SNC professor participates in ancient school

The Waitaha people of New Zealand are a secretive group. They don't let many into their private, ancient way of life.

So when Sierra Nevada College's Laird Blackwell was asked by the Waitaha's chief elder to take part in their sacred schools of ancient learning it came as both a shock and an incredible honor.

Because of the Waitaha's resistance to development in New Zealand and debates over the validity of the Waitaha's belief that they, not the Maori, are the indigenous people of New Zealand, the Waitaha have finally come out of seclusion to seek the help of people like Blackwell who can communicate their cause.

"The last 1,000 years have been spent preserving their traditions," Blackwell said. "They believe, now, that the world is in need of a more balanced perspective towards restraint and freedoms, between tradition and innovation, and between human beings' and nature's purposes."

Blackwell, his wife, and a few others will be the first ever non-Waitaha students allowed into the Whare Wanonga, the sacred school.

Blackwell, a professor of transcultural themes for nearly 20 years and Chair of Humanities at SNC, met Waitaha chief elder Makere Ruka Kte Hurako and her husband Peter, Keeper of Ancient Knowledge, while on sabbatical in New Zealand last year. Since then, Blackwell and his wife Melinda have become the couple's personal friends.

Blackwell presented a slide show on his stay with them and their family, and summarized Waitaha history to sold out crowds after he returned from New Zealand last spring.

For the past several millennia, the sacred Whare Wanonga schools have been used by the matriarchal ancestors of the Waitaha to pass on what Blackwell calls their "incredibly ecological" cultural traditions. Until recently, the Waitaha were thought to be just a subset of the much larger and politically powerful Maori. However, through the past few decades, it has been revealed that not only does their culture predate the Maori's, but they also rightfully own of much of what was long thought to be Maori land, Blackwell said.

"New Zealand is running the risk of becoming like America and California, being built up and the natural resources consumed," he said.

The New Zealand government predicts that the national population will increase by roughly 300,000 within the next decade, with more than 65,000 identifying themselves as Maori. Through the years, political deals have been struck between Maori leaders and the government concerning the sale of native land. Many of those deals now infringe on and threaten Waitaha claims, Blackwell said.

"The government is threatening to dam up some of their sacred rivers," Blackwell said.

The Blackwells left for New Zealand last Monday. Their stay will last three weeks, the third week being entirely devoted to the scared classes. After the Blackwells return, they and the few other students will begin passing on the lessons they've learned to the people in their own communities in effort to bring a voice to the Waitaha cause.

"They want to expand the scared Whare Wanonga to the people of the world, and now they're trusting us to be part of this process," Blackwell said.