Far North mayor Moko Tepania cried when he saw the Hātea Kapa Haka group pay tribute to him in their Te Matatini performance.
"You grow up listening to waiata [Māori songs] and it's all about these ancestors, these historical figures, these great leaders… then suddenly you hear this song and you're in it. It just took me by surprise, I was in tears, honestly," he tells Kim Hill.
Photo: Northern Advocate / supplied
Tepania (Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa, Te Rarawa) made history last year by becoming the first Māori mayor of the Far North - and the youngest ever at 31.
After growing up in Whangārei and graduating from university, he returned to teach at his former high school Pompallier College.
At first, it was slightly weird working alongside his former teachers at Pompallier, Tepania says, but eventually so comfortable he could have stayed for the rest of his life.
Tepaiaia had always been fascinated by the idea of kura, though, and meeting the principal of Kaikohe's Māori-language immersion school changed Tepania's course.
"Wait, what. You learned everything in te reo? You live and breathe it?"
He became a passionate teacher at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Kaikohe and also a Far North District councillor.
Now, as mayor, Tepania is committed to improving how things run - one issue the top of his list is wastewater treatment.
Tepania is very sceptical about how the government's proposed Three Waters Reform will address the needs of the Far North, which has 16 wastewater treatment plants.
All but one discharges wastewater into local streams or the Hokianga Harbour - "our kitchen, our food bowl" - which is "culturally abhorrent" he says.
Some days the responsibility of advocating for the Far North can feel like too much for Tepania, but other days he's confident there'll be positive change while he's mayor.
''I call myself naively optimistic… you have to be."
Alongside his mayoral duties, Tepania is studying for a Masters in Education, and in a couple of months the Far North deputy mayor Kelly Stratford will "run the show" while he finishes writing his dissertation in te reo Māori.
In it, Tepania is exploring the potential benefits of learning te reo through the Māori lunar calendar, the maramataka, which ancient Māori used for fishing and horticultural guidance.
"Can you use the different phases of the moon, their highs and their lows, to get the best out of learning the language, out of learning te reo?"
Tepania is proud to be a mayor who can walk in both the Māori and Pākehā worlds, leading a team of councillors who reflect the region's high Māori population.
Raised in a family of "staunch Māori Catholics", Tepania still prays every day and occasionally consults a scripture readings app on his phone.
"For me, as a Māori and a Pākehā, I feel quite settled in my identity… to be able to talk about Ranginui [the sky father] and talk about Heavenly Father in the same sentence almost."
