A Question of Connection - a story of beginning and belonging

Hoping to make a good impression Toko the Tui fluffed his feathers and rearranged his white ruff that stood out on his chest against his sleek greenish black, feathered coat. Perched upon a kowhai branch Toko saw his Nanny neither looking here nor there just looking straight ahead, seeing without looking, hearing without listening.

Toko nervously breathed in and out as the thought of having to approach his Nanny seemed frightening. He knew that his Nanny had that bigger than big Rangatira status. He knew that she knew things before you even asked her, that she had eyes in the back of her head, that she had that spooky wonder about her and for just a wee moment the thought of approaching his Nanny freaked him right out. But after a while of total anxiousness Toko began to speak to himself and he told himself to simply cut it out and at that point he planted his legs firmly before him and displayed that staunch kia kaha look which moved his legs forward. There she was, his Nanny, the matriarch, an old one, a wise one known for her stories and simplistic truths and Toko stood before her.

It's funny he thought later. Just like that it happened and it surprised him too. The question from his head shot to his little chest and then blurted from his mouth in a big huge yell that nearly in one breath blew his Nanny off her perch. He yelled, "Nanny! What's life about. I want to know?". Toko's Nanny in response first shielded her ear from his loud words and then replied with gentle tone, "Okay, okay, okay Toko. You are my mokopuna, the son of my son and settle down. You will hear your story, our story of life and telling truths are what Nannies are here for".

Now imagine for just a moment what the world would look like with nothing but something called Papatuanuku who is the earth mother and Ranginui who is the sky father. Imagine them both, the mother and the father who are separated with nothingness between them.

Imagine at the beginning of this world how cold it would have been for the mother and the father. Imagine a warm cloak being placed upon the mother. Imagine this cloak to be made up of ferns, trees and things that keep her warm. Imagine too how cold the father would be with nothing around him and then imagine him with a cloak of bright shining stars and twinkly things.

Imagine within the forest, the grubs and worms and plentiful berries and things. Imagine them to be food for birds and other feathery things. So because of these things, we are here and we live.

For the first time Toko with wide eyes felt the magic of belonging to everything. That the forest provided berries, that berries gave him food to live, that the berries came off the branches of the tree, that the tree grew from the earth and that the earth was the mother from which everything sprang to be something living and awesome. Something wise, something very, very tolerant and something just like his Nanny.

Acknowledgment: Thank you to my nannies, mummy and my sister who are teachers and who tell stories to the next generations either in the classroom or when one is about to doze off. It is not only the telling of these stories. It is about implanting a message of beginning, of belonging of being a part of mother nature.