traditional knowledge conference 2008 te tatau pounamu

parents for a while and then said with absolute confidence, “Well that’s all right. You can be the boss inthis house because I’m the boss over in koro’s house.”For me, the use of our knowledge to find balanced relationships is a way to re-establish a newnotion of being the boss. In the end, if we are to serve our people in a way that best finally redresses thewrong of colonization, then we need to find the wit and the wisdom and indeed the bravery to worktowards what is sometimes called a process of constitutional change. But I become increasinglyuncomfortable with that phrase because Pākehā people are now talking about it. But, when they talkabout constitutional change, what they mean is taking their imposed system and working out how toreform it. What I think dealing with colonization requires is a de-constitution of the existing socialpolitical structures that colonization established and the re-constitution of Māori ways of decisionmaking; and those Māori ways of decision making come from our intellectual tradition. In the end, asystem of government takes its legitimacy ultimately from the land in which it is nurtured. TheWestminster system was imposed here from somewhere else. It grew, obviously, in Westminster, fromthe land of England. If we are to have balanced relationships maintained through a new notion of powerthen that, I believe, means a reconstitution of the way that we see the world, to be brave enough to grabthe limitlessness of our knowledge to create another reality.When I looked through the contributions that you will be making over the next few days I sawmuch bravery, much wit and much wisdom. May we together work on that journey from potential toinfinity!Glossaryhapūhīkoiiwikaikapa hakakaumātuaKaupapa MāoriketekinokohangakuramanuhurimaraematemokopunaPākehāpaparohetangata whenuatānikotaura heretautokotikatikangatīmatangatūrangawaewaewaiatawakawhakapapawhakatikawhāngaiwhānauwhanaungaclanpath, walktribe, peoplefoodcultural performance groupselderstheory based on Māori philosophybasketbadMāori language preschoolschoolvisitorsMāori meeting grounds, “village”deathgrandchildNew Zealanders of European descentfoundationdistrictpeople of the landfine weavingpeople who have come to live in an area from somewhere elsesupport, agreeingcorrect, rightcustom, customary proceduresbeginninghome placesongscanoe, vesselgeneaologymake rightadoptedextended familyrelatives33