to have grown up in te ao Māori. My job is to help and support.)
For the Māori community in Melbourne – or Nārama as the Māori community has adopted from the traditional Aboriginal name Naarm – Te Whare Haka o Nārama is a safe refuge for whānau to uphold customs and traditions despite the scrutiny.
“Toru, whā whakareanga o te whānau i whānau mai i konei. I noho mātou ki te whakaaro me pehea mātou e hanga i tētahi whare ki te poipoi, ki te manaaki i o mātou huānga kei tēnei taha o te moana e noho ana.
(Three, four generations of whānau have been born here. We sat thinking about how we could build a space to nurture and support our relations living on this side of the ocean.)
“Koirā te whāinga, koirā te take matua o te hanganga i Te Whare Haka o Nārama.”
(That is the main reason Te Whare Haka o Nārama was established.)
Te Whare Haka o Narama was formed in 2023, bringing together another local kapa haka, Ngā Uri Whaioranga. They are guided by the principles of kotahitanga (unity) and whakaiti (humility).
For Wright, it’s been a life-changing and inspiring journey in search of his “true identity”.
“Not only for myself now, but for my tamariki too… who were born here as well, like myself, and [I] just don’t want to see them go through the challenges that I have to go through.”
Merito said she’s doing it for her children too.
“I’m starting to reconnect because I want that for my babies, I want them to be able to go back home and know where they’re from, know their marae, be proud in who they are, and know who they are without any backlash from our whānau back home.
“I really want that for them so that they don’t go through the same struggles that I had to when I was growing up here.”
Petley said they are putting the work in to reconnect Māori to their culture so that they “find a home when they go home”.
“We’re over here really trying to create a safe space so that when they go home, they can have the willpower to endure instead of just hear one little snarky remark and be all of a sudden shut down. Cause the reality of that is it only takes one comment to stop somebody’s journey of re-connection, and sadly, sadly we have seen that in Te Whare Haka o Narama.”
For Wright, he’s found the confidence to reclaim his whakapapa.
“It’s just come a point in time now where it’s like, you know what? Regardless of what anyone says to me now, I have Māori blood in me, you know?
“My parents were born back home, that’s my lineage. I am Māori regardless of what you say and I’m just going to stick to that.”
Watch both part one and part two of this two-part series on Māori living in Australia on TVNZ+.
Glossary
whakapapa – genealogy
kapa haka – Māori performing art; haka group
manukura wahine – female leader in haka group
Nārama – transliteration of Naarm, the traditional Aboriginal name for Melbourne
mōteatea – traditional chant, lament
kaihaka – haka performer(s)
ngākau Māori – Māori heart (being inherently Māori)
Māoritanga – Māori culture, heritage, way of life, living, practices and beliefs etc.
kotahitanga – unity
whakaiti – humility
tamariki – children
