So began the letter written by Hamuera which I found in the archive today. It's a common poetic way of opening a letter written in Maori, but it made me tear up a little because as I looked at the letter - handwritten on stationery bearing the logo of the Springfield, Illinois Lutheran seminary where he wrote it in 1906 - I realised this was the first full piece of writing I've seen by a Te Punga in the Maori language. Two glorious pages of te reo Maori, the language in which my nephew Matiu will be the next to write...
What an amazing day. Letters about and by Hamuera, photos of him and other relatives, descriptions of how he was percived and understood and respected, deeply respected. A black and white photo of a small man preaching in an outdoor pulpit in the midst of a mass of tall trees and with the many hats of listeners - the listening flock - along the bottom of the frame; read around a bit and it turns out this is Hamuera preachng to 1500 people in Tabor at the general Convention of Synod in 1926, the first "coloured man" (as the notes add) to preach to white Lutherans in this part of the world. Tightly sloping handwriting that details the educational achievements of his children over and over again in letters, on the backs of photos, in Christmas cards.
I'm exhausted, exhilirated, full of questions... I'm finding that I am connecting to my Maori inheritance but also my Lutheran inheritance in ways I'd not expected. This morning I wrote about opening cans of worms and this, gentle reader, is what I have done.
Wonderful!!!! Wish I could've shared it with you, like Wellington.
ReplyDelete