Iris wants to radiate some rainbows | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

 
IRIS RIKI

Born: Te Kopuru, Northland, 1963.

Family: One son, two daughters, four mokopuna (grandchildren), presently cares for four children whose parents "struck a bit of strife".

Education: Marapiu Primary, St Pius Catholic School Glen Innes, James Cook High School Manurewa, Dargaville High School, Wananga in Northland and Rotorua.

Interests: Whanau, indigenous peoples and politics, reading (history in particular) studying, "improving myself so I can improve the lot of others".

Work history: Loader-digger driver working on drains, various roles within schools and school-related organisations, however, home-schooled two sons ("it's not the curriculum that fails children, it's the deliverers"), long-time kapa haka tutor, mentor to at-risk youth, supervising contractor in Dargaville's kumara fields, Rotorua motel cleaner (appointed supervisor after two weeks), on child-minding days off works in various capacities for the Rotorua Club. "But I'd love to use my talents in a permanent job."

On kumara and alcohol: "The food of the gods"... "the devil's brew"

On Rotorua: "I love it, it is a beautiful place, too small to get lost in. I've met some really, really nice people who've looked after me really, really well."

Personal philosophy: "We are here for only a very short time ... life's a blessing, live it to its fullest."

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When Iris Riki insists she'll only chat to us with a condition attached we are wary - journalists don't like conditions.

Conditions tend to mean censorship. However, when we discover the condition is a cultural necessity, naturally we acquiesce.

Despite spending the past two years in Rotorua, Iris still considers herself manuhiri (a visitor) in Te Arawa-Ngati Whakaue territory. As such, it is imperative that she offers a mihi (greeting) to local tangata whenua. Of Ngapuhi descent with whanau ties to Tainui and Ngati Whatua, she is acutely conscious of lingering animosity between Arawa and Ngapuhi but does not shoulder responsibility for them.

"These wounds are old wounds. I can apologise for what Ngapuhi did [the Hongi Hika-led 1823 Mokoia Island mascara] but I wasn't there, I can't be held accountable for my people's actions."

Steeped in the significance of whakapapa (genealogy), she points to a close connection between Te Arawa and Kaihu, the place on the Kaipara Harbour where she did part of her growing up, telling us the area took its name from Kaihu-a-Ihenga, the explorer grandson of Te Arawa's great founding chief Tamatekapua.

She draws our attention to another of her connections with this region's rohe (territory) and its people ... famous ones at that. When a talent scout spotted her mother Lucy Toko, then using her stage name Lucy Lee, she was singing with a couple of other then relative unknowns at an Auckland Maori community centre. "The scout asked her to go to Australia, she said 'not without my mates'."

Those mates were Kawerau's John Rowles and Rotorua-born Eddie Low.

"They all went, I was 18 months old and left with my grandmother."

Raised a child of the marae ("I was 6-years-old when I started working in marae kitchens") kawa (customs), tikanga (protocol) and te reo (Maori language) are ingrained in her psyche.

"I am very proud to be Maori".

As such, she is imbued with a burning desire to take Maori to the world.

Not by some form of travelling cultural road show but by assuming centre stage at the biggest international forum of them all - the United Nations.

"I want to sit there as an ambassador for Maori. Why are we not represented there today when so many other cultures are - Chinese, French, they are all there but where are Maori?"

Isn't this somewhat over-ambitious for a 15-year-old school leaver whose first job was carving out drains at the controls of a one-ton digger-loader?

The retort we receive is indicative of her view of the inadequacy of our own knowledge of classical mythology. Iris, we are sternly reminded, was the Greek goddess of the rainbow.

"So that makes me the Rainbow Warrior ... I go in to battle for my people.

"Twenty years ago I realised I should have gone to university, not only to educate myself but to educate others."

She has studied under a line-up of major Maori scholars and linguists.

"I have had brilliant people to guide me." Since her Rotorua arrival (she came to house sit for a friend but was soon bored) she has enrolled at Te Wananga o Aotearoa, working part-time towards a bachelor of environmental management.

"It is challenging but my first step towards politics. Current policies don't work for Maori - just look at the educational statistics, the health statistics, domestic violence. People wonder why Maori fail but Maori and Pakeha are two totally different cultures Pakeha is all about money, Maori is all about mana. Maori need to stand up and be counted. If I can empower them I will. I am an instigator of new thoughts - new possibilities."

We put it to this warrior woman from the north that there will be many who view her as stroppy, even radical.

The stroppy tag doesn't sit well with her, being branded a radical does.

"That's exactly what I am, a pro-Maori radical, but the one thing I am not is a racist. My father was English. I am very proud to be who I am, it is all about identity."