Moko Kauwae: In the whare!

Moko Kauwae: In the whare!

Te Wharepora Hou, Auckland based Māori and Pacific women’s collective, voice their support and celebration of MP Nanaia Mahuta and the 14 other women of Tainui who are Aotearoa’s most recent recipients of moko kauwae.

Fellow MP and founding member of Te Wharepora Hou, Marama Davidson says, “To have our kauwae represented in the house is a significant step forward for Māori and in particular for wahine Māori. It is another window of opportunity, to remind us of who the Indigenous people of this country are, and what is important to us. I look forward to seeing more and more moko present across all sectors of society and especially amongst my colleagues!”

Responses to Nanaia’s undertaking have been 100% positive in social and news media alike. However Te Wharepora Hou member, Dr Mera Lee-Penehira shares, “Whilst Nanaia’s stance is a proud moment for Aotearoa and especially for us as Māori women, we need to be concerned that the general public’s view seems to be that we have to ‘earn the right’ to wear these markings. We have to do something to ‘deserve’ this right. We need to be clear that wearing moko kauwae is simply the birthright of every Māori woman!”

It is well documented that pre-colonisation Māori women as young at 10 or 11 years of age would have moko kauwae applied. As Associate Professor Leonie Pihama states, “It was just part of our upbringing and society prior to colonial settlers coming to Aotearoa. Nanaia and all women who choose now to reclaim this tradition, contribute significantly to the revitalisation of our taonga that was denied to us through colonial beliefs.” The fact that the women’s sufferage movement banned moko kauae in the work towards women being able to vote, makes representation in the house even more significant.

Te Wharepora Hou sees moko kauwae and indeed all traditional moko as another critical space for the reclamation of reo Māori. As Dr Lee-Penehira suggests, “Moko is just another part of our language. The carvings in our skin are complete narratives, that we now re-learn and re-member how to read, and how to speak.”

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