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The tribal elders.; Or kaumatua and kuia.
Topic Started: 9 Mar 2014, 01:15 PM (122 Views)
Sandy
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The kaumatua and kuia in any Iwi or tribe were and still are to some extent seen as important members, most people including the chief would go to either one or the other if they felt they needed advice about something..

Both the kaumatua and kua in each tribe were the ones to go to if it was anything to do with family or Iwi history, they were and are kind of like modern day professors when it came to whanau or Iwi history and protocol and were treated with respect by the younger members of the Iwi..

Usually it was the older members of a family that became either kaumatua or kuia, if there was an oldest brother, then he was the one to move on to kaumatua, but if the whanau had only had daughters, or the sons had been killed in battle or from sickness etc then the position fell on to the eldest daughter of the family..

I might add that speaking rights on the marae, if there was a meeting between two Iwi, then it was the eldest son who spoke for the family if the father was either unable to attend, or had passed.. If there was say a 30 year old daughter and an 18 year old son, then the daughter being the eldest spoke for the family..

This was the only time women were allowed to speak at meetings, but given that until about 7 odd years ago we had a female prime minister here, she was allowed to speak on the marae at public meetings, as is the Governor General here, he/she is the Queens representative, so speaks for the Queen at occasions like Waitangi Day and other special events..

Nine times out of ten, if you go on to a marae and it's an occasion of some kind, most of the speakers are men, most families had an eldest son should the father not be able to attend for whatever reason, so he was the one to speak for the family.. Occassionall there may have been a sister who was a bit shy to speak in public, or not a very good speaker, so she would go to her eldest brother, who may only be a year or two younger and give him speaking rights for the whanau, or family, this didn't happen too often though as a rule...
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funnysis
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Here the head of the family is usually the father. The only tribal leaders we would have would be the indian chiefs.
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Sandy
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It's slightly different here, the fathers head of the family, from there it goes to the elders, then the chief.. The chief would consult the elders sometimes, especially if it was a younger chief..
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