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| 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.
