Henare Dewes (c.

or before 1977)
Tihei Mauriora! = sneeze of life, call to claim the right to speak.
Strange thing happened today The speaker of the poem strikes colloquial-
applied for a flat in Remuera conversational tone.
got knocked back Telling an anecdote.
cause I’m a maori, Dry (laconic? latin word?) not outraged, just
funny that! musing about the funny things that happen in
Hell! I can’t even speak the lingo life.
don’t even know my maoritanga Absurd situation: his maoriness has been bred
whatever that is. out of him, he no longer speaks the language
Once I spoke Maori and he is still seen as Māori.
but the teacher strapped me He is fully assimilated (in terms of culture,
and made me learn pakeha so hard language, knowledge, values) but his
and be like a pakeha so hard appearance isn’t changed – judged by his skin.
and respect pakeha so hard He proves (to us) his suitability for the flat but
and be like a pakeha so hard, it gets him nowhere.
I’m real good at it now His anger appears when he says “I should’ve
got papers to prove it too bowled that landlord”, but imprisonment held
yet I still couldn’t get this flat him back.
cause I’m a maori Ironically, the prison, where he would be sent,
funny that! is full of maori people, so he ?would be
I should’ve bowled that landlord together with his own people in pakeha eyes?
but I’d have gone to Paremoremo* *Auckland Prison, original name Paremoremo
bugger that! Prison, is in Paremoremo Auckland
that’s where lots’ve maoris go. He is rootless now (doesn’t know his marae)
Funny that! Aue= heck! oh dear! - expression of
I’d go back to my marae astonishment or distress.
If I knew where it was Shows how upset he is not only by this
and prove, I’m not incident but his whole life situation.
an Uncle Tom.
Aue! He feels rejected and ‘displaced’ (who I
I wish those pakehas would make their minds up belong to).
about who I belong to He doesn’t feel whole: half and half
that’s the worse of being half ‘n’ half, Then a joke: the says the pakeha half gets the
the pakeha half is always maori half in trouble, reverses expectations, as
getting the maori half in trouble society thinks the maori people are always
funny that! getting into trouble (but deeper meaning:
In my next reincarnation pakeha cause the situation which cause maori
I’m coming back to get into trouble, e.g. rootlessness,
as a full blooded maori, discrimination
that’ll scare the tutai
out of all those pakeha staticians. (?Tutai: scout, spy) misspelling of tutae: shit
I’m going to Ponsonby tomorrow Ponsonby “Auckland's first Pacific
gonna get another flat, community was … in the now high-end inner
this time, city suburbs of Ponsonby, Newton and Grey
I’m gonna be a Samoan Lynn, as well as Freemans Bay and Parnell” 1
Tihei Mauriora! (he will be identified as Samoan, again not as
whatever that means! pakeha)

1
“Auckland: The Pacific comes to Auckland” By Tapu Misa. NZ Herald. Friday Aug 27, 2010
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10667079
Remuera: upmarket area of Auckland, pakeha settlement started after land purchase 1851, and
residential buildings in 1860s, large villas already then (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remuera)
Paremoremo The prison filled with Māori people
Ponsonby high rate of Pasifika population
His lost marae: unnamed

Place names and therefore places are an important element of this poem. Precisely because the
speaker speaks of dislocation, displacement, impending homelessness (maybe, if he can’t rent a flat).
Ironically, as the whole place (Aotearoa) belongs to his people, yet he can’t even get a flat to live in.
Pākehā
Having lost his roots means he does not have a turangawaewae, a place to stand, in Aotearoa. Despite
his pakeha upbringing, he is not considered pakeha due to his brown skin. Yet, without a marae that
he belongs to and the language of his ancestors he is also not truly Māori. This sense of placelessness
is expressed in the place names none of which is his place, none of which he belongs to. However,
lots of Māori are found at the prison, maybe that’s the place they are supposed to be? He is not there
(yet?) and doesn’t want to be, despite its Māori name.

There is a story within the story which refers to a long period of pakeha assimilation!

Language: suddenly it becomes proper non-colloquial when he ‘proves’ his worth as pakeha from
‘Once I spoke’ to ‘I’m real good at it now too’ – this story of his assimilation

Half and half: unclear if he is of mixed descent or his social identity is mixed

Subversions: 1. reversal in the joke. 2. Subtle: Māori is written with upper case letters in one instance
(his past, when he still spoke the language – expression of pride?), pakeha is consistently lower case!
There are two types of maori in the poem: one is lower case, looked down upon by pakeha, and the
other is upper case, existed in the past, proud, whole

Poem ends with a Māori phrase tihei mauri ora (and ‘whatever that means’)- it means ‘sneeze’, ‘life
force’, ‘healthy’.
Where did he pick up the phrase if he claims not to know what it means? Distant childhood memory?
(like the words Aue and Maoritanga?) or did he hear it from other Māori?
It does sound quite defiant.
Does it herald a future of healthy Māori life force? Poem was read in the documentary in 1977, thus
after the famous 1975 land march. Does it show future promise, that desperate Māori will return to
their roots, re-learn their language and regain their Māoritanga and will know what it all means?
Whatever it means – sounds dismissive, though.