TOITŪ TE KUPU

Storytelling has been a way humans have passed on information, explained happenings, identified ourselves and expressed opinion since the dawn of time.

Māori are no different and if you take the whakataukī, “ko te kai a te rangatira he kōrero”, the food of chiefs is talk, well, it goes without saying, doesn’t it.

So let’s look at the Māori words for “story”.

We have two.

PAKIWAITARA and PŪRĀKAU.

Pakiwaitara are the type of stories that fantastical dreams are made of. Flying saucers, or in our case, flying woven flax kono, princesses tied up in castles waiting for a charming prince to come and save them, or in our case...

Hmm, our tīpuna wāhine didn’t really get tied up in castles and wait for a saviour, they ducked left, dropped the shoulder and straight to the sensitive areas all for themselves!

Anyway, pakiwaitara is, as Te Aka dictionary says, “(noun) legend, story, fiction, folklore, narrative, yarn”, or NOT TRUE.

Pūrākau, on the other hand, says, (noun) myth, ancient legend, story. Or as I’ve been told by my old people, “a way of passing on knowledge, a way of explaining how and why”.

The pūrākau of Māui are how we explain things like why it takes a day for the sun to travel across the sky then a night to come back again, why humans must die and can’t live forever and why the tīrairaka, the fantail dances around laughing a lot.

I had to laugh recently when I was told about what a young pupil from a kura kaupapa Māori told my whanaunga:

“Pakiwaitara is lies and pūrākau is true.”

That’s a bit of a harsh spin on it, but who am I to argue with someone being trained in the old ways to lead me when they grow up?