Spanning the Gap
I confess to having a short attention span. That doesn’t mean however that I’m not listening, it just means that you have some of my attention but I’m probably 3 or 4 hop-scotch steps ahead of you in your game plan. It’s how I’m wired. Some of my friends find this irritating, I find their dilly-dallying a trifle ho-hum myself but that’s what we love about each other, our differences work with us.
Writing Ourselves Home
Recently that quirk I was telling you about a moment ago, got stopped dead in its tracks when I read a moving thesis entitled ‘Writing Ourselves Home’ A method for contextualising the lives of Wahine Maori – Locating the life of Betty Wark”. For copyright reasons I can’t link you directly to the pdf but put that title into your Search Engine and it will find it for you.
May I suggest that you scroll through to page 123 where Section 2 of the narrative relating to Betty Wark begins (unless of course you are also interested in the process and rationale). These are lengthy for reasons of academic dissertation but for our purposes the quick scroll (to page 134) brings us to Betty sooner.
The theoretical basis of Maori feminism and Kaupapa Maori
The paper is a Doctural thesis written in two parts, the first exploring and discussing the theoretical basis of Maori feminism and Kaupapa Maori (the philosophy, the fundamental principles that guide Maori or in this case an individual, the thesis writer) “as they relate to biography as a research method into the lives of Maori women.
In the second section is the story of Betty Wark, whom the thesis writer cites as an example and the subject of their biographical narrative. She was a Maori woman actively involved with community-based organisations from the 1950’s until her passing in 2001. Among the many themes that emerge from Betty’s story was the notion of ‘home’ both literal and metaphorical.
The Notion of Home
I find the notion of ‘home’ a perennially interesting one too, do you? Not just literally but metaphorically as well? When does the heart find it, why does it go to look for it, how do we choose which road to go down when we come to a crossroad, what makes us want to go and who takes our hand along the way?
I never knew Betty Wark existed until I was looking for a local road map but the tupuna (ancestors) have their ways of letting you know what’s what. It turns out Betty Wark and me have the same Tupuna, Rahiri she was a Nga Puhi woman like my mother Reenie, my grandmother Irihapeti (Elizabeth) and my great grandmother (Moewaka Jane) before me.
I sometimes wonder whether ‘home’ is the same as ‘belonging’ and whether we don’t simply give ourselves a sore head trying to make the two one and fit them (albeit snugly) into a comfortable intellectual box thereby appeasing any further need for a seemingly endless search. To be perfectly honest there are times when I think it would be easier to do that. I find myself wondering whether I could differentiate between ‘cultural home’ (papkainga) and ‘spiritual home’ (turangawaewae) as the thesis writer seems to infer Betty did.
Vocal Tumblings
As always we adults are often left speechless from the vocal tumblings of babes in our midst. C.S. Lewis in ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ through his child character Digory says to Polly, “We do seem to be somewhere” .. “At least I’m standing on something solid.” (Lewis, 1988, p.91). Is that the key then? We’re home when we find ourselves standing on ‘something solid’. I’ll leave you with the thought.
I wonder what Betty Wark would think of my thought that for many ex prisoners, street kids, drug addicts and people suffering from mental health illnesses SHE was their ‘something solid’. Betty Wark was the founder of Ngati Arohanui Trust, an Auckland City Councillor and a Member of Parliament.
