The Māori in Me

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The Māori in Me

Growing up in Australia with a Danish father and a Māori-Pakeha mother, Myjanne Jensen always had this sense of not feeling Māori "enough". After moving back to Te Hiku o Te Ika – the Far North – in 2021, she started her journey of coming home and trying to better connect to her roots. Over seven episodes, Myjanne will kōrero with a number of incredible people about their own stories of what it means to be Māori, making that cultural connection, and the complexity of being mixed-race. All this with the hope of turning the conversation away from not "feeling enough" to instead, understanding how to connect with the Māoritanga already living inside you. New episodes every Tuesday and Friday.

Season 1

  1. EPISODE 1

    My Pūrākau - My Story

    Growing up in Australia with a Danish father and a Māori-Pakeha mother, Myjanne Jensen always had this sense of never being enough to call herself Māori. After moving to Te Hiku o Te Ika – the Far North – in 2021, she started a journey of coming home and trying to better connect to her roots. In this first episode of her journey to explore her roots, Myjanne starts it off by talking to her mother - mental health social worker, psychotherapist and proud wāhine Māori, Tania - to discuss her family's story.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    27 min

  2. EPISODE 2

    What does it mean to be Māori?

    hat's a question Myjanne has asked herself for much of her life, but how does one answer that? For this episode, she speaks to Māori cultural identity researcher, Ririwai Fox, about how his research has helped him explore this topic. She then has a kōrero with Te Rūnanga o Whaingaroa Pou Arahi- General Manager for Culture and whānaunga, Raniera Kaio, for his advice regarding people on that journey coming home. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    37 min

  3. EPISODE 3

    Impacts of colonisation on Māori

    Understanding and acknowledging colonisation and the intergenerational trauma it has caused for whānau Māori is essential to healing and better understanding our past, present and future. For this episode, Myjanne speaks to renowned Māori academic and rights activist, Professor Margaret Mutu, about what life was like in Te Hiku o Te Ika at the start of the 20th century and the impact of colonisation on the region and beyond. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    25 min

  4. EPISODE 4

    What is it like for Māori living in Australia?

    As someone of Māori descent growing up in Australia in the 1980s, Myjanne says the opportunity to connect to her culture was limited. In this episode she makes the journey back to Brisbane to interview a number of Māori living in Queensland and to hear about their experiences living away from Aotearoa. She also speaks to the  Queensland Māori Society about an interesting kaupapa they run called, "Am I Māori Enough?". See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    54 min

  5. EPISODE 5

    Life as a mixed race wāhine

    What's it like to identify as Māori when you also identify with another ethnicity? For this episode Myjanne speaks to Māori academic Dr Tess Moeke-Maxwell who did her PhD on that very topic. Myjanne also speaks to her dear friend, Mikkeline Olsen, about her experience very similar experience of growing up in Australia, to a Danish dad and Māori-Pakeha mum. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    48 min

  6. EPISODE 6

    The rise of 'pretendians'

    As part of Myjanne's exploration into the topic of Māori identity and indigeneity more broadly, Myjanne says she came across a phenomenon called 'pretendians' (Pretend Indians). According to Anishnaabe man and native filmmaker Drew Hayden Taylor, the past decade in Canada has seen a flood of white people being outed as 'pretendians', after claiming to be native when they weren't. He's now created a documentary on the topic and speaks to Myjanne about it. Dr Margaret Mutu also shares her take on the issue and what she feels defines someone as indigenous in the Māori context. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    45 min

  7. EPISODE 7

    How do we heal our identity?

    For those people on the journey of reconnecting with their Māori roots, a big part of that process is healing parts of us that don't feel 'enough'. For this episode, Myjanne speaks to Erica McCreedy, a wāhine Māori living in Australia who created her own podcast, 'Healing our Identity', on this very topic. The episode then finishes with a conversation with Australian-Māori Dr Melissa Carey who talked about her own healing journey through her autoethnographic PhD, 'A transformative journey of cultural recovery, Te Ao Maori'. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    43 min

  8. SEASON 1 TRAILER

    Trailer

    Coming July 11th.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1 min

Trailer

About

Growing up in Australia with a Danish father and a Māori-Pakeha mother, Myjanne Jensen always had this sense of not feeling Māori "enough". After moving back to Te Hiku o Te Ika – the Far North – in 2021, she started her journey of coming home and trying to better connect to her roots. Over seven episodes, Myjanne will kōrero with a number of incredible people about their own stories of what it means to be Māori, making that cultural connection, and the complexity of being mixed-race. All this with the hope of turning the conversation away from not "feeling enough" to instead, understanding how to connect with the Māoritanga already living inside you. New episodes every Tuesday and Friday.

Information

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