I do so love Papa Jon Tikivanotau Jonassen’s book Pe’e Maori. In it he writes, “Ko te moemoea ma te umuumu,ka ‘akaperepere e ka rave” – To dream and to hope is to plan and to do – Our future needs both vision and action (Peri Mose 1968), writes Thomas Tarurongo Wynne.

As we mark 60 years of self-government in our Avaiki, the Cook Islands, we find ourselves standing in a season of change – where memory meets responsibility, and legacy demands leadership.

We are indebted to the many men and women, then in their twenties who met, who listened, who were engaged and who changed the course of our nation, casting their votes on 1 August, 1965. And alongside them, the children who watched a colonial flag lowered and self-determination rise, are slowly fading into the veil of eternity. With each passing, with each tumatetenga, we farewell not just a generation, but a living archive of what it meant to believe in something bold and untested, something beyond the reef, that we knew was within our reach.

And with them go the korare, the ko, the pare ariki and ei katu – symbols of protection, labour, mana, and service. These were the tools they used to build a nation, and that we continue to build as a nation not only within the reef, but also beyond its shores, with more than 130,000 who point the Vaka to home, to connect and identify with what it means to be a Māori from the vast moana of the Cook Islands.

And yet, this week, as our schools took to the stage at Schools Culture Festival, the drums beat loudly not only for our past but for our future. Watching online, the Uto generation – our young people born in the era of self-governance – there was more than just hope. There was evidence. They are the continued living realisation of the moemoeā, the dreams of those who stood tall in 1965. They are the children of independence, and their voices, their dance, their reo and their creativity signal that the spirit of our people has not just survived, it has thrived and it has evolved, despite so many challenges.

But now they turn to us. To those of us standing today as Tū Oe – navigators in our marae, in our churches, in our ministries, in our ui ariki, in our homes – they are watching. They are waiting. And though now is not the time to hand over the oe, now is the time to teach them how to steer, how to navigate a career, an education, a skill and a country, our vaka, through stormy waters and shifting tides.

Because this new world is not a calm or gentle one. It is digital, global, binary, and increasingly in conflict. Every day brings more complexity, more crisis, more contradiction and more layers of challenge our Metua in 1965 could never have imagined. And yet, it is also in these moments that we are given the rarest of gifts – the chance to lead with courage, with grace, and with unity.

And so we must ask: What kind of Tu Oe or leadership will we demonstrate and give to the Uto generation so they can lead our people also when it is their turn?

We need leaders who serve, not rule. Leaders who listen more than they speak. Leaders who speak to our people, not at them. We need transparency, not secrecy. Humility, not arrogance. We need leaders who engage the village, honour the marae, and make decisions not just for the moment, but for generations to come.

Leadership must start at the top. And if the top is part of the problem, then it must also be part of the solution, it must be removed for our Vaka to hold a course, sure, true and steady. Proverbs guide us where it says, “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.”

Let us not fail this generation by demonstrating power that is toxic, self-serving or simply dishonest. Instead, let us take them out beyond the reef – show them how to read the winds of governance, feel the currents of culture, and steer with the heart of a servant and the resolve of a leader.

Because one day soon, we too will pass into eternity. And when we do, let us leave behind not just dreams and aspirations, but a generation fully equipped to carry them forward – into a future where even the children not yet born will know who they are, where they come from, and how to carry that next generation home again also.