AMERICAN REACTS to MAORI DOCUMENTARY | Meeting the Māori people of New Zealand

[00:00:03]Yo, what's good gang? This is The Dope Guy and I am back with another video, big dog. Yo, hope you guys are all doing well out there because I'm doing all right. Here I am spending the block with content for y'all, mail my soul. Today's video we got the Maori documentary meeting the Maori people of New Zealand, man. Shout out to all people in New Zealand, all my Kiwis out there.

[00:00:20]Appreciate y'all for tapping in recommend me great content. You know what I'm saying? Shout out to Lakey Reese. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. I apologize. This is the link The link to the original video will be down in the bio description box below so make sure you tap in and subscribe to them first and foremost. We're going to tap in and learn about the Maori culture, man, of New Zealand. So I know it's going to be a dope video, man. I've been tapped in about New Zealand culture for a while so I can't wait to get into this one. But before we do that, subscribe to The Dope Guy the way to get notifications every time I upload. And follow me here on Snapchat and Instagram right across the bottom screen. So with that being said, I'm not going to hold y'all much longer cuz y'all already know this is going to be big dog. Let's get into it.

[00:00:56]Yes, sirsky.

[00:00:58]Let's get it.

[00:01:02]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Te ao. Te ao. Te ao te ao roa. It's land. It's [music] land. It's land through a long white cloud.

[00:01:44]>> [music] >> Maori come from a place called Hawaiki, our homeland to the northeast of here.

[00:01:51]And it's where our first descendant uh by the name of Kupe came from.

[00:01:55]>> [music] >> When Kupe and his entourage or his his people arrived, they saw [music] this grassy land or hills popping out through what looked like a long white cloud, Aotearoa. So, that's the very first name of [music] New Zealand.

[00:02:15]>> Okay.

[00:02:19]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> We are Linking Your World. That's Dutch for Lianne and Kirsten on Travel.

[00:02:41]>> Okay.

[00:02:42]Okay.

[00:02:42]>> to beautiful destinations and extraordinary cultures.

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[00:02:57]>> Made for travelers AROUND THE >> THE HAKA. [screaming] >> [screaming] [screaming] >> AND IT'S THE HAKA, VERY very traditional uh >> Haka is a dance of a noble people.

[00:03:49]>> Yeah.

[00:03:50]>> Haka is again an identity of Maori.

[00:03:53]>> Maori.

[00:03:54]>> There are many different types of haka.

[00:03:56]There's There's the expressive haka which which displays anger.

[00:04:02]Anger about the subject that we're doing the haka about.

[00:04:06]There's also other haka which talk about the histories of the land, histories of different ancestors, battles of different ancestors.

[00:04:15]And haka haka is an expressive It's an expressive way for Maori to be able to tell their story.

[00:04:23]Tell their story and and let it all out.

[00:04:37]>> [screaming] >> Shout to the All Blacks.

[00:04:42]>> become a brand almost. Before it it only identified to Maori.

[00:04:47]But now it identifies to New Zealand.

[00:04:51]>> [screaming] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Beauty of haka is that you can design it specifically so that it suits you and where you are.

[00:05:20]And through a massive brand like the All Blacks, other teams have picked it up and then, you know, schools and kindergartens. And what they've lead on to is a learning of the language.

[00:05:30]>> Yeah.

[00:05:30]>> One or two words at a time. And now most people would be able to translate the haka word for word. And they might know another haka or their school haka. And that's more learning that goes with it.

[00:05:40]And so, because of the beauty of haka and everybody wanting to be a part of it, I think that has helped to integrate them into New Zealand society.

[00:05:49]>> [music] [music] [singing] [music] >> So, the haka to me, it means a part of my cultural identity.

[00:06:16]>> Yeah.

[00:06:16]>> It is a part of my customs, my traditions, and it was uh an important ceremonial dance that was >> And one thing about the haka, man, man, it brings so many people together. You have people who are who are not even part of the culture who has watched haka performances and has gotten super emotional behind it, man. Uh I don't know, it's just a beautiful thing to watch, man. Shout out to my people in New Zealand, man. Just it's just super dope to watch. I I I learned about haka I think like a year or two ago. And it's always just dope to watch, man. The intensity, the seriousness that the the the people have when it comes to doing this traditional dance, man. It's just it's beautiful.

[00:06:55]>> It was handed down from my ancestors, and we still practice it today.

[00:07:01]>> [screaming] >> Too dope.

[00:07:04]Excuse me, I'm sorry.

[00:07:09]>> This is what I love. I love being able to show my culture off to the world.

[00:07:13]It's the only job in the in the world where you get to poke your tongue out at your customers and get paid for it.

[00:07:20]>> And yet it's a good situation to do it, right?

[00:07:22]>> Very very proud actually to be able to share our culture to the world, and people like yourself embrace it.

[00:07:28]>> Yeah.

[00:07:29]>> Embrace embrace our our culture, and they love it.

[00:07:31]>> Yeah.

[00:07:32]>> And do you think you can do this like your entire life?

[00:07:35]>> I'll keep on doing it as long as I can, as long as I can step my feet and do the haka, I'll keep doing through >> You're going to do it, for sure.

[00:07:41]>> [music] >> Absolutely.

[00:07:46]>> [music] >> This is the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. You see that this most historic place. This is where on the 6th of February, 1840, a treaty document was signed between the Maori people, my ancestors, and the British representatives.

[00:08:06]We were the minority when these brash young European or British sailors were coming in after spending years out of out on sea and they coming in coming into our countries.

[00:08:17]They mistreated our people. They mistreated our women. They mistreated our our children. They murdered our men.

[00:08:23]They murdered our our our kids for no reason.

[00:08:26]No reason whatsoever other than they they had they felt that they had the superiority over over us. We fought to the bitter end.

[00:08:35]And it was because of the vision of our many prophets, our many visionaries that we had pre-1840 that foresaw this happening was the very reason that uh they wanted this treaty document.

[00:08:48]This treaty document came about as a request from Maori so that we were able to move forward as one people, as one nation.

[00:09:04]>> [music] >> I would love to watch this in person, the haka. I would love to see it in person.

[00:09:14]>> [singing] [music] [music] [singing] [singing and music] [music and singing] >> Hau Purakau the it's an identity print of our people.

[00:09:44]>> Mhm.

[00:09:45]>> It tells the history, the genealogies, and the stories of you as an individual who wears the ta moko. In short, it is a tattoo, but it tells your whole story because prior to the pen and paper, our body was the paper.

[00:10:03]The ink was uh the pen.

[00:10:06]>> The reason the old people had moko was to identify who they were. It was to also identify what they did, where their their standing in their tribe was, um status, you know, things like that. And that's what it's still about.

[00:10:20]And it's still about identity. The main part of it is all about identity.

[00:10:25]Now, the client will come in, we'll we'll have a conversation, and from that conversation, and then look into our in our in our mind, because in our mind we have all the designs. Um and then we utilize the right design to get that story sort of understood on the skin.

[00:10:43]We do not um draw the design before the client comes.

[00:10:47]Um for us, it's best that it comes directly after the conversation, because that's when you're at your freshest.

[00:10:53]Um that's what makes it so unique. Um like today, I had an idea in mind, but then as soon as I saw your back, it changed. This [music] moko looks totally different to what I was imagining.

[00:11:04]>> Initially, yeah.

[00:11:08]>> [music] >> Now, days they utilize the the bone chisel. Um the chisel was actually, you know, >> [music] >> tapped on the face to split the skin and cut the skin.

[00:11:17]>> Mhm.

[00:11:17]>> And if you take a look behind me on this photograph here, this is a one of our our Maori kings. His name was um Pa Feo. And if you can see like incisions were made on the skin.

[00:11:28]>> Mhm.

[00:11:29]>> So, you can actually see it was cut.

[00:11:32]Whereas on my face, [music] the lines are like drawn on me.

[00:11:35]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:36]>> But these guys really the hard way.

[00:11:38]>> Yeah.

[00:11:40]>> [music] >> They actually cut their faces.

[00:11:43]Damn.

[00:11:45]>> British wanted Maori [music] to uh seed all of our rights and our sovereignty and ownership over to the British.

[00:11:53]>> [music] >> Henry Williams, who translated the document from English into the native tongue of Te Reo Maori, knew full well that Maori would never ever agree to those terms as set out in the English document.

[00:12:07]He translated it in a way if whereby Maori would understand and whereby Maori would agree to the terms as set out in the Maori document.

[00:12:16]>> Yeah.

[00:12:17]>> From 1840 to today, in fact, it has always been a contentious point of discussion.

[00:12:35]>> [music] >> We arrived here from the Pacific and in the Pacific they practice tatau or tattooing.

[00:12:48]Um so, we would have brought those skills here and then we our designs [music] changed as we arrived here because of our environment.

[00:12:55]>> So, the design of my tattoo is based on my iwi. So, um >> Mhm.

[00:13:00]>> the the awa, so the Whanganui awa, and the design is like the ropes of the tides coming into the tide of the different iwi down the river together.

[00:13:10]>> Beautiful.

[00:13:10]>> Yeah.

[00:13:11]>> So, did you know when you came in here this morning how it would look like?

[00:13:14]>> Not exactly, no. I gave him free free rein to do what he wanted to do. Yeah, I trusted him and his design.

[00:13:22]>> And you're very happy with it.

[00:13:23]>> Yeah, I love it. I love it. Yeah.

[00:13:25]>> That's good. [laughter] >> Yeah.

[00:13:26]>> So, you're you're Maori as well?

[00:13:28]>> Yes.

[00:13:28]>> Are you 100% how does it work here?

[00:13:30]>> Um I'm not sure on percentages, but my [ __ ] papa tells a story, so I >> [ __ ] papa?

[00:13:36]>> Mother is pakeha or English and my father is Maori and through him we go up, so yeah. Um I've got to tell her to put it to her and tell her to hang away up above her knee.

[00:13:49]Anyway.

[00:13:50]>> Okay. Cool. So not everyone can get a tattoo as you have because you're part of the tribe. So it's not Can I get a similar tattoo?

[00:13:58]>> You you can get similar tattoo to my understanding, but it's called [clears throat] kirituhi I think, so it's it's the same sort of design and things, but not with the [ __ ] papa, that's your own your own story. Yeah. [music] >> Yeah.

[00:14:15]>> [music] >> People that are outside of my tribe they'll just see me as a war piece, >> [music] >> but my tribe knows what it means.

[00:14:21]>> They know what it means, yeah.

[00:14:23]>> It's about my guardian.

[00:14:24]>> Like I said, if I seen him on the street, let me honest, if I saw him on the street didn't know anything about Maori, none of that, I would be like, yo, he might don't know what type of way he did or whatever, don't know what type of background he has, you know, it would be something negative, you know what I'm saying? But like you said, people who knows him and and know understands the tribe, they know that's what it means, man. And you know what I'm saying? You can never judge a book by its cover, that's for sure.

[00:14:49]>> Spiritual guardian. Of course we're big believers on that stuff that we have tribal spiritual guardians and that's what my represents.

[00:14:57]>> [music] [music] >> Nature is our everything.

[00:15:12]And when I talk nature, I talk the fenua, the lands, I talk the rakau, the trees, the ngahere, the forests, I talk the moana, I talk everything within the moana. That is our nature. That is our world.

[00:15:25]>> Yeah.

[00:15:25]>> [music] >> Everything has a life force. Everything has a heartbeat to Maori. And we treat it with such respect.

[00:15:35]And that [music] is our cultural upbringing. That is our upbringing and it's a part of our tikanga, our practices of we as Maori uh to be respectful to everything around us.

[00:15:45]>> [music] >> Swimming in our awa or our river um knowing that we're swimming in the ancestral waters that our ancestors also swam in.

[00:15:56]Why do we [music] let spirituality of our ancestor also cleanses us? It cleanses us physically. [music] It cleanses us mentally. And it also cleanses us uh spiritually.

[00:16:06]>> Spiritually.

[00:16:07]>> Yeah.

[00:16:11]Te reo was the language simply translated.

[00:16:13]>> [music] >> It's the language of our people.

[00:16:16]If our language dies, our people die.

[00:16:19]Our culture dies.

[00:16:21]>> Without language, we don't have an identity, I believe. [music] You know, everybody has an identity as a kiwi with their language.

[00:16:29]Because that's what we're known for apart from haka.

[00:16:32]But as Maori within our own country, we need that.

[00:16:34]>> Mhm.

[00:16:36]>> [music] >> Te reo goes way back to Hawaiki.

[00:16:40]Te reo was kept alive through the traditional types of songs that we [music] sang, haka.

[00:16:46]Um uh we told our stories and histories and genealogies through our whare kōrero, through our carvings, and our meeting houses.

[00:16:54]And so that's how we we communicated with one another.

[00:16:58]>> Uh it was our missionary brothers and sisters that came over, you know, from Great Britain, from Europe, and started to record the language on paper. Through the diligence of people like Williams and uh other dictionary writers, hopefully with the help of of Maori that they recorded as many words as they could and that's how it became a a written language.

[00:17:17]>> And they use the alphabet of the English language to write the Maori language.

[00:17:22]>> That's correct, yes.

[00:17:30]My grandparents were a part of that forbidden generation uh that weren't allowed to speak speak the language. And that came down to ignorance from the non-Maori that were around at the time who felt that uh felt threatened by the language because they couldn't understand what our people were saying.

[00:17:49]They tried to outlaw, in fact they did.

[00:17:51]They passed a law that um forbid Maori to speak their native tongue.

[00:17:58]And if they did speak their native tongue, they were stripped for speaking the language.

[00:18:02]Because of that ignorance, it caused the whole language to miss an entire generation, which was my parents' generation.

[00:18:11]But in the past, you know, I'd say past 20 years, a lot of work has been done to revive >> Damn.

[00:18:17]>> that uh we've got universities >> [music] >> now providing Maori language >> That's dope.

[00:18:22]>> courses to help with the revival of the language.

[00:18:26]>> That's super [music] dope, for real.

[00:18:28]>> Things Maori were pushed down then, now they're re-emerging, but they're re-emerging [music] with not only help, they're re-emerging with funding, and they're re-emerging with love because our politicians can look back and say, "Okay, that was wrong.

[00:18:42]We can't fix it from then, but what can we do for now >> Mhm.

[00:18:45]>> to help and enhance this person's educational experience >> [music] >> and to help them get on their way and to learn what they need to learn."

[00:18:53]>> Yeah.

[00:18:54]>> You know, the acceptance of Te Reo Maori um is is starting to broaden, starting to widen around our country, and that's very very encouraging, I think.

[00:19:01]>> It's good to hear that.

[00:19:04]>> [music] >> Dope, bro.

[00:19:14]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> We'll see you. Only thing we have is you want to get an official tattoo.

[00:19:42]Okay.

[00:19:50]That's [music] dope, man.

[00:19:56]Oh, man. That's dope to see, man. Just learning more about the the Maori culture, you know what I'm saying? The haka, all that good stuff. It's just super dope to learn and know and be tapped in with, >> [music] >> you know what I mean? And hopefully, you know, the generation that's coming up, man, you know, who are from this culture will be able will love to you know, learn more in depth about, you know, their background, their history, you know what I'm saying? Their people, the culture, all that great stuff, man.

[00:20:23]Just super dope, man. Haka The haka I would love to watch that in person. I bet it'd be so dope and highly emotional to just [music] just tap in and just, you know, learn about the, you know, the complete history and just see it for yourself [music] in person, man. So, shout out to all my people in New Zealand. Much love and respect. Leki on on Leki Opetaia Sione. Shout out to them.

[00:20:44]The link to the original video, once again, will be down in my description box below. So, make sure you tap in and subscribe to them. Shout out to all my people in New Zealand. You know, I rock with y'all heavy. [music] Definitely come out there and tap in. I got a passport, man. I need to start visiting some of these places that I've been tapped in with, man. I really need to go to, man. I need to need to visit, just get in touch with the people, man.

[00:21:01]Just vibe out, man. So, shout out to all y'all out there who be showing me love.

[00:21:05]We're almost at 50,000 subscribers, man.

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[00:21:42]>> [music]