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Pukehina in the Bay of Plenty is tiny. Growing up there, Maka Mohi knew where to fish and where to hunt. But the narratives he heard were that elsewhere was amazing; the Māori world wasn’t amazing. A misstep in high school meant leaving so, at 17, "thinking I was 24," he left for big city Brisbane. But big cities have temptations.
The challenge: to find his way back. His father had told him his full name wasn’t just a name. "It’s a title!" And he felt he hadn’t carried that title high enough. So, to learn who he was and to come to realise he’d been "raised amazing" – surrounded by love, and whanau. And his father’s words: "You’ll always have home."
By Mahia te ArohaPukehina in the Bay of Plenty is tiny. Growing up there, Maka Mohi knew where to fish and where to hunt. But the narratives he heard were that elsewhere was amazing; the Māori world wasn’t amazing. A misstep in high school meant leaving so, at 17, "thinking I was 24," he left for big city Brisbane. But big cities have temptations.
The challenge: to find his way back. His father had told him his full name wasn’t just a name. "It’s a title!" And he felt he hadn’t carried that title high enough. So, to learn who he was and to come to realise he’d been "raised amazing" – surrounded by love, and whanau. And his father’s words: "You’ll always have home."