When my daughter was studying for her degree  Ahunga Tikanga  (Maori Laws and Philosophy) at Te Wananga o Raukawa.  She used the library in Brooklyn because she worked in the area.  One day an old pakeha man came up to her and asked what she was doing.  
When she told him he said...'It's too bad your Culture is dead.'
Shocked, she replied.  'Its not dead, you just can't see it, even when you're looking straight at it.'

We live by the same lore we always have.  Just the context of our lives have changed.  Manaakitanga and Whakawhanungatanga are still the foundations of our lives.
 Its hard to translate these words into English because the words themselves are infinite and alive.
 Translating them to English is is like reducing the universe to an equation.  
There are also other words people like to throw around like Kawa and Tikanga.  Kawa is an absolute and Tikanga isn't.  It can change depending on the circumstances.  Because believe it or not, Maori have, and will always be, adaptable.  That's why we're still here and the heart of our culture is still beating.

I've been researching for my next book and have waded through the academic books written by Pakeha researchers over the last 200 and something years.  Its frustrating, most of it really hard to read and some of it complete balderdash.  But I finally got to the light at the end of the tunnel.  Many new lines of inquiry are being taken now by Maori Scholars.  The other day I ran across an amazing piece of writing by a lecturer of te Wananga o Raukawa called Kim McBreen.  Blew me away.  Richly researched and ringing with truth.

This has started my new path of research.

Also I was agonising how to write pre-colonial Maori, then I thought, what is the best English Drama ever made.  
'I Claudius.'  History written with contemporary themes and language.  So that is how I'm writing my historical pieces.  After all we are the same people as our ancestors, we have them in our blood, why not.

Sometimes you just have to 'Do' what you want to do without worrying about who it may piss off.  Deal with that storm later.

Livx