Tena koutou katoa

Ko Takarunga te maunga ahau

Ko Waitemata te moana ahau

Ko Pakiri te awa ahau

Ko Oriana te waka ahau

Ko Oruamo te kainga ahau

Ko Ngati Pakeha te iwi ahau

Ko Gray te hapu ahau

Ko Fran Francis ahau

Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa

Greetings to you all

Takarunga is the mountain that is special to me

The harbour of “Sparkling Waters” is the sea that surrounds me

The Pakiri river is a source of life to me

Oriana is the vessel which brought me here

Oruamo/Beach Haven is where I live

I am from the tribe of Europeans

My people are the Gray family

I am Fran Francis

Greetings to you all, three times over.

Introductions in Aotearoa New Zealand if you are of Maori (indigenous) ancestry follow this distinct pattern, and I should emphasize, are much more nuanced, complex and beautiful than I can manage. I confess to being horribly jealous of those Maori adults and children who can recite their “whakapapa” or genealogical story back to the ocean-going canoe(waka) in which their ancestors arrived.  These are people with a strong sense of what John O’Donoghue called “whereness.”