An older brother is always an older brother, no matter where they live or in what country they reside, writes Thomas Tarurongo Wynne.

Tuakana is Tuakana, and Teina is Teina. However, if the Tuakana lives in the house of the Teina or younger brother, then all that changes as he is now the manu’iri, manuhiri or guest, or vice versa. The relationship of kinship, however, remains the same.

As Māori, we are the Tuakana when we consider our relationship with the Māori of Aotearoa. Our ties are genealogical, based on akapapa and on Waka or Vaka that left from Rarotonga, Enuamanu - Atiu, Mauke - Akatokomanava, Mangaia – ‘Au’au, and Aitutaki – Araura Enua, as well as many other Enua and Islands of the country we now call the Cook Islands – because we are Māori. Ko koe, ko au, ko tatou Māori – and not by any other name.

Why would we give King Tuheitia land in Aitutaki from his relatives of Tai-Te-Atainui o Iva/Ngati Kamire if not to connect with his return to the marae of their common ancestor, Tai-Te-Atainui o Iva? In 2019, and in true Aitutaki style, the Māori King was also welcomed by Vaipeka villagers at Te Vairoa, the place where the waka of his ancestor Tai-Te-Atainui o Iva landed, before feasting and entertainment with the island at O-Rongo as it made its way to Aotearoa.

As some sons of the Moana and their people try to reimagine themselves and their relationship with Māori, we do not have to do this. This becomes problematic however, when we adopt coined terms like Kuki Airani, which have no Māori equivalent about ourselves.

Interestingly, when I have done our akapapa’anga for our kopu and retrieved my Vouvou and Mama Ruaua and Metua birth certificates, in the box that identifies their race, it simply says Māori. Not Cook Islands Māori, not Kuki Airani, just Māori. If Europeans and registrars could figure it out, then why is it at times confusing for us that we are Māori, or others in the Moana and then make ourselves vulnerable to be reconstituted by them?

From Takitumu and Ahuahu, Tainui to Kurahaupo, Mata Atua to Mataatua, and Paikea to Whangarā and Ngati Kahungunu, there is no ambiguity as to how we are connected to each other and our kinship. Our shared histories, genealogies, Vaka, and arrival and landing places. An ambiguity I am happy to clarify for others, if needed, especially as we navigate a new vitality in our relationships with each other, though I do wonder this:

As realm country members of Aotearoa, and as Tuakana and kin to Māori in Aotearoa, why has this not advanced our people in Aotearoa as a platform to build from and together? Though in the past, Henry Nicholas did, and the people of Ngati Whatua Orakei, setting up shipping and trading routes, and the building of Te Hono ki Rarotonga Marae in Tokomaru Bay, or the recent work of descendant Terry Nicholas and the Murihiku Trust in Invercargill and the South Island with Ngai Tahu.

Have we been asleep as our genealogy waits for us to awaken from that sleep and connect again with those that left our shores, and them back to us, for mutual benefit and prosperity? As governments come and go and politics withdraw the ocean like a spring tide, then flood back again, we must hold onto those things that endure - like each other and our Tuakana-Teina links as Māori to each other.

And at the same time, let us resist the temptation of Vaka built by others that diminish and make small our relationship to and with Māori in Aotearoa or at home for political or social gain. As kura and Vānanga or Wānanga are built in Rarotonga and in Aotearoa in respect to this kinship and Vaka ties, celebrating our reo and commitment to each other, let us not unlash them and tie our vaka to anything that diminishes or does not honour those genealogical ties.

Hawaiki or ‘Avaiki is not just a metaphor – or a place European historians imagined because they couldn’t imagine that our Vaka could have sailed as long and as far as they did to each other and back again. It is a place, about three hours by plane from Auckland Airport, and we call it Tumutevarovaro.