Queen Elizabeth II with Prince Philip on the front steps of the Cambridge Town Hall, 1953. Photo: Cambridge Museum
Early last Friday, the world received the news that Queen Elizabeth II had passed away. This week also we celebrate Māori Language Week, 50 years after the petition for te reo Māori was deliverd to parliament. Notably at the University of Waikato graduation ceremonies last Friday the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor acknowledged the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, and also celebrated the capping of graduands using te reo Māori – probably a first for a university.
This is a farewell to the very first reigning monarch of a colonising nation to apologise in person and to sign an apology in her very own hand to a people who suffered (and for too many continue to suffer) the adverse effects of the colonisation and the invasive practices of her predecessors.
This ‘poroporoaki’ celebrates and mourns her great strength of character, her wisdom, her true nobility. It greets warmly her successor King Charles III, and shares his sadness at the loss of the head of his family, and of the family of the Commonwealth of Nations worldwide
Tēnei te pō! Tēnei te pō! Tēnei te pō!
Te pō i pēpeke; whakaahei a Tāne – miroi e Tāne –
Whakangaro atu ki a Papatūānuku !
Kuīni Irihāpeti II
Kuīni o Piritānia Nui Tonu
Kuīni o ngā whenua huhua huri noa te ao
Kuīni o Niu Tīreni –
Haere!
Haere ki te karapinepinetanga o ngō mātua tupuna e moe nei i te whenua;. Ki tō hoa tāne, ki te tini o iwi, te mano o tangata kei tua o Moriānuku e whanga nā ki a koe.
Ki te Pō-uriuri; Pō-tangotango; Pō-tiwhatiwha!
Ki te wahangūtanga kei te korekore!
Ka whatia iho ai te kuru o te marama – Taukei raro rā!
Kei Te Kīngi, Kīngi Taare Te Tuatoru –
E ara! Whakatika mai!
Tangihia tō whaereere, te kōkā o ngā iwi huhua puta noa te ao; heoi anō.
Ko tōna kaihanga kua mea mai ki a ia kua nui tērā mōna, kua riro i a ia kia whakatā ki raro o ngōna parirau. Kei runga kei tō Whare Kāhui
Ariki, heoti rā te Kīngi Māori Tuheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero VII me tōna nei Whare Ariki, te toimaha o ngō kōrua Kīngitanga.
Haere mai e te tau 50 o te Petihana Reo Māori, me ngā whakanuitanga i tō tau 50, hei aha koa te tangihanga, te mōteatea, o te whatumanawa ki a Kuīni Irihāpetia II, he karamihi o te ngākau ki a Kingi Tiāre III, kia tau iho ngā manaakitanga a Te Wāhi Ngaro ki runga ki a koutou tatou katoa, huri noa – Paimārire.
