To “Stay Brown” means to privilege, amplify and exemplify your Indigenous heritage – Te Ao Māori in the ways that hold you, speak to you and guide you. It means exploring your whakapapa, learning about your lands, your pūrākau (ancestral/whānau stories). Learn about and care for the Maunga that shadow over your whenua, the awa that flows over Papatūānuku.
Stay Māori means to honour your values and principles that are normal and natural to us – Māori. I acknowledge that im not just Māori I have Pākehā/English, Scottish and Scandinavian heritage. ‘Stay Māori’ doesn’t mean that im anti Pākehā or any other parts of me. It means that my Māori culture is being threatened every single day, every single moment. My Pākehā culture on the other hand is not being threatened, it is alive, healthy, well and thriving. The beauty of being Māori doesn’t mean that I have to choose one identity or whakapapa over another. I love my connections to both Māori and Pākehā.
I am a Kaupapa Māori researcher/evaluator because I love my culture.
My statement is simple: Māmā, artist, thinker, writer, story catcher & teller.
#consciouspuku
Kaupapa Māori consultancy 