When doing a mihi – a short introduction or greeting – it is important to identify who you are, where you are from and who your descendants are. This is the first process of whakawhanaungatanga:
Whaka-whanau-nga-tanga; To make connections to others via familiar association.
Who you are, is associated with who you belong to. The reason being, is that your audience is trying to connect to you from a wider perspective. If they don’t know you, they may know of your family, or the community you grew up in. In this way, you become a member of their collective, allowing any further discussion to become more personalised and intimate.
An example for a person of English descent introducing themself in this manner could be:
Ko English te iwi
Ko Ngāti Sussex te hapū
Ko Jim Morrison ahau
I am from the bones or descent lines of English people (England)
From the principle family lines of Sussex
My name is Jim Morrison (I am Jim Morrison).
Iwi describes the kinship to and from a single ancestor or literally from their bones (iwi=bones).
Hapū describes descent from a clan, cluster of families who belong to an iwi. Usually the clan or cluster identified is from the senior line of those families.
Whaka-whanau-nga-tanga; To make connections to others via familiar association.
Who you are, is associated with who you belong to. The reason being, is that your audience is trying to connect to you from a wider perspective. If they don’t know you, they may know of your family, or the community you grew up in. In this way, you become a member of their collective, allowing any further discussion to become more personalised and intimate.
An example for a person of English descent introducing themself in this manner could be:
Ko English te iwi
Ko Ngāti Sussex te hapū
Ko Jim Morrison ahau
I am from the bones or descent lines of English people (England)
From the principle family lines of Sussex
My name is Jim Morrison (I am Jim Morrison).
Iwi describes the kinship to and from a single ancestor or literally from their bones (iwi=bones).
Hapū describes descent from a clan, cluster of families who belong to an iwi. Usually the clan or cluster identified is from the senior line of those families.
In the following clip, the speaker gives a 'extended' version of a mihi. He firstly states who his parents are (matua is father, whaea is mother) and then he introduces his mountain (maunga), his river (awa), his hapū, his iwi, his waka (the canoe - ship his iwi arrived in NZ upon) and the chief or senior descent lineage of each parent.
