Jordyn with a Why (Tainui Āwhiro) grew up in South Auckland immersed in her Samoan culture. It wasn’t until high school, when her Dad suggested she take Te reo Māori instead of French, that a door opened into her cultural identity. Now her days are spent teaching full immersion Te reo Māori at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa while raising her sons with Māori as their first language. Her debut album Hibiscus Moon Love and Justice is written in rua reo (both Māori and English), and blends R&B, neo-soul, and pop to speak to the experience of being an urban Māori. In this episode, Jordyn takes Jen for a feed at Denny’s – a South Auckland mainstay – and shares how Te Reo Māori has changed the direction of her life and music.

Find out more about Jordyn with a Why:
https://www.instagram.com/jordynwitha_why/?hl=en

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Narration: Jen: Everybody’s trying to find their way home.

[00:00:23] Narration: Jen: Welcome to Everybody’s Trying To Find Their Way Home. This podcast is all about conversations with Māori and First Nations songwriters who write and perform in their languages.

[00:00:40] Narration: Jen: Tonight, I’m in Tāmaki Makaurau, downtown Auckland. I’m at a fundraiser gig for Te Puna Reo o Ritimana, a total immersion early childhood center in Ponsonby, that opened in 1985. For more than 50 years, the Kōhanga Reo movement has focused on creating spaces where our [00:01:00] babies can grow up hearing and speaking Te Reo Māori. It’s a movement that’s been led by our communities across Aotearoa, and tonight is a great example of that.

[00:01:10] Narration: Jen: The room is full of whanau - parents, aunties, uncles and nannies who are here to support Ritimana. And there’s big names on the bill, like the MC for the evening Moana Maniapoto. She’s the host of ‘Te Ao with Moana’, a weekly current affairs TV program. And she’s one of  Aotearoa’s best loved songwriters and performers. But I’m here tonight for Jordyn With A Why.

[00:01:35] Narration: Jen: Jordyn’s a rising star, and she’s just released her debut album, ‘Hibiscus Moon, Love & Justice’. You can feel the excitement in the room.

[00:01:47] Moana: Beautiful music, beautiful songs. You know, it’s such a pleasure to come out here and hear great musicians. Very nice. And, and I was just having a kōrero, um, [00:02:00] with Mohi that some of you may not realize the influence that Māori have on the world. Because we have visionaries, disruptors, and transformers who have made a difference.

[00:02:19] Moana: And I just want to say that, I will tell you one story that makes that land home. So many years ago, my band and I played in a little place called Inari, which is in northern Finland, about 300 kilometers inside the Arctic Circle. To say it was bloody cold was an understatement. We’re talking reindeers here, people.

[00:02:45] Moana: So we went up there and, and, um, my husband and I, who were screening a documentary at the same time, we thought, ‘We’re gonna be the first Māori that anybody’s ever heard of’. You get a little bit of a buzz from that, right? So we [00:03:00] land there and this lady comes up to us and she says, ‘Hello, are you the mayor from New Zealand?’

[00:03:09] Moana: I said, ‘What gave it away?’ And she said, ‘Do you know Tīmoti Kāretu?’ I went, what the hell? She says, ‘Do you wanna come to Kōhanga Reo?’ I’m like, are you kidding me? She wasn’t. She took me to a Kōhanga Reo in a tiny village inside the Arctic Circle. And they told me that they were inspired by a Kōhanga Reo here in  Aotearoa, and that’s the way that they helped revive a language that was only known to about 50 people in their village.

[00:03:45] Moana: And then many years later, my son and I went back to Inari. And we met a hip hop artist, a rapper, and he was the only rapper in the entire world performing in his [00:04:00] Inari Reo. And that’s because of us. That’s because of the visionaries in us. So I want to shout out to all our kaiako, that you are making a difference.

[00:04:15] Moana: So homai te pakipaki

[00:04:23] Moana: We’re all part of a movement, and times are tough now. So we gotta get real, and we gotta get tough, we gotta toughen up, we gotta get hard, okay? We’re part of a movement. Your role is to be a disruptor. Your role is to continue the movement. No time for shrinking violets, okay? We’re on the line. You gotta decide which side of the line you’re on.

[00:04:47] Moana: So to complete our night, and to pay tribute to our wonderful Ritimana Puna Reo, we’re going to bring on our final artist of tonight, Jordyn With A Why. Tainui [00:05:00] Āwhiro Whaingaroa and Samoa. Now that’s a mix. Chuck in a bit of South Auckland vibes, has got it all going on. Another finalist at the APRA Silver Scrolls. So please everybody, enjoy yourself. Put your hands together for our wonderful musicians, and for Jordyn With A Why. Kia ora.

[00:05:39] Jordyn: Kia ora e te iwi. We are gonna have a great time. Alright, we’re gonna sing about being brown, alright?

[00:05:53] Jordyn: Golden lights are dancing on my skin.

[00:05:56] Jordyn: Making love to [00:06:00] melanin.

[00:06:01] Jordyn: In the early hours.

[00:06:03] Jordyn: When the dew is kissing.

[00:06:05] Jordyn: Dawn was breaking.

[00:06:09] Jordyn: It’s our morning song.

[00:06:12] Jordyn: Yeah you can get a little swing.

[00:06:20] Jordyn: Melodies from deities singing along.

[00:06:22] Jordyn: Singing along.

[00:06:23] Jordyn: Our morning song.

[00:06:26] Music: Melodies from deities singing.

[00:06:29] Music: Rivers are bathing me.

[00:06:30] Music: Streams hydrating me.

[00:06:32] Music: Oceans are flavouring.

[00:06:33] Music: Salting my hair to my feet.

[00:06:37] Jordyn: Yeah, so we’re, we’re in Ōtara. This is a nostalgia, like this is so nostalgic as we’re driving down the streets. State houses, all these flats that have been here for so long, and a lot of these houses are still within the families that have lived here for a long, long, long time, for many, many years. When they kind of tried to carve out this as a [00:07:00] suburb, they always planned this to be the poor area they, planned it for, um, lower socioeconomic families and you know, while they were gentrifying central Auckland, this is where they were trying to send everyone to. But like you see in windows, some of people’s curtains are like Rs. Some um, some people have their curtains as like Tino Rangatiratanga flags. But yeah, this is where I grew up.

[00:07:27] Jen: Did you film the video clip around these parts? For ‘Brown Melodies’?

[00:07:31] Jordyn: Oh yeah. Right outside my Nana’s house.

[00:07:33] Jen: Oh my God.

[00:07:34] Jordyn: Yeah.

[00:07:34] Jen: Too good.

[00:07:36] Jen: Yeah, I’d like to create a whole project dedicated to this street, just while it’s still fresh in my memory.

[00:07:45] Narration: Jen: The next morning, Jordyn drives us around South Auckland. She grew up around here and it’s a bit of a nostalgia trip. So of course we swing by Denny’s, Manukau..

[00:07:55] Narration: Jen: If you don’t know it, it’s one of those places that truly exists for the locals. [00:08:00] It’s open 24 hours, and it’s more about the hang, than the food. As we sit down excited, kids are grinning through birthday parties. The staff are bickering in the kitchen, and families are starting to stream in from the church across the road.

[00:08:16] Jordyn: It’s exactly as I expected.

[00:08:18] Jen: Yeah.

[00:08:19] Jordyn: I could 100% make this at home better.

[00:08:21] Jen: Yeah.

[00:08:22] Jordyn: But the fact that someone else made it for me.

[00:08:24] Jen: Right.

[00:08:24] Jordyn: Just fits. I think it’s like the overly buttered bread, because I love butter so much. Like I’m, I’ve got an unhealthy obsession with butter. The cheese, and then I think that’s tartar sauce.

[00:08:37] Jen: Wow.

[00:08:38] Jordyn: That they put in there with the chicken melt, which is, seems like an odd choice. But for some reason it all works.

[00:08:47] Jen: The sticky day pudding. Have you tried it?

[00:08:50] Jordyn: I’ve had, what have I had? The fried something?

[00:08:53] Jen: Yeah.

[00:08:54] Jordyn: Like a fried ice cream, which is all good. Yeah. Another ant, woohoo.

[00:08:59] Jen: Ants just pulling [00:09:00] across the menu.

[00:09:03] Narration: Jen: At last night’s show, Jordyn mentioned that Te Reo Māori has changed her life. I’m just starting, so I really wanna know how.

[00:09:11] Jordyn: Before I started learning Te Reo Māori, I mean I’ve always been a songwriter, but um, I often would have big creative blocks. ‘Cause I think when you’re trying to write music, especially trying to write songs, it has to come from a really honest place of who you are.

[00:09:30] Jordyn: And so not knowing that, really I think, stumped my capacity for songwriting. As soon as I started learning, it was like so many moments of inspiration because you are relearning how to look at your environment. ‘Cause this is, this is actual Aotearoa now, you know, it’s like you get the glaze taken off your eyes, and you’re seeing Aotearoa for the first time. You’re seeing your Atua for the first time, who have always seen you. Like, it’s really, [00:10:00] it’s actually really profound to have grown up in this space in Aotearoa, but never really see it.

[00:10:07] Jordyn: And so many people exist in this country and they’ve never seen it. Do you know what I mean? They’re like, people will live their entire lives, live and die here, be buried here, but have never seen it. Not for real. Like not, not as it’s supposed to be. And so when I started that haerenga in 2019, my Tane and I were in a full immersion situation. Since then, like my whole life is, any job that I’ve gotten is ‘cause I speak Māori. This is something we decided to do, not for any qualification, not for any of that, but just for our own selves. And any work that I’ve gotten, any, basically any income that I get is because of my speaking Te Reo Māori. So it’s like completely transformed my life.

[00:10:57] Jordyn: I’d be stuck in some nine to five, [00:11:00] probably on antidepressants and Ritalin at this point. But I’ve been able to build a whole lifestyle that, that allows my brain to be my brain. Do you know what I mean? Like, and it rolls with the highs and the lows of how my brain functions. And really that’s just ‘cause of Te Reo Māori.

[00:11:17] Jordyn: So career-wise, it’s completely transformed us. In my own family, we speak Te Te Reo Māori at home. My boys grow up speaking to Māori. I never, ever had that when I was growing up. And it’s just so normal they don’t even bat an eyelid. And it’s connected us with this much larger community of people who are also on the reclamation haerenga, who want the best Te Reo Māori. And these people are absolute experts. Like they’re just beautiful, excellent experts in Te Reo Māori, but also experts at songwriting, experts at running Wānanga, experts at pulling people together, experts at being able to inspire other people to join the  [00:12:00] haerenga. So I feel like it’s really, Te Reo Māori’s connected me with other excellent people, that inspires my own desire to be excellent.

[00:12:10] Narration: Jen: Jordyn’s dad was the one who really encouraged her to learn Te Reo Māori.

[00:12:14] Jordyn: Yeah, well, my dad was adopted. Yeah, when he was a baby. So he didn’t really grow up knowing his birth Whānau, or his Whānau from Whaingaroa. That was kind of a reconnecting journey, uh, that he did in his twenties.

[00:12:30] Jordyn: And so reclaiming started for me, well, really started in high school. I wanted to learn French. You got to choose between learning French or Te Reo Māori. And I wanted to go and be with my other friends in the French class, but my dad was like, nah, like you’re gonna learn Te Reo Māori. But it was the best thing he could have ever done for me.

[00:12:45] Jordyn: The best thing that he did, I think was really teaching me to love my Māori self. Like teaching me that, that’s a beautiful thing sticking with Te Reo Māori, that that’s gonna be a superpower. You know, that, that’s gonna be your point of [00:13:00] difference. It’s gonna be worthwhile ‘cause it’s identity. And, you know, for a lot of reclaimers who beat themselves up for not being able to learn the language or it’s not sticking, I think sometimes we forget that it’s definitely an intergenerational reclamation haerenga. It’s not you by yourself. And so my dad, he, he does, he knows a lot of Te Reo Māori, but sometimes he’ll struggle to pull up sentences off the top of his head. And yet he’s got these kids who speak Māori, and he’s got grandchildren who speak Māori. And that is because of him. It’s ‘cause he taught us to love our Māori selves.

[00:13:41] Narration: Jen: Things are starting to get noisy at Denny’s, so we head out to the carpark to talk some more. Hearing Jordyn speak about her dad reminds me to be more patient with myself. What we acquire, and what stays with us, isn’t something we get to [00:14:00] control. Or to put it even more simply, we all start from somewhere different. Even if Jordyn’s papa still struggles with Te Reo - his love for being Māori? That flows through to his Mokopuna. Their days begin and end with Te Reo Māori.

[00:14:17] Jordyn: I just think about like my son, the way that when people mispronounce his name, Toa, he genuinely, he just like laughs. He’s like, ‘It’s Toa’. You know, and he, to him it’s funny that someone- ‘What do you mean you can’t say, yes you can’. And then he, he’ll get them, and I’ve seen him do this to my white neighbors, who if I had said something like that, they definitely are not gonna give it a go. But because it’s a 7-year-old and he is just so beautifully innocent, they’re giving it a go and they say his name properly. They get corrected. So it’s powerful, you know, to see how much impact our children have just because they’re immersed in their identity. [00:15:00]

[00:15:00] Jen: You said something the other night at the show, which was just words of encouragement. Just acknowledging that everyone’s gonna be at different places in their, in their learning journey. And, um, to be gentle and, and not too hard on yourself, because it can be like one step forward, two steps back. Like what, what have been, been the struggles for you with, with learning? Have there been moments that you remember where you’re like, ‘ah’.

[00:15:27] Jordyn: Yeah, I can always tell, like, I, I really notice my very urban self when I am conversing with people who have grown up speaking Māori, you know. The, their Whakaaro, the way that they think. I, I, it just really highlights to me how shaped I am by the city, how shaped I am by South Auckland, how shaped my thoughts are just from having my, my upbringing.

[00:15:54] Jordyn: And I, I used to really struggle with it. I think the way that I would beat myself up about it was like, you’re not [00:16:00] really thinking Māori. Do you know what I mean? Like, ‘Oh, now you’re speaking Māori, but you don’t really think Māori’. And that’s the level that you’ve gotta get to. And I think I’ve been able to make peace with the fact that I’m an urban Māori. Do you know what I mean? I am Māori who’s grown up in the town because of the same story as everyone else. You know, this is where we had to be to work and make a living. Uh, and my story is that I was disconnected from home, but I’m back. I think we can just be really unkind to our own selves sometimes, and I’ve, I think maybe in the last year I’ve just been able to settle in. Even as a songwriter, just be like, I’m not a Mātanga Reo, like, I’m not an expert. I’m literally a learner. So how cool is it that like if you wanted to get into writing Waiata Reo Māori, you don’t have to be an expert. And I also love the idea of seeing the development of my real journey through my music. Like it’s not a weakness to not be good or an expert at something. Like [00:17:00] it doesn’t make you useless.

[00:17:09] Narration: Jen: In the last season of this podcast, I spoke with Waikato-Tainui songwriter and performer Theia, about her Reo Māori project ‘TE KAAHU’. I really loved our road trip together, and I highly recommend you go back and listen. It was through our Kōrero that I learned more about the Kīngitanga, or Māori King Movement, which goes all the way back to 1858.

[00:17:33] Narration: Jen: The Movement came together to unite Iwi Māori, to stop the sale of land to pākehā, and to preserve Māori culture in the face of colonization.

[00:17:45] Narration: Jen: On the 30th of August last year, 2024, Kiingi Tūheitia passed away. He was the seventh monarch in the line of Māori Sovereigns. And he was 69 years old when he died.

[00:17:57] Kiingi Tūheitia: When we travel overseas, we are [00:18:00] respected and we are valued. But at home, things feel a bit different.

[00:18:08] Narration: Jen: His death coincided with great upheaval for our people. Arriving at a time when the right wing government was slashing funding for Māori health, housing, governance, and education.

[00:18:19] Jordyn: I was there on the Rā Nehu for Kiingi Tūheitia, and obviously the coronation of our new Queenie. And it was like, like the hope was so tangible. I’m walking down and, you know, there’s the looming, uh, bill that’s just passed that is making gang patches illegal. I’m walking down the street, there’s every gang under the sun, and they’re just all existing underneath Kotahitanga. And we’re turning up for this moment. And it was like, there was hope in the air. There was excitement. There was grief for our Kiingi, but there was also this incredible excitement for [00:19:00] where we are heading.

[00:19:02] Jordyn: And, um, it’s that generation, hey? They’re just leading us. The Kōhanga Reo generation.

[00:19:14] Narration: Jen: As Māori mourned  Kiingi Tūheitia, his week-long Tangihanga made headlines around the world. There was a no-fly zone over Taupiri Mountain. And his river, the Waikato, was closed during the ceremony.

[00:19:30] Narration: Jen: I remember watching from Naarm, and feeling the significance of  Kotahitanga, of unity among Māori. It built this collective spirit for one of the largest protests in Aotearoa’s history.

[00:19:47] Narration: Jen: Two and a half months later, hundreds of people gathered in Cape Reinga at dawn to mark the beginning of Te Hīkoi mō te Tiriti. It was a protest march that would travel over a thousand [00:20:00] kilometers, from the top of the North Island, all the way down to Parliament House in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. Over nine days, record numbers turned up, with an estimated 7,000 people making the bridge sway as they crossed over Auckland Harbor. In Wellington, 60,000 gathered at Parliament House to deliver a petition of 300,000 signatures.

[00:20:30] Narration: Jen: The Hīkoi was our way of opposing the Treaty Principles Bill, which would undo the fundamental principle of partnership between Māori and the Crown. For those who don’t know it, Te Tiriti o Waitangi is New Zealand’s founding document. In 1840, it was signed by more than 500 Māori Rangatira.

[00:20:49] Jordyn: It’s actually so unintelligent. That’s the most infuriating thing, is when you put unintelligent people in power who just do not [00:21:00] have the expertise, or the desire to learn. It’s such a dangerous mix. It’s actually dangerous. You know, it’s dangerous for our babies. And I have, you have to think so personally about it. I know like a lot of people really struggle to talk politics. But everything is political. Everything is personal. You know, every decision that they make from that beehive is directly going to impact my son. And so I always think as a mum, and I think about the Aotearoa that I want to raise my kids in, and it’s not the one that they’re trying to create.

[00:21:35] Music: The days would bring us close.

[00:21:39] Music: Now they separate me from the last time I saw you.

[00:21:47] Music: And I double take sometimes echoes of you.

[00:21:54] Narration: Jen: As a songwriter, Jordyn is smart, funny, and interested in the world [00:22:00] around her.

[00:22:00] Music: I still feel the same.

[00:22:01] Narration: Jen: What I admire most is that she’s not afraid to have an opinion. The album is soulful and sweet, but it’s a Trojan horse.

[00:22:09] Narration: Jen: Jordyn knows how to lure you in with a dreamy melody, while landing a brutal swipe at the government. And a great example of that is found in ‘THE SOVEREIGN’.

[00:22:18] Jordyn: Yeah, ‘We are The Sovereign’. It’s just Kōrero that emerges a lot from um, Moana Jackson’s Mahi. And to me feels like a really powerful reminder that we are, we are The Sovereign on this Whenua. That there was never a ceding of sovereignty in our Tiriti. There was never a giving away of our own - I mean, for lack of a better word - power, or our own Mana. Like there was never a ceding of that. And I think that’s such a powerful statement, ‘We are The Sovereign’.[00:23:00]

[00:23:00] Jen: What’s that line?

[00:23:01] Jordyn: Porohewa means bald head parliament.

[00:23:10] Music: …Our history in schools…redefine treaty principles.

[00:23:16] Jordyn: Hope is honestly like, she’s such a genius when it comes to vocal arrangements. So I had that hook idea, and then she was just like, it would sound really cool to have some B.V’s in the background.

[00:23:27] Jen: Cool.

[00:23:27] Jordyn: So we work really well together ‘cause she’ll come up with these really cool vocal lines. And I’ll just add the Kupu, but in the background, she’s singing kaikiri, kaihewa, kaipuku, kawana which means racist, um, bald-haired, greedy government.

[00:23:49] Jordyn: Which means like we will never give up, we will never be overcome, we will never be overwhelmed. That’s happening all in the background as we are singing, ‘We are The Sovereign’.[00:24:00]

[00:24:07] Music: Fighting for a reason, streets uneasy…Helicopters chopping up the articles for next week’s headlines. While we’re shouting ceasefire. I’m just trying to read between the times and it’s blurred signs… Smoke screens, six cars, dark clouds, rough nights, sipping tea, drinking wine, gas bagging in the moonlight, therapy bills while..Trying to heal that inner child…

[00:24:35] Jen: I love that run.

[00:24:36] Jordyn: Yeah.

[00:24:36] Jen: Really sums up modern life.

[00:24:38] Jordyn: Yeah. I think I’m just trying to capture what the average life looks like. It’s so centered around the dollars and cents. And that’s the way that these structures and, societal structures are, are made. There’s so many fake things about it. So we like exist in the rat race, and we’re also trying to [00:25:00] just heal ourselves. And we are also just trying to have some fun and like chill out, but we’re also trying to be accountable. And, and we’re also trying to like, we’re just doing all of these things in the systems and cycles of nonsense and dollar signs. And I think a lot of people feel like they do a lot and it’s not landing anywhere. Do you know what I mean? But it’s ‘cause these systems were not made for our thriving. They were made for, you know, the top 1%’s thriving. So I was just trying to capture that energy.

[00:25:39] Jordyn: People just love money, but it’s just so ugly to the point where you can get away with genocide in front of the whole world, in front of the entire world, and still lie to yourself and say, oh, you know, it’s supposed to be what’s happening, that it’s right, or that it can be justified. I think it’s disgusting.

[00:25:59] Jordyn: To [00:26:00] be really frank, I just have not really been schooled on Palestine. I just didn’t really know much at all about what was happening. And so a lot of this year for me has been learning about that, and trying not to turn away from horrific atrocities. And like, I’m just seeing pictures, I’m not even having to see it in real life, or experience it, or smell it, or hear it.

[00:26:22] Jordyn: It’s an odd thing to be witnessing a literal genocide on my phone. And to then hear so many excuses. It’s very powerless too, ‘cause you’ll, you know, what do we do? It can feel like nothing’s helping, but I’m sure it is. Like, it’s just good to keep talking about it. Good to keep bringing awareness to what’s happening, but it does feel very powerless. Like imagine how Palestinians feel. Mm-hmm.

[00:26:57] Jen: I feel crazy because [00:27:00] there is a part of me that is coming home to fucking fight.

[00:27:03] Jordyn: Yes.

[00:27:03] Jen: And I’ll die in the trenches.

[00:27:06] Jordyn: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:06] Jen: If I have to.

[00:27:06] Jordyn: Yeah. Straight up.

[00:27:07] Jen: Right.

[00:27:08] Jordyn: That’s literally the movement though. It is that serious, and it is that personal. I think powers that be try and, uh, make us depersonalise what colonization does. Try and make it seem like it doesn’t actually directly affect you. But it is the reason that we did not grow up speaking Te Reo Māori. It is 100% the reason that I didn’t grow up connected to my Marae. That is the direct result of colonization. It is part of the fight. It’s the war. These are the battles that we go into, of reclaiming. And I love celebration and I love joy, but I fucking also love to fight. We can go some rounds, you know, like why not? There’s seasons for all of it. There’s, there’s moments and times and places where joy is the right thing, and there’s also times when anger needs to lead us. Like we don’t have to be [00:28:00] afraid of anger. We can channel it and we can direct it so that it’s got some good outcomes. It doesn’t have to grow rotten inside of you. There’s good use and they try to make us afraid of our anger. I think when you can learn some tools about regulating yourself and learning how to channel it well, it can be a really good resource for us.

[00:28:21] Music: Toitū te Tiriti.

[00:28:28] Jen: For people who may not have heard that statement before, ‘Toitū te Tiriti’.

[00:28:34] Jordyn: Yeah.

[00:28:35] Jen: What’s your understanding of it? What does it mean for you?

[00:28:38] Jordyn: Yeah, it’s like a, um, Toitū is kind of like to remain steadfast, or to just remain long standing of te Tiriti o Waitangi, which is really the agreement that allows settlers in this Whenua. You know, and it comes with a, a list of recommendations of how [00:29:00] to be here with us.

[00:29:02] Jordyn: It’s a statement that just holds fast to that founding document of what we now know as, as Aotearoa. Also just having a, an activist statement, Toitū te Tiriti, in a jam that’s really like chill to me. I love the juxtaposition of it, like, it’s just fun. So it’s, um, starts off with a little whakatauki ‘Kahikatea tu i te uru’ which is like the, um, Kahikatea tree. The root systems are so well embedded in the Whenua that, you know, whakatauki just emerge from the taio. And so when your roots are well embedded in the Whenua, then as a collective you’re not overwhelmed. You don’t be overcome by the wind. There’s nothing that’s gonna uproot you from that.

[00:29:49] Jordyn: Our mana motuhake as Māori emerges from exactly where we come from, from Te Taio. Do you know what I mean? That’s our mana motuhake. That’s what makes us distinguished from any other Indigenous [00:30:00] group, right? This is our Indigeneity. We look like these trees, and we sound like these birds. And we roar like those oceans, and we are calm like these rivers, and we’re that;s our mana motuhake that’s our mana Māori.

[00:30:11] Jordyn: So I wanted that in a protest Waiata. I was really present at the 2019 occupation at Ihumātao. And my Whānau and I would lead Karakia there, and sing a lot of songs. And I got to learn firsthand the power of Waiata during activations like that, during occupation. When the tensions are really high, and there’s a line of cops, and often people trying to aggravate, you know, any reason, any reason to, uh, you know, move or arrest or anything like that. So the power of music to create peace really helps. So that’s the whole concept behind Toitū te Tiriti, is taking an activist stance, and it’s not backing down on our [00:31:00] arguments. It’s still holding that frontline, but we are just bringing something peaceful, just to help regulate ourselves. Because that’s always really important.

[00:31:08] Jordyn: I, I wanted to think really practically ‘cause there’s gonna be a lot of marches, there’s gonna be a lot of Hīkoi. And so I wanted to, to write some things that were gonna be really easy to sing for our people.

[00:31:25] Narration: Jen: ‘Everybody’s Trying To Find Their Way Home’ is made by me, Jen Cloher, with Bez Zewdie and Jon Tjhia. Ngā mihi nui to Jana Te Nahu Owen and Zach Bruce for the Ritimana fundraiser audio. And of course, Jordyn With A Why for showing me around her hood, sharing her story and her curly fries with me. This show is made with support from Creative Australia and Three Triple R 102.7FM.

[00:31:54] Narration: Jen: You can find more information about this episode and listen to season one at everybodys [00:32:00] trying podcast dot com. And if you like this episode, share it with someone who needs to hear it.