How can these questions help many Māori Deaf persons to understand where and what/who are their ancestors came from?

Look at the video via Facebook if you can get access to

Kia ora koutou katoa. Ngaa mihi I a tatou katoa. Kei te akonga tonu au I te reo maori o te turi. Ko aku whakapapa o te taha o toku matua aa te taha o toku whaea. No hea ratou.

Te taha o toku matua / father’s side

Ko Hoturoa te tangata ( chief )
Ko Tainui te waka ( canoe )
Ko Wharepuhuunga te maunga ( mountain )
Ko Raukawa te iwi ( tribe )
Ko Aotearoa te marae

Te taha o toku whaea / mother’s side

Ko Tamateakapua te tangata ( chief )
Ko Te Arawa te waka ( canoe )
Ko Matawharau te maunga ( mountain )
Ko Pikiao te iwi ( tribe )
Ko Opatia te marae

Whakapakeha:

I am still learning in Maori sign languages and I do the best I can. This is the end of Te Reo Maori week today, this it about family history of my both parents

Thank you Timoti for the permission to use the video.

Here is a couple of maps of Aotearoa (New Zealand) and it will explain where iwi – Tribes of New Zealand are. 

What is iwi mean to you?  The iwi (tribe) is the largest of the groups  that form the Māori society in the earliest days. An iwi (tribe) is a set of people bound together by descent from a common ancestor or ancestors. Their ancestors can been traced back to Hawaiki Nui, Rapanui, Easter Island and Aotearoa. How did they came to Aotearoa? Māori people were looking for places like an island due to the population grew in other islands. One of the stories, it believed that Kupe – the first explorer and he used the stars and ocean currents as a navigational guides to Aotearoa. He came out on his waka hourua (voyaging canoe) from Hawaiki. There were seven canoes came to Aotearoa and each waka had a name which were Tainui, Te Arawa, Matatua, Kurahaupo, Tokomaru, Aotea and Takitimu.

Now what is a whakapapa mean to you? It is a genealogical table just like a family tree or family ancestors. It is a fundamental principle in Māori culture. A person reciting their whakapapa proclaims their identity, places themselves in a wider context, and links themselves to land and tribal groupings and the mana of those.

For example if i address to the Māori Hui myself and where I/my ancestor came from. chief is Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, Taupiri – mountain and Waikato – river. The waka is Tainui.

As I mention in the early post –

Here I go by saying if I can remember: –

Ko Pōtatau Te Wherowhero te tangata (chief)

Ko Tainui te waka (canoe)

Ko Taupiri te maunga (mountain)

Ko Waikato te awa (river)

Ko Tainui te iwi (tribe)

Ko Turangawaewae te marae (marae/meeting-house)

Today several Māori Deaf people are learning to trace their ancestors, waka, iwi etc. Many of them were not taught at their school in Auckland and in Christchurch. It was Patrick Thompson raised the idea of teaching them to rediscover their ancestors, waka, culture and te Reo Language. He set up the first National Hui for the Māori Deaf at Orakei Marae in 1993 and it was successful.  At Kelston Deaf Education Centre, Auckland,  there is a marae – Rūaumoko (‘unborn child’) and the God of Earthquakes. When the earth shakes or move and it make all creatures to get attention. So every Deaf people and children stamp their feet on the floor or bang the table to send out the vibration to other people for attention. This is the Deaf way.  Rūaumoko Marae is a place where many Deaf people, children and visitors come together and learns their culture, kaupapa (principle or policy), marae protcool.

I discovered the high percentage of Māori Deaf people came from Ngāti Maniapoto, Te Arawa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa. But I might be wrong due to uncompleted research in the Māori database and in the Māori Deaf community. I know several Māori Deaf people in the Waikato area through school and in the Deaf community when I catch up with them.

In my ancestors of my late grandma’s side (Bibby) of my late father and my late grandfather’s side (Bert) of my mother, I do have cousins married to several Māori people in Northland, in Wairpapa,  and in Waikato-Bay of Plenty.