#about iwi

[incendiak]

Picrew tag game

picrew / uquiz

Tagged by @curufiin

Tagging: o - o pls do it and tag me so I can look at you O - O

[irawhiti]

kia ora! i would like to suggest the coining of a term that would hopefully help a large demographic of mostly-forgotten-about māori to connect with each other and share our experiences to feel less alone, congregate around a concept regardless of country of origin and upbringing, and organise as activists.

i politely ask as many people to spread this as possible to help indigenous people organise with each other and to get the largest amount of interactions possible.

anyway, with all that being said,

i would like to coin the term "ngāti rangiātea" for māori who do not know their iwi to use.

this is based on the well known whakataukī/proverb, "i will never be lost, for i am a seed which was sown from rangiātea." i chose this whakataukī due to the spiritual significance of rangiātea as a place in māori culture, as well as to emphasise that no matter how it feels, we are not lost, we can find ourselves in each other, we can experience strength and self-realisation, and that we will exist with mana and without whakamā as rightful tangata whenua.

i've put my reasoning, personal experiences shaping my viewpoints on the matter, and various statistics under the cut to make this post reblog-friendly and i would suggest fellow māori read it regardless of whether or not they know their iwi. i also ask for the opinions of other māori, ESPECIALLY AND SPECIFICALLY other māori who do not know their iwi. in fact, i politely ask māori to share this with their whānau and people in general to share this with māori they know, especially any they know who do not know their iwi. a wide reach is what i am going for to get the largest amount of voices, critiques, and opinions on the topic and to avoid this from just becoming a very small thing that stays in an online echo-chamber.

to begin, the 2018 aotearoan census shows that, of the 775,836 people identifying as māori in aotearoa, roughly 17% are unable to identify their iwi in the census. this has gone up by 1% since 2006, showing that we are a considerably stable percentage of people. along with this, there are more than 170,000 māori living in australia and, while there are no solid statistics, there are an estimated 8,000 māori living in the UK, 3,500 in the US, 2,500 in canada, and 8,000 in other countries where there's no option for māori or any polynesians on the census.

this number adds up to 967,816 total māori and while there's no census in these countries asking for your iwi, i would go as far as to assume that there's a larger number of diaspora māori who are no longer able to identify their iwi than there are in aotearoa. of course, this is just speculation based on my lived experiences and conversations with other diaspora māori, however even assuming that it's the exact same amount globally, 17%, this is roughly 164,532 māori worldwide who do not know their iwi. nearly one in five māori do not know their iwi.

regardless of the specific statistics, the hard fact here is that there is a large percentage of māori who are unsure of their iwi for whatever reason. it's extremely easy to feel unsure of yourself, lost, disconnected, and uncomfortable speaking on issues regarding te ao māori when you're unsure of your iwi (or your hapū, whānau, waka, or anything else, but there is heavy emphasis on the iwi) and it's very easy for whakamā to take hold, especially when many māori who can recite their whakapapa aren't very polite or understanding about your situation to say the least.

and there are a lot of those people.

unfortunately, i've spoken to many māori who are of the opinion that not knowing your iwi due to colonialism, assimilation, forced disconnection, etc. means that you should not, cannot, call yourself māori. this is a disgusting viewpoint to have and in my opinion it spits on the fundamental concepts of māori culture and worldviews. thankfully this is a small yet vocal group of people, but even so, they add to the collective experience that makes it extremely difficult to navigate a world while full of whakamā and internalised racism. it can feel like there's no space for you, no term you can use, nobody you can relate to, no mana you can claim, nothing. when you cannot recite your whakapapa, it can feel like there's a part of you that's fundamentally missing.

as well as this, even when people mean well, when you are in this situation, you're usually told to just do some genealogy work, do some research, ask your family what they know. sometimes, these steps are simply not possible. other times, we've already done everything suggested over and over and over again. we're generally told "oh, that sucks, but one day you'll find out, keep looking!" in response to our lack of iwi. sure, they mean well, but i have never once been told anything along the lines of "that's okay, some things are lost to time through no fault of your own. don't beat yourself up over something your whānau had to hide to survive, what you do now to uphold your family's mana, what you do know about your whānau, and who you ultimately become is more important than what you no longer know."

and why? why is it seen as shameful to say matter-of-factly that i don't know my iwi? i'm not looking for comfort, i'm not looking to be told that, aww, there there, i'll find it eventually. i'm stating a fact. i do not need pity, i need my mana and voice to be respected.

this concept is what i want to emphasise by coining ngāti rangiātea. some things are lost to time, but we aren't. our loss of knowledge does not mean that we are unworthy of being māori, that we are unworthy of basic human respect. it does not mean that we have lost everything that our whānau knows. it is a scar, a reminder of what colonisation took from us, yes, but we cannot allow it to continue to be an open bleeding wound. we will not be lost to time and we should not bow our heads and act like we do not exist, that we're inconvenient, that we damage the "image" that māori have. in fact, we are an important aspect of māori culture and ignoring our existence does harm to everybody.

and of course we can't speak on some topics regarding te ao māori. this seems to be a topic that comes up frequently as a strawman. yes, there are some topics that would be irresponsible to speak on when we have no experience with them. this doesn't mean we can't speak on anything. having a collective identity, an "iwi" to congregate around even just politically, would help us speak on topics that we are more qualified to speak on than māori with knowledge of their iwi (yes, those topics exist, shockingly.)

we will never be lost, for we are a seed sown in rangiātea.

by identifying as ngāti rangiātea, i wish to emphasise that it's important to accept that sometimes, someone just won't be able to find every piece of information. loss of family knowledge is literally one of the primary goals of forced assimilation! we all went through it as colonised peoples, why must we continue to attach shame to those of us who were forced to obfuscate our history to keep our children alive? it's not a personal flaw, it's not a dirty secret, it's a fact of life that must not continue to be kept quiet out of shame, and the sooner we can focus on healing this subsection of our community, the stronger māori as a whole will become.

so, this is why i'd like to coin a term for māori who are unsure of their iwi. this is what i intend to achieve by giving us a name, our own "iwi" to congregate around, to identify ourselves as. instead of hanging my head and saying "i'm not sure what my iwi is, i'm sorry", instead of feeling inclined to beg like a dog to be treated with respect, i would like to look people in the eye and tell them that i am ngāti rangiātea. i would like this label to be synonymous with strength and not shame, that i refuse to let my whakamā swallow me, that i am just as worthy of calling myself māori as anyone else, that there are many others in my iwi (or lack thereof). i would like other people to have that as well and i would like those like me to feel less lost when all they've been told is "well, you'll learn your iwi eventually!" as if that's going to help someone feel better if they can't find their iwi.

and even if a person finds their iwi eventually, it's absolutely disgraceful that people are treated that they're not allowed to access many basic parts of te ao māori until they discover something they are not even 100% destined to find. i think that this view contributes to a lot of people who eventually find their iwi becoming unnecessarily arrogant towards those who truly cannot find this information, that they're just not putting enough effort in. if a person finds their iwi after identifying as ngāti rangiātea, they are fully welcome to continue to identify as this political label along with the iwi they now know they belong to as i wish for it to be a term that describes your experiences, your upbringing, and your community. you don't suddenly lose your whānau or your lived experience when you discover your whakapapa.

finally, this hopefully goes without saying, but ngāti rangiātea is not meant to function as a real existing iwi does. the term will hopefully be used as a way to identify yourself and other people and organise but i don't expect nor do i want this to be treated like a coordinated iwi. i expect and hope for this to be a decentralised way of identifying and experiencing community to make it easier to organise as a people. think of this the way the terms ngāti kangaru, ngāti rānara, ngāti tūmatauenga etc. are used.

-----

so, the tl;dr is that i feel like coining a name for a phenomenon that nearly one in five of all māori experience in quiet shame, to make it easier for us to congregate and find each other, speak on our experiences, organise as activists, feel less lost, and ultimately give us the ability to regain our mana as a community with shared goals and experiences. i have spoken to many māori who feel this way and my suggestion for this term is ngāti rangiātea, to show homage to the well known whakataukī, "i will never be lost, for i am a seed sown from rangiātea", to give us a community to work with, and to give us an "iwi" to list when asked instead of fumbling for words and feeling whakamā.

i would like to take the emphasis off of constantly looking to the future for what you may or may not even find with this identity. we are not broken, we are not lost, for we are seeds sown in ngāti rangiātea.

tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tatou katoa, and if you got this far, thank you for reading.

[adm-starblitzsteel-4305]

NGL but...

Since this month is MerMay (I was hoping to draw Mermaid!Mothra, but I'm running out of time 😭), I have a crazy idea running my mind...

P.S. This might be the most funniest (shittiest) Kongzilla fic IDK why I should pull this...🙃

So it starts here...

What if after Godzilla consumes a lot of Tiamat's radiation on her lair and after a battle between the icy grandma and the bald tyrant son-of-a-bitch together with Kong on his side and went home to his coliseum to sleep, he woke up the next day finding his lower half of his own body is replaced by Tiamat's other half of her body?!?!

Now I imagine himself struggling to get up, even destroying half of the human population and the buildings before he managed to reach the sea and swims deeper and guess what? HE FUCKING SWEARS FOR ABOUT WHOLE HOURS.

Tiamat's (and even Scylla's) spirit is seen laughing her (their) ass off because she believes that Tiamat's lair might have laid "a curse" on his act for handing over her lair and the radiation reserves, and an attempt murder yeeesh. Godzilla can't sense because they were dead duh.

Then Godzilla travels back to his old home and goes into one of the Hollow Earth's portal in order to stop this "abominational curse".

Once there, he met Suko while on a hunting trip looking for food. The little ape was flabbergast yet he even laughed at him before Godzilla threatens him to incinerate or his kind, so Suko reluctantly guides the King of the Monsters to the newly built place for the Great Apes where Kong - now King Kong - is their new leader.

Once there, Kong was shocked to see him in his "not so normal state". Most of the Apes are seen snickering while others cannot hold on their laughters, and a few were scared because of his past actions that happened during the war of his and Skar King's history.

While even Kong cannot help but feel empathy of his former-enemy-turned-friend, he decided to seek Mothra out for help. He leaves his kind behind with only Suko and Shimo to guard them down while the two are travelling miles away.

There will be some scenes like Godzilla 'trips' himself right in front of Kong's chest, and Kong was like "WTF bro?! Why're you looking at me?!"; the two eating from their meals they had just hunting down and when their hands touched one another from trying to get that food, they stared like few minutes before breaking their sight out; Kong soothing Godzilla down after having nightmares of his father's death from the MUTOs; both talking about their lives from worse to better; friendship stronger; Godzilla admiring the Hollow Earth and how Mothra had fully evolved into her Rebirth form; etc.

Slowburn Kongzilla was there...

As the two reached from the Iwi borders, Mothra appears to them in the crystal-like temple (Jia, Ilene Andrews, the Iwi Queen, Trapper and Bernie were there; and I cannot imagine about them were flabbergasted about Godzilla's sudden appearance). Godzilla was happy to see her, and Mothra reveals that Tiamat's power has something to do with his form changing. The only way to break out this abominational curse is to "profess your former enemy's self-hatred."

Well, Godzilla already knew that, he cannot but least he told Mothra that he loved her very much, and the moth half-jokingly tells him he is BISEXUAL, I swear Godzilla dislikes that because he is a STRAIGHT MAN, but Mothra knew it otherwise because she can read his mind.

So anyway, Godzilla leaves, but Kong and Mothra follows him. Then there will be arguments, and Godzilla finally had enough. He confessed his feelings for Kong, and Kong was stood still in silence, but he feared about the Queen of the Monsters and Defender of the Iwi Tribe will beat him. However, Mothra never shows anger, but was simply proud about regaining their friendship and allied one another, most of all, feelings~

So the two male Alphas held their hands each other, finally professing their love...and THEY KISS~

...And Godzilla woke up with a loud scream, finding himself back to his cozy 'bed'. Mothra was there cuddling to her husband and just woke up from his scream. Then the King checks himself and his body, only to find out he's back to his normal body. He is happy yet scared about that shit until his wife calms him down, saying it's just a dream and nothing else. Godzilla couldn't help but feels his guts wanted to vomit out butterflies all because he will NEVER EVER gonna accept the fact about his relationship to Kong...

When Mothra falls asleep, Godzilla couldn't help but feels something was off to his matters.

"...Maybe this dream wasn't so real after all...or Kong's not really bad too."

THAT'S ALL FOR KONGZILLA SHORT FIC. 🤫

@sassyassblog

[thecatspirits]

Just stumbled upon the beautiful art of throat singing which is done among multiple cultures across the world, including the indigenous people of Canada (Inuit, First Nations, Métis), Mongolia, Tibet, etc. I was watching videos of it to help me understand what it was and people were commenting on videos on how it sounded, specifically in a negative way, and it makes me so sad to see. I wish people could learn to respect those who are trying to keep their cultures alive and understand that we are all different. Just because it doesn't sound like modern pop or rock music doesn't mean it is any less beautiful!

[brifdi-daily]

are I WANT IN, A NEW OBJECT SHOW I MADE BECAUSE I'M BORED, THE SLIDESHOW OBJECT SHOW and EVERY OBJECT SHOW (CROWNED CROW) on þe list? just curious

I Want In isn't on the list but i have seen it, the rest i have not heard of! i'll put em in my watch later as well

[fandom-fae]

im on such a nostalgia trip rn- do yall know the song ‘wenn ich ein death note hät’? its one of the only death note fansongs that i know and i used to love that song with a passion

[milf-harrington]

maize 4 ask game :)

maize - share the weirdest encounter you've had with a stranger on the street

oh god this requires me to have a better memory- uhhh. hm.

OH i got stopped by a tiktokker when i was in brisbane! we were walking back from- it was either a club or the venue we'd been at, i can't remember exactly, and this dude with this full set up for his phone stopped me for a sec to ask how i was doing or something and i actually genuinely would've stopped for a proper chat because i am a goddamn social butterfly when i've been drinking but our uber pulled up and my friends were dragging me to the car

and i mean it probably wasn't the weirdest thing that could've happened but it was still weird for me, who's from a small rural town and isn't used to being approached by strangers sddjfsjd

[sapphia]

USA please listen to me: the price of “teaching them a lesson” is too high. take it from New Zealand, who voted our Labour government out in the last election because they weren’t doing exactly what we wanted and got facism instead.

Trans rights are being attacked, public transport has been defunded, tax cuts issued for the wealthy, they've mass-defunded public services, cut and attacked the disability funding model, cut benefits, diverted transport funding to roads, cut all recent public transport subsidies, cancelled massive important infrastructure projects like damns and ferries (we are three ISLANDS), fast tracked mining, oil, and other massive environmentally detrimental projects and gave the power the to approve these projects singularly to three ministers who have been wined and dined by lobbyists of the companies that have put the bids in to approve them while one of the main minister infers he will not prioritise the protection of endangered species like the archeys frog over mining projects that do massive environmental harm. They have attacked indigenous rights in an attempt to negate the Treaty of Waitangi by “redefining it”; as a backup, they are also trying to remove all mentions of the treaty from legislation starting with our Child Protection laws no longer requiring social workers to consider the importance of Maori children’s culture when placing those children; when the Waitangi Tribunal who oversees indigenous matters sought to enquire about this, the Minister for Children blocked their enquiry in a breach of comity that was condemned in a ruling — too late to do anything — by our Supreme Court. They have repealed labour protections around pay and 90 day trials, reversed our smoking ban, cancelled our EV subsidy, cancelled our water infrastructure scheme that would have given Maori iwi a say in water asset management, cancelled our biggest city’s fuel tax, made our treasury and inland revenue departments less accountable, dispensed of our Productivity Commission, begun work on charter schools and military boot camps in an obvious push towards privatisation, cancelled grants for first home buyers, reduced access to emergency housing, allowed no cause evictions, cancelled our Maori health system that would have given Maori control over their own public medical care and funding, cut funding of services like budgeting advice and food banks, cancelled the consumer advocacy council, cancelled our medicine regulations, repealed free prescriptions, deferred multiple hospital builds, failed to deliver on pre-election medical promises, reversed a gun ban created in response to the mosque shootings, brought back three strikes = life sentence policy, increased minimum wage by half the recommended amount, cancelled fair pay for disabled workers, reduced wheelchair services, reversed our oil and gas exploration ban, cancelled our climate emergency fund, cut science research funding including climate research, removed limits on killing sea lions, cut funding for the climate change commission, weakened our methane targets, cancelled Significant National Areas protections, have begun reversing our ban on live exports. Much of this was passed under urgency.

It’s been six months.

[extincto]

This is my first time watching Whale Rider properly and I can't handle this shit Rawari Paratene

[incendiak]

for the artist ask: 5 and 14 and 28 and 29 o u o

5. What work are you most proud of (regardless of likes/reblogs)?

That I have posted 👀 is this lil number here

14. What's one pairing/character/subject/body part/object you want to explore next year?

Oh for sure hands xD I always say that. But I also want to get better at face angles! Feet angles!

28. Did you learn anything about your art/process/style this year?

Hmmm that I can do cell shading to a degree which is cool. I hate shading 🥲 my brain just doesn't know what to do with it but I think the cell shading is working and like giving me some confidence too

29. What are you excited for next year when it comes to your art?

Everything!! I'm finally feeling creativecreative again after all the crap life stuff that's been going on so I'm just excited to M a k e

[mucking-faori]

This stupid bitch is going to court over a 90 minute course

Also the course is specifically on maori world views in regards to land and working with iwi and maori clients, so it's not even like she's being taught about maori "religious" beliefs that could conflict with her own.

[victoriadallonfan]

Not to claim Godzilla x Kong was a deep film, but credit where it’s due, it has by far the most respectful portrayal of indigenous people in all of the Kong films.

This is not a high bar and I’m NOT saying it’s the pinnacle of progressive film work, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Spoilers below, of course.

For those of you who haven’t seen any of the older Kong films outside of the Monsterverse, the general plot beat is that a wealthy businessman/philanthropist/greedy asshole goes to Skull Island to find something new to make a lot of money (film for the OG/Peter Jackson and Oil for the 70’s film), and comes across a tribe of “barbarian” natives who kidnap the beautiful white woman whom they sacrifice to Kong, whom they worship.

It’s such a cliche that even Peter Jackson does it in his 2005 film (and it’s possibly even more racist than the older ones):

As you can see, there is a very familiar pattern

The Iwi tribe of the Monsterverse is handled very differently

In Kong: Skull Island, it actually does try to play into previous viewers perceptions; we meet the Iwi as the protags stumble upon their village ruins and are surrounded by. Tension is tight, and it looks like it’ll be a repeat of the previous films… until the character of Hank Marlow arrives and diffuses the tension entirely, revealing that the Iwi have been generous and caring hosts to him.

And yes, while they do worship Kong, it’s not out of fear, but rather that Kong protects them from the hazards of Skull Island. The Iwi are the ones who help the crew get a working ship and aid them in escaping the island.

This is followed up in Godzilla vs Kong, where we tragically learn that a massive tropical storm (I think implied to be due to King Ghidorah hurricanes) sank the entire island and left Jia as the sole survivor of her tribe, saved due to Kong protecting her from the rising floods.

Kong and Jia are then seen as a near inseparable duo, further twisting the “beauty and beast” dynamic of the previous films, making it more about how they are both alone except for each other. Kong even learns sign language from Jia in one of the best movie reveals of the series:

It’s even Jia who is able to give Kong the morale boost to save Godzilla from Mechagodzilla.

And then we get into Godzilla x Kong. Kong and Jia, while having a new home, still feel isolated because of their cultures (or lack thereof) and make excuses to see each other as much as possible. Which is turned on its head as Kong finds other Apes and the Iwi tribe have returned (or at least) an offshoot of them, as the protectors of humanity who calls Godzilla to their aid.

I was a bit wary of making them telepathic, but I liked that they used it more like a separate language than a superpower, with Jia serving as that bridge as she finds her culture, her adoptive mother accepts that Jia may want this life more than one back home (where she felt out of place), and Jia becoming ANOTHER bridge as she helps resurrect Mothra who goes onto make Godzilla and Kong form an alliance!

Ultimately, Jia parts ways with the Iwi on good terms to live with her adoptive mother, happy to know there are people of her culture she can visit and Kong lives on with his people.

But I especially appreciate a moment in the film that pretty much lampshades the older Kong movies.

One of the characters is filming himself and others as they venture into Hollow Earth, desperate to get his fame and fortune in making people realize he was a hero and not a conspiracy theorist (he was a spy for Apex Labs, the ones who built mechagodzilla in the first place). Another character is an animal doctor and naturalist, who points out that, historically, native populations don’t tend to do well when exposed to the modern world.

Add on to the fact that the Iwi are telepathic and know how to use crystals to alter gravity in Hollow Earth, they would absolutely be the target of government operations and experimentation. Aka, a far more grand version of what happens in the older Kong films.

The film ends with the footage not being used and the Iwi living in peace, having Mothra once more to protect them.

Like I said, it’s not groundbreaking stuff, but I appreciate how different it is.

[sunflowerhae]

Ch. 14 Suicide not postponed!

⚠️comments about body parts! ⚠️

‘W E M L’ = whatever major loser

‘ILY IMY IWY’ = I love you, I miss you, I want you

GG! (Good Game!) 👾

Notes: two chapters as a sorry for going MIA lol, I actually am pretty excited for the possibilities for this story!

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[69constellationsinatrenchcoat]

We met our new therapist today.

I told them about the system about 20 minutes into a 60 minute appointment as he asked what I (we) wanted out of therapy and in response he said "I'll meet you all where you're at as an iwi*1 and work with you as individuals while remembering you're a collective."

They later added that he had worked with systems with over 200 alters, and he said that it's completely fine that we're multiple (and that western society is terrible at accepting anything out of the norm).

I cried.

*1 Translation: iwi roughly means 'people' or 'nation' in Te Reo Maori and is often translated as "tribe"

We had a 15 minute discussion on gender in relation to Maori culture and he said that prior to colonial influence there was no such thing as male/female: the words used for male and female (tāne = male *2, wāhine = female *3) were taken from gods. Prior to colonisation, Maori defined themselves by their family, local mountains, local rivers and their whanau (family & found family), instead of the junk between their legs.

*2 Tāne taken from Tāne Mahuta (god of the forests and all those within) *3 Wāhine taken from Hine-te-iwaiwa: spiritual guardian of childbirth, weaving, and the cycles of the moon

Anyway, I love them already. He'll be amazing. They're so chill and swore in the first 10 minutes of the appointment, calling TERFs "bitches".

It's not all hell out there, my lovely fellow systems. I promise. There'll be someone who listens.

[the-quiet-fire-of-defiance]

Melian and her Descendants as Native Aotearoa Birds

For day 4 @tolkienofcolourweek

A detailed image description is at the bottom of this post but I've listed the characters and their matching birds below.

Melian: hūia. A sacred bird, often considered to be one of the most beautiful birds in Aotearoa. Their feathers were traditionally only worn by people of high status.

Hūia were forest songbirds who paired for life and were utterly devoted to their partners. The pairs would fly and hunt together, caressing each other with their bills, singing duets back and forth. Often when a hūia died, its partner would die of grief a few days later (typically due to failing to eat or drink).

There was a sharp decline in the numbers of hūia after the arrival of European settlers in the 1840s. By the early 20th century, they had disappeared from our forests forever.

Lúthien: tūī. The most talented of our songbirds, a stunningly beautiful creature with iridescent blue-black feathers. Their double voicebox allows them to mimic almost any sound, including human speech. They often sing all day long.

Tūī are messengers to the gods. In Māori culture we might compliment a singer by saying that they have korokoro tūī, the throat of a tūī.

Also I'm feral about this quote:

Farmer and ornithologist Herbert Guthrie-Smith, writing in the early 20th century, observed of a female tui singing on the nest (tui are the only bird in the world to sing on the nest): “We were close to her, yet she sang as if her song could have no ending, as if the world was too full of the ecstasy of life for wrong and rapine to exist. The sun was shining above the flowing river, the leaves green, of every shape and shade; her great love had cast out fear.”

(Source)

Díor: kōtare, aka the sacred kingfisher. (Yes, okay, this is partially a joke about Dior being a sacred king.) Although kōtare are native to Aotearoa, they're also found in other countries. Most Eastern Polynesian cultures, including many Māori iwi, believe that kōtare have power over the ocean and waves.

Kōtare can sit motionless for hours while waiting for their prey, watching with perfect stillness. For this reason, a person who is alertly watching for enemies is sometimes compared to a kōtare.

Elured and Elurin: tara iti, aka fairy terns.

For Māori, terns in general are associated with people of high status. Tara iti are the smallest species of tern in Aotearoa, weighing in at about 70 grams (or 2.5 ounces). They're also our rarest breeding bird. Sadly, there are only about 40 individuals left.

Elwing: kōtuku - I expanded on this in another post

Elrond and Elros: North Island kōkako and South Island kōkako (respectively). Kōkako are blue-grey songbirds who often have a similar call to tūī, although with a slightly less extensive range of sounds. They love to sing duets; in fact, they sing the longest known duets of any bird in the world.

The North Island and South Island kōkakō are closely related but distinct sub-species. Although the North Island kōkako has been the subject of a successful conservation campaign, the South Island kōkako is considered possibly extinct. (The last two reliable sightings were in 2007 and 1967.) However, some people who walk the remote tracks of the South Island swear they've heard its song.

Elladan and Elrohir: tīeke, aka the North and South Island saddlebacks. The two species are very difficult to tell apart for all but the most trained eyes. They're close relatives of kōkako and hūia.

Tīeke are notoriously fearless. In Māori culture, they're guardians and guides.

Arwen: Chatham Islands tūī. While these birds look extremely alike to mainland tūī, they sing a very different song.

(Since this bird is from the Chatham Islands, the Arwen faceclaim is a Moriori woman. Moriori are the indigenous people of the Chathams.)

Image description below cut due to length.

A series of paired images. Each pair has one bird and one faceclaim. All of the faceclaims, except for Arwen, are Māori.

1: Hūia and Melian. The hūia is a black bird with an orange wattle, long curved beak, and white at the end of its tail feathers. Melian is a dignified woman with light brown skin, brown hair, and a traditional chin tattoo. She wears traditional clothing and a pounamu (greenstone) ornament around her neck.

2: tūī and Luthien. The tūī is in flight. The light has caught its wings and tail feathers, making them look a vivid blue. Luthien is a light-skinned (but distinctly Māori) woman with long dark hair. She wears a black dress and a pounamu necklace.

3: a kōtare and Dior. The kōtare is a blue/black bird with a white neck and underside. It's in flight, carrying something in its mouth. Dior has dark brown skin and facial tattoos that mark him as someone of high rank. He wears a carved bone ornament in his hair, a pounamu necklace, and a traditional feather cloak.

4: tara iti and Elured and Elurin. The tara iti is visible from behind, its white wings spread, either landing or taking off. Elured and Elurin are infants swaddled in blankets side by side.

5: Kōtuku and Elwing. The kōtuku is a gorgeous white bird with a long neck and stilt-like legs. This one standing on a tuft of grass surrounded by water, looking down at its reflection. Elwing is a light-skinned, dark haired pregnant woman wearing a white cloak and cradling her stomach.

6: North Island kōkako (kōkako o Te Ika a Māui) and Elrond. The kōkako is a blue-grey bird with a black beak and blue wattle. The Elromd faceclaim is Alex Aiono (Ngati Porou, Samoa), a man with light brown skin and dark curly hair. In this photo he's shirtless, holding a flower and facing the righthand side of the image.

7: South Island kōkako (kōkako o Te Waipounamu) and Elros. The kōkako looks very similar to the bird above except for its orange wattle. The Elros faceclaim is also Alex Aiono, but in this image he's standing on a beach in front of the sea, smiling.

8: North Island saddleback (tīeke o Te Ika a Māui) and Elladan. The tīeke is a medium sized bird with a red wattle and mixed black/red-orange plumage. My Elladan faceclaim is Jordi Webber (Te Atiawa, Ngāti Toa, Te Arawa, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Maniapoto). He's a young man with pale brown skin, wavy black hair, and grey eyes.

9: South Island saddleback (tīeke o Te Waipounamu) and Elrohir. He is also represented by Jordi Webber.

10: Chatham Islands tūī (tūī o Rēkohu) and Arwen. This tūī is sitting on a flax plant, but it looks very similar to the tūī photo from earlier. It has blue-black plumage, a white tuft at its throat and orange pollen on its head. The Arwen faceclaim is a smiling Moriori woman in front of trees. She has long brown hair, light brown skin and a white dress.]

[astraerystarr]

You know what. I hate Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

I'll never forgive Wingard for how insignificant he made Mothra be in The New Empire, and how much he messed up the little bit of lore we had established from KOTM.

Less than two minutes of screentime?

Enough that you can forget she was even in the movie even with the characters mentioning having to bring her back every thirty minutes?

Why does she need a human to be reborn? That takes away so much of her mysticism. Before we assumed that Mothra could feel it was time for her to be reborn. Like she was always aware of something deeper, like she was connected to the Cosmos itself.

Now she needed a human? Specifically from Skull Island? How would the Iwi, who were in the deepest parts of the Hollow Earth for however many years, even KNOW about Skull Island? Ffs the more you think about the movie the more it falls apart. Everything is held together by stitches.

And I was so looking forward to seeing Mothra's cute larval form. She looks like a Tardigrade. But Mothra wasn't meant to be in the movie and Wingard had to lie through his teeth to say she was the original plan. I don't trust him with hers or Godzilla's characterizations.

Don't even get me started on how obvious it is that she was just shoved into the movie with animations and sounds that fit a peacock better (Like what Fosphera was going to be with those feathers).

The bird sounds are so out of place with her reused sounds from KOTM. Those ones are based on whales and dolphins.

This discussion on Reddit actually reassured me a little bit when it comes to Mothra's lore: https://www.reddit.com/r/Monsterverse/comments/1d6g41i/adam_wingards_take_on_gxk_mothra_explained/

Thank you for the explanation @/thebeastunleashed !