nō te tūnga rā anō ki te marae o te wāhi i whāngaia ai au, i āta mōhio ai au he aha taua hiahia e takoto rā i roto i a au, i a au e noho mai rā i tērā tōpito o te ao. Koinei aua mea e matetia mai rā e au i a au i tāwāhi, ā, koinei aua mea e hiahiatia rā e au kia mau i a au i mua i te rironga o ngā tāngata mōhio i te ringa kaha o Aituā. He hiahia nōku ki te pupuri i aua mea e kīia ai tātou he iwi, he tangata. Ahakoa kei tāwāhi ngā mea e tino pai ana ki a au kei te kaha kē taku pīrangi kia mau anō i a au ēnei taonga a tātou. Nā reira e aku pakeke, e aku whanaunga, i whakaputa ai au i ēnei mihi itiiti āUku ki a koutou — ki a koutou nāna nei au i whakamihi, i whakarangatira. Ēngari i tua atu i tēnei, he mihi atu anō ki a koutou nāna nei au i mōhio ai ki te reo rangatira. Kei te mōhio mai koutou i te wā e tamariki ana tēnei ki ngā marae o Waikaremoana, kāore kē i tino mōhio ki tō tātou reo ēngari nā ā koutou whakatoi mai, nā ā koutou manaaki maha mai i a au i tino mōhio ai au, ā, ki te tino whiwhi anō hoki o te tangata e mōhio ana ki taua reo. Koimei anō hoki tētahi o ngā take i tino aroha ai au ki ō tātou marae, ki ngā marae i whakaakona mai ai ki a au te reo o ō tātou tūpuna, kua kore kē ngā tamariki o tēnei whakatipuranga e mōhio ki te reo rangatira. He uaua kē ki a au te whakapono koinei anō taua wāhi i whakatoihia rā au mō taku kore e mōhio pai ki te kōrero Māori, taua wāUhi kua riro kē nei i te reo Pākehā! Āe, e kare mā, ka tino aroha kē au. Nā koutou anō hoki, e aku pakeke, i whakaoho ake anō i roto i a au te kaha pīangi ki te pupuri i ngā taonga tuku iho a ngā tūpuna, ā, mō tēnei, tēnā rawa atu koutou. Āe, e aku pakeke, e aku whanaunga, ko tā koutou mōkai tēnei e mihi nei, e tangi nei ki a koutou. Kua tatū mai anō au ki waenganui i a koutou, ā, me kī kau hoki mai ki te ū kaipō. Āe, ka tangi hoki ko au! Tihe mauri ora!

Fragments of a Childhood by Rowley Habib

PEOPLE AND NAMES ‘Old Toko went to the hoko To get Repeka some tupeka’ This was what some of the older kids used to chant. And he used to see old Toko coming down the road in his buggy ‘for the shop’, hitching his horse on the side of the road and walking very slowly with a bad stoop towards the shop. He was a very old man. Repeka was his wife and she was very old too and she had a moko on her chin. But although she must have been about as old as old Toko she looked a lot younger than he did, for he was very bent and wizened. And they said she had a bad temper and would chase any of the kids with her broom if they came near her place, for her orchard was always being raided. But Nick never saw her like this, for old Toko and Repeka lived away over on the other side of the settlement about a mile away. He never saw her much, only when she came down sometimes with old Toko in his buggy, sitting heavily in the seat beside him; and those times she looked nice enough to Nick. Try as he might, he couldn't read in her face or bearing the sort of witch that the kids from her end of the settlement said she was. She was bigger and much heavier than her husband and the buggy would have a bad lean on the side in which she sat. At various times the boy heard all the names of the people of the settlement mentioned, and for a long time he got them all mixed up. First there was old Toko and Repeka whom they never ever called by any other name than Repeka. And then there was their son Hiki Toko, to confuse matters, for the boy never heard the old man referred to by anything other than ‘old Toko’ and thought all along that this must surely be his first name. And across from old Toko and Repeka's, on another hill, there was Tua Wi Hepi and his family. They weren't so bad because all his children were called Wi Hepis and the father himself was often referred to as Tua Wi Hepi. But further along the same hill