My Paka

I love my Paka. He is my grandpa. Although I love him dearly, at times I feel he does not love me. He can be an old paka, which means an old bugger. He always sticks to the old ways. He does not let the women do what the men can do. Like today the whales came onto our beach, beached. Paka told my dad and uncle Rawiri to gather all the men in the village of Whangara. Nanny Flowers and I were ready to help but as usual Paka would not let the women help. Nanny Flowers protested. And like always, they got into a big argument. But there was something different in this argument instead of the it ending with Nanny Flowers saying, “You watch me get a divorce, you old Paka,” it ended with Nanny Flowers saying, “I’ll be like Muriwai if I have to. Kahu, also, if she had to be.” And in response Paka said, “You keep Kahu away, e kui.” When I heard this I felt sorry for myself and I hope everyone else did too.
Once he said this it made me feel so inferior and made me wish Nanny Flowers’ Muriwai blood was not as strong as it was. For if it was not strong… I would have been a boy. I would be allowed to go into the meetinghouse. I would be able to help and learn more about my Maori culture. I could become the next leader of my village. And I could get the one thing I longed for the most, the love from my grandpa.