Puawai Cairns is Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāiterangi and Mātaatua. She is also the curator Contemporary Māori Culture at Te Papa Tongarewa.

Three years ago she had very little idea about military history nowadays however she is actively sought after by media and conference organisers to talk about the Māori contribution to WWI.

When she found out Te Papa was preparing its WWI exhibition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing Puawai decided to advocate strongly for a Māori presence in the exhibition.

In order to do the project justice almost every part of her life in recent years has been dedicated to researching the Māori story and capturing the narrative.

“You’re constantly pushing to make sure the Māori voice is heard and given some sense of presence and not just tacked on.”

She admits this was difficult given the Māori contingent numbered less than 600. Despite that, Puawai was adamant that the Māori stories were told from a position of authority.

This included the arduous task of researching service records and finding surviving whānau members.

Puawai was determined ‘to make sure the Māori soldier was represented as full person and not just a cog in a machine’.

“When you go looking through other military exhibitions – unless it was an exhibition about the New Zealand wars – the Māori soldier’s identity was really muted. I wanted to tease out that cultural identity a bit more,” she said.

Puawai believes there is so much room to have their stories told.

“I’m not interested in the history of war. I’m interested in their communities and how they were affected. I hope that when Māori go into the exhibition they feel a part of the centennial.”

The exhibition took 18 months to physically compile and during that time Puawai managed to collect information from 400 Māori soldiers. Of those soldiers she has managed to find significant pieces of information for 180 of them and is keen to produce a book ofsome of the biographical histories.

It’s a positive start and for Puawai this is where the rubber hits the road.

“I want to make sure we don’t look at these Māori men too much through our twenty-first century eyes and don’t dismiss their motivations. A lot of them were loyal to the King.”

She is reminded of the Māori Lieutenant who had entered into a relationship with a married woman previous to heading to Europe.

Puawai says “The spurned husband ended up writing a letter to the Minister of Defence and the Prime Minister demanding the demotion of the officer on the basis that he was of loose morals.”

Puawai suspects the involvement of the Prime Minister added pressure to an internal inquiry which saw the Officer sent to the front line where he was killed within a few weeks of arriving.

She says the devastating part of this story was that he left a young mother and child, and while we might gasp at the treatment of the officer ‘with our twenty-first century eyes’ we cannot make judgements given the complexities of the social order at the time.

Puawai also retells the story of two brothers who enlisted. Their oldest brother was over 40 and therefore deemed too old. He presented himself after dying his eyebrows with shoe polish to hide the greyish tinge. His job was to look after his younger siblings, and unfortunately he was killed in action.

Puawai believes WWI was a time of transition and that the Māori contingent in particular marked a significant moment in Māori history.

WWI forced us to look at ourselves culturally she says: “It was the first time a Māori unit had gone off and fought for the empire, so all of sudden our identity stopped becoming the identity of the kāinga but became this pan-tribal national identity.

I’m very drawn to stories that show Māori adaptation and cultural transition, I consider WWI and these men were on the cusp of the changing world.

When they would write back home their priorities were very deeply embedded in local community but that rapidly changed with their exposure to the wider world.”

Puawai says her research shows there was a wide mix of people in the contingent, ranging from boarding school educated Māori who were fine English language speakers and many others who couldn’t speak English at all.

“Māori was their first and only language. This is why Sir Apirana Ngata was pushing for Māori Officers,” Puawai said.

The WWI exhibition at Te Papa has been an enormous success for our National museum. However, for Puawai it is not about the many accolades that have been heaped on the team at Te Papa. It is simply about providing a narrative so that Māori have a repository of information about ‘our men who went to war’.

Puawai would like to specialise in Māori military histories because she finds these histories intriguing, “as long as I make sure the history I’m telling isn’t pushing any type of agenda, except the agenda of being told.”

He uri a Puawai Cairns nō Ngāti Ranginui, nō Ngāiterangi, nō Mātaatua waka. Ko ia te ringaraupī (curator) Contemporary Māori Culture ki Te Papa Tongarewa. Toru tau ki muri, kīhai tēnei uri o Mapihiterangi i paku mōhio ki ngā hītōria ā-taua o Aotearoa ki rāwāhi. I ēnei rā, tatangi ana tāna waea pūkoro, kānapanapa ana tāna rorohiko i ngā tono pāpāho, i ngā karanga hui. Hei aha rā? Māna hei kōrero mō te wāhi a te Māori ki te Pakanga Tuatahi o te Ao. Ka rongo a Puawai mō te whakaaturanga whakamahara i te Pakanga Tuatahi ki Te Papa ka kaha kōkiritia e ia te wāhi motuhake a te Māori ki tēnei whakakitenga. I ngā tau tata nei, ka pau te rā, ka pō te ao i a ia e rangahau ana i ngā kōrero mō Ngāi Māori ki Karipori. “Ko te mahi nui māku, he kōkiri i tēnei take kia rangona mārire te reo a te Māori, kia mana hoki. Kia kaua ā tātou kōrero e noho hei tāpiringa noa.” Hei tāna, he uaua i te mea he tokoiti iho i te 600 te ope taua Māori ki Karipori. Heoi, ko te whakapae a Puawai, he whai mana ēnei kōrero. Nā, i āta rangahaua ngā rekoata hōia, i whakapā atu ki ngā uri o te hunga i tae atu ki te pae o te riri. Ka whakapeto ngoi a Puawai, “Kia kite mārire tātou i te hōia Māori hei tangata tūturu, ehara i te kiri parauri noa iho i waenga i te tini hōia.” “Ki te āta titiro koe ki ētahi whakaaturanga mō ngā pakanga – hāunga anō ngā pakanga i Aotearoa – kāore i tino kitea te tuakiri Māori. Me whakaatu kē i te wairua Māori.” E whakapono ana a Puawai arā noa atu te whai wāhitanga atu o ngā kōrero a tāua te Māori. “Ehara i te mea ko te hītōria o te pakanga anake, engari kē, kia mōhio hoki tātou ki te nui o te whai pānga a te riri ki ngā whānau me ngā hapū i te kāinga.” “Ko te manako ia, ka kuhuna te whakaaturanga nei ka kite ngā Māori i a rātou anō ka rongo anō rātou i te wāhi ki a rātou i tēnei huringa rautau nui whakaharahara.” Ka 18 marama mai i te orokohanga, ā, tae atu ki te whakatuwheratanga i te rā o ANZAC, 2015. E whā rau ngā hōia Māori i rangahaua e Puawai. O taua 400 i whai kōrero motuhake a Puawai mō ngā hōia 180, koia pea he kaupapa hei tuhi pukapuka māna. Hei tāna, “Kei titiro tātou ki ēnei tāngata mā ō tātou mōwhiti rautau 21, kei tāwaitia e tātou ngā take i haere ai rātou ki te pakanga. He tokomaha rātou i pono ki a Kīngi Hōri i tērā rautau. Kāti, he nui, he matatini ngā kōrero mō ngā hōia Māori, anei rā ētahi tauira: Tērā tētahi Rūtene Māori i moe pūremu ki tētahi wahine mārena i mua i te wehenga atu ki Ūropi. Hei tā Puawai, “He nui nō te mamae o te hoa tāne o te wahine pūremu rā, ka tuhi reta atu ki te Minita o Te Kaupapa Waonga me te Pirimia. Ko tāna whakahau kia whakahekea taua Rūtene mai i tāna tūranga āpiha, i te mea he tangata tikanga-kore.” E whakapae ana a Puawai nā te pānga o te Pirimia i nui ai taua take, ā, ka tukuna taua Āpiha ki te pae o te riri, ka hipa ētahi wiki ka hinga te tangata rā. Ka aroha te pouwaru rāua ko tana tamaiti, ka noho pāpā kore. Mā wai e whakawā? Tērā tētahi tokorua, he tuakana teina i tae atu ki te whare rēhita o ngā hōia. Neke atu i te 40 ngā tau a te tuakana, ā, i kīia kua koroua rawa hei hōia. Nāwai ka pania e taua Māori ōna anō pewa ki te parakena hei huna i te hina o te makawe, ka hoki anō ki te rēhita. Ka mutu, he tiaki i tōna teina te take. Kāti, ko ia anō tētahi i hinga ki te pae o te riri. E whakapono ana a Puawai ko te wā o te Pakanga Tuatahi tētahi wā whakawhiti, he wā panoni i te ao Māori, ā, ko Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū tētahi tohu motuhake i te hītōria o te ao Māori. Nā te Pakanga Tuatahi i titiro anō tātou ki ngā wai whakaata, “Koia tērā ko Te Ope Tuatahi i hanake ki te pae o te riri mō te emepaea, ko te wā tuatahi hoki tēnei kua whakakotahi ngā hapū maha o te motu ki raro i te karangatanga o te ope taua Māori … Mōku, he kaha rawa te au kukume mai o ngā kōrero e whakaatu mai ana i te urutaunga, i te whakawhitinga ā-tikanga a te Māori. He mārama te kite i ēnei tūāhuatanga i te Pakanga Tuatahi, arā, ko ēnei tāngata taumata rau e tū ana i te pari o te ao hurihuri e whanga mai rā.” Ka tuhi reta ngā hōia Māori ki te wā kāinga, hāngai tonu te kaupapa ki ngā take a te kāinga, a te whānau, a te hapori rā. Engari ka tere panoni te titiro o ngā hōia i te tuwheratanga atu o ō rātou whatu ki te ao hou e hao mai nei. E whakaatu mai ana te rangahau a Puawai i ngā momo katoa o Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū, arā, ko te hunga i kuraina ki Te Aute, ki Tīpene me ngā kura hāhi Pākehā, “Maringi noa ana te reo Ingarihi i a rātou, heoi, arā anō ētahi he Māori anake tō rātou reo. Koia tētahi take i kōkiritia e Tā Āpirana, kia whai Āpiha Māori tēnei ope taua.” Kei te waiatatia ngā korōria o tēnei whakaaturanga mō Karipori ki Te Papa, kei te whakamihia e ngā rangatira huhua, ā, ko te Pirimia o Ahitereiria, ko Tony Abbot tētahi. Heoi anō ki tā Puawai, ehara i te mea ko te nui o ngā mihi ka utaina ki runga ki te whānau o Te Papa te mea nui, engari kē, kia tū ko Te Papa hei pātaka putunga kōrero mō “ō tātou koroua i haere ki te pakanga”. Ka aronui a Puawai ki ngā hītōria pakanga a te Māori i te mea he kaupapa mīharo, “Hāunga anō te nui o ngā tautohe mō tēnei kaupapa, ko te mea nui ki a au kia whakakōrerohia ā tātou kōrero.”