Episode 28 – Kia ora is Statue? Part One (Based on a True Story)   I went to a marae once that had creepy white marble statues, tonnes of them at the back of the wharenui. I still remember the very first thought that came to my mind, it looked like an urupā. I think they were actually art sculptures, but they looked like they were headstones made by a kaiwhakairo and as such there was an air of unease about them.  Tame, a marae kid seems to think that the statues at the back of his marae move...

Episode 27 – The Train Ticket, Part 2 (Based on a True Story)  You could call the last story an extraordinary example of “Luck”. One life saved by a twist of fate. But could luck strike twice on the same night and to someone seemingly disconnected? Well, fate has an interesting way of twisting back on itself, and two destinies are about to collide in an extraordinary way. It's December 23, 1953, and Pāora has a “not-to-be-missed” end-of-year party with the boys to attend. But Pāora has been...

Episode 26 - The Train Ticket, Part One (Based on a True Story)  It's December 23, 1953, and an old school friend has turned up out of the blue, offering to take Emily on a whirlwind trip across the countryside, back to their hometown in Taumarunui. Why take tomorrow night's express train when you can have a chauffeur-driven ride right now, and catch up with an old school friend at the same time? But there’s something not quite right about the old schoolmate that Emily can’t put her finger...

Episode 25 - Happy (Ghost) Feet (Based on a True Story)  If you ever spoke to a dead person, would you know it? Would anyone else be able to see the dead person and witness the conversation, or would it look like you're talking to yourself? I'm trying to steer clear of a "Sixth Sense" scenario here, but I've heard many stories where the dead return for a final farewell.  I remember my Māori teacher from college talking about a kid who missed school, turned up in the afternoon on his horse,...

Episode 24 - The Old Man, Part Two (Based on a True Story)  Herana is being hunted by a malevolent spirit from the nightmare world, and if that isn't bad enough, the spirit seems to be able to physically hurt Herana. She has woken from the nightmares with marks and bruises all over. Herana and Hona have reached out to their mother's brother, Uncle Tipene, whom their mother forbade them from seeing when she was alive. They are hoping their uncle will be able to help. What they don't know is...

Episode 23 - The Old Man, Part One (Based on a True Story)  Have you ever had a dream that was so real that you didn’t know it was a dream until you woke from it? I have grown up knowing that when you dream, you cross over to the spirit world. I remember my koroua saying that you should never wake anyone suddenly, as their body might return while the wairua stays in the dream world. That always troubled me. If you could cross to the dream world then it would stand to reason that something...

Episode 22 – Mata(ku)riki (Based on a True Story)  Hawaiki is our ancient homeland, but where is it and how did we forget its location in less than a thousand years? Here's an answer that I grew up with. When we asked Koro if he knew where Hawaiki was, he would always point upwards. "We're from the stars," he would say. "How else could we know without cartography tools that the North Island looked like a fish? The only way you could know is via an aerial view... from the stars." There are...

Episode 21 - Pounamu (Based on a True Story)  Pounamu, or greenstone, is more than just a precious stone. It is a living treasure, the 'fish of Ngahue', as the old stories say. As such, it is considered more valuable than common stones such as gold or diamonds. We wear pounamu, we fight with it, we even liken it to the magnificence of the glistening ocean. But in its beauty lies a tūpato. Pounamu can be a vessel, a conduit where emotions, especially the more insidious type are captured and...

Episode 20 - The Burning Mattress (Based on a True Story)  You're supposed to burn the mattress that a tūpāpaku lies on. It's based on an old tikanga whereby a small 'whare mate' was built specifically to house the tūpāpaku, and then burned immediately after the body was taken to the urupā. I mean, would you really want to sleep on the same mattress after a dead person has been on it?Today's Māori are different, and the old ways are often traded off for convenience and expedience. Young Māori...

Episode 19 - Te Kaingaroa a Haungaroa (Based on a True Story)  This is a tale about inheritance. Not something as common as money or assets, but something far more intriguing: magic! I know of several practices to acquire occult powers. There's knowledge of karakia and incantations, of course, but more is needed than just words. The Ngau Taringa rite involves the passing of power through biting the ear of a dying tohunga. Then there's the magic diet, where you know... eat someone with the...

Episode 18 - Over the Blood Moon, Part Three (Retelling of an Old Story)  Fighting out of the brown corner, weighing in at 200 pounds, all the way from Rotorua... Koro Pat (aka Hatupatu)! And in the red corner, weighing in at a trim 950 pounds, 1000 pounds if you include the wings, Kurungaituku! Oh, also, this is a tag match, and Kurungaituku's tag-team is an entire army of Amazonian bird warriors like herself. Koro Pat's tag team are Kara, Nikau, and their class of gifted Māori kids from...

Episode 17 - Over the Blood Moon, Part Two (Retelling of an Old Story)  Our two anti-heroes, Kara and Nikau, have been separated from the rest of the class (their own doing, of course), and they've just heard a monstrous scream from a terrifying creature that's shaken them to the core. They've decided to do what any typical Māori kid would do and run... towards the scream. If you reckon the boys are going to run into some kind of unimaginable, grotesque demon, well, you'd be right, but...

Episode 16 - Over the Blood Moon, Part One (Retelling of an Old Story)  Kara and Nikau are a pair of typical haututū Māori boys who have been blessed with an extra set of brains. They are on a class trip to New Zealand's Geothermal Wonderland, Te Puia. It sounds harmless, but they visited Te Puia on November 19, 2021, which some of you may remember as the night of the Blood Moon. Now, haututū Māori and anything with the word "blood" are never going to end well. There's also something up with...

Episode 15 - Why Y Wai. (Based on a True Story)  I hesitated when writing this story about breaking the karanga. The rules are absolute, so I wasn't sure how, or even if, we could record it. The ancient law of karanga was instilled in us from a young age: If you break your karanga, someone dies. The problem is that most people, especially the younger generation, do not believe in this anymore. The young woman in our story is about to learn that this is the law, and there are consequences,...

Episode 14 - The Tia Hunter (Based on a True Story)  Let's say you had actual DNA evidence of creation. You would be solving one of the greatest mysteries of mankind.   For a Pākehā, I guess it would be like finding the golden apple core that Adam discarded, or a fig leaf. Heck, I don't know. But for a Māori, it would be a much more interesting prospect. To accept our version of creation would mean that everyone else's version would need to be re-evaluated.   Years ago, I heard a story about...

Episode 13 - The Power of Three ... Plus One (Based on a True Story)  “The power of three plus one” revolves around four boys.   Three likeable bullies and the little brother of the leader.   The three bullies are not mean or nasty, but instead are more like older brothers who throw their weight around.   I based them on Māori boys from my childhood who were dynamic, cheeky, tough, and dramatic. They were the ones who gave the teachers a hard time, but they also knew their limits. If they...

Episode 12 - The Ash Men – (Part Two)  Bam takes Kore on a ‘classy’ date to a fish and chip shop called "Lucky Takeaways".  However, their romantic evening is interrupted when one of the Ash Men (a deadly entity from Kore's past) shows up. This Ash Man was responsible for the death of Kore's parents, and now seems to be targeting Kore. The situation is dire and Kore knows that the Ash Man will not hesitate to harm anyone who stands in his way, including Bam.  As Kore tries to find a way to...

Episode 11 - The Ash Men (Part One)  Bam is a hotshot fireman that has (excuse the pun) “the hots” for Kore, a fellow firefighter.  The problem is that every time he’s in her presence, he gets tongue tied and his fiery passion is quickly extinguished... OK, I’ll stop.    Kore's past is coming back to haunt her as an ominous entity from her childhood has reappeared, stirring up long-dormant embers.    The heat is on for Bam and Kore to extinguish the problem in this fiery paki that is sure to...

Episode 10 - Kiddy Karanga (Based on a True Story)  There's a reason why, in the time of our tipuna, only the pakeke of each whānau would perform the karanga: It's dangerous, and there are many rules to adhere to, including being a pakeke or a kuia. If you're a rangatahi, to put it bluntly, wairua can smell blood (if you know what I mean). Karanga on a marae raises the stakes - it's a wāhi tapu, and even what you wear is a factor. It should be a panekoti. "Whenua ki te whenua", as the old...

Episode 9 - The Unholy Spirit (Based on a True Story)  There's more at stake here than just an exorcism of two rather nasty spirits. The fact that both the father and the son are being possessed at the same time suggests that this is more than just a coincidence. Something more dangerous is brewing beneath the surface, an ancient darkness after more than just the lives of a father and son. Can this darkness be stopped before the spirit and the person become one and the same? If that happens,...

Episode 8 - The Son (Based on a True Story)   “The Son” picks up where “The Father” left off. The father is possessed by a malevolent spirit, and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to guess from the title that the same fate probably awaits the son. Now remember this is a true story…. with a bit of extra hot sauce and you should know before we go any further what we’re dealing with here….so you can choose whether you should listen to our next story or not. Last chance to turn back…. OK...

Episode 7 - The Father (Based on a True Story)  One of my jobs over the years was teaching kapa haka at the local prison. During my travels, I had come across a social worker helping Māori inmates cope with the harsh realities of prison life. He told me about an inmate, a relative of his, who was in the "Hannibal the cannibal" category - extremely dangerous, to the point of having to wear a face grill in public. However, this inmate was an old man, a koroua, who seemed unassuming and rarely...

Episode 6 - Night Whistle (Based on a True Story)  I can hear my koroua very clearly, with his dramatic voice, saying, "Never ever whistle at night." But Koro, why not? What's the big deal? We never actually voiced our questions, as we knew better than to challenge our elders. In fact, whistling wasn't the only thing forbidden at night. I remember my grandmother warning us, "Never ever cut your hair at night." I don't think she meant it simply because you can't see well in the dark and you...

Episode 5 - The Talking Taiaha (Based on a True Story)  I know what you're thinking, it's metaphorical, right? Or, when you swing the taiahā, it makes a swishing sound and that's your taiahā talking. Or, the movements of the taiahā are a complex three-dimensional language. All of these are true. I teach these lessons to my tauira. But when our tīpuna said that if you listen carefully to your taiahā, it will talk to you, I don't think they meant it like the sound a basketball makes when it...

Episode 4 - Pukapuka o te Mate (Based on a True Story)  In my family, we have an old book written in Māori. Because I was considered the Māori one in the family, I was invited to look at the book, but I declined.  The only thing I know about the book is that it is as thick as the Bible and was hand-written by my great-grandfather in the old cursive style of the time.  Growing up, I heard stories that anyone who touched the book died, so it was kept locked away at the old family homestead in a...