TikTok creators Rezin Mihimoana Barber (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu) and Tawera Marsh (Te Atihaunui-a-Pāpārangi), who were among the many thousands at Tūrangawaewae Marae on Monday, talked about the importance of rangatahi engaging with te tangihanga o Kiingi Tuheitia.
The pair had just landed in Aotearoa from Canada and immediately made their way down to Ngāruawāhia.
“We caught up with some indigenous from Canada, and I think it’s really cool seeing the contrast in how they’re represented as indigenous and how we are,” Barber said.
“I think it’s super important to be present as Māori and represent your whānau and iwi.’
Both influencers are second-year law students at Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato [University of Waikato]. Marsh said being part of ngā rōpū Māori at Waikato University haD pushed him out into Māori spaces.
“I think that’s a big key about te Whare [Wānanga] o Waikato that differs IT from every other university in the rohe. It is present at kaupapa like this.
“They’re the reason I am here and they’ve awhi me to be around this process and made me feel comfortable to be here,” he said.
Both went to the koroneihana anniversary event and now the tangihanga. Reporter Riria Dalton-Reedy asked for the “prominent themes” they had noticed in both gatherings at Tūrangawaewae marae.
Barber said “strength as Māori” was one for her.
“I love seeing mokopuna and children running around ... it’s kind of just like a stand that we are here and we are proud to be Māori.
“Just bonding as Māori through waiata and through haka, even though it is for tangi and we are mourning, we are still strong,” she said.
Marsh said it was amazing how Māori mobilised for koroneihana and then again for tangihana within a small timeframe.
“That just shows how strong we are as Māori, that shows how strong we are as a motu, that no one, that no government can break us as Māori.”