I appreciated this, not least because it's very very different from my own set of identities. I'm from the Northeast US. I really enjoy understanding how different people construct identity, how people experience culture... I'm in sociology, so I guess that's to be expected. Plus I'd love to visit NZ and every glimpse I get intrigues me more. I think it's possible that someone from my region of the US would be pretty comfortable there. :)

But I also felt very pleased with myself that I knew what "pakeha" and "whakapapa" meant (well, and "tapu"). I'm pretty sure I know fewer than ten words of Maori, but those are among them. Let's see: aroha, ae, tama, wahine, um... hongi, haere mai, taihoa. I think that's all that are hiding in the deep recesses of my mind. No clue where I got them! Oh, and the word for jade, it starts with P, right? Pou... something.

The primary reason this made me smile is that I've never set out to learn Maori and I have no idea at all where I got this small handful of words.