Assertion of identity

Young girl with a moko. Image from Whale Rider, a 2002 drama film directed by Niki Caro, based on the novel of the same name by Witi Ihimaera. The film stars Keisha Castle-Hughes as Kahu Paikea Apirana, a 12-year-old Maori girl who wants to become the chief of the tribe.

From a distance I saw

this teenager was different,

and as she came up close

I saw her moko, permanent

on her beautiful face.

*

"She's too young," suggested some,

"to wear at others' instigation

such sign upon her youthful face."

*

She appeared unmoved, disdainful

of the thoughts of others,

and with unusual maturity

for one so young, said quietly,

"That's their problem,"

and continued on her way.

*

I wondered...

were those words her own,

or where they perhaps -

as her decorated face -

imposed by proud tradition's

fierce, determinate tribal will?

*

I mused again...

or, was what had seemed to me belligerence,

simply a demonstration of an

indefinable quality of race,

which I, in my ignorance,

did not then fully comprehend?

*

Who am I...

foreigner to these shores

forty years or more,

to say it's wrong for one so young

to wear that proud insignia

of her race?

*

I had much to learn.

If she sought in truth

to assert a claim

to her own true self,

then I salute her

most sincerely for that.

*

Dennis Crompton © 1997

Note: a moko is a Māori tattoo or tattoo pattern, usually on the face.