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A study drawn from Te Kupenga, the post-census survey of Maori well-being, found 71 percent of Maori over 15 know where there ancestral marae is.
It found Maori who visit their marae are also more likely to be engaged in other aspects of Maori culture such as speaking te reo, or who know all their pepeha or tribal identity,
Tahu Kukutai from Waikato University's National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis says it shows that the massive urbanisation of the 1960s and 70s could not break the bonds Maori have with their turangawaewae.
"For quite a long time there was a sense that as people we were becoming disconnected from our hau kainga, identity loss, and not being connected to te ao Maori in the way our tupuna were and that may be true but what this survey shows is there is still that connection, there is still that knowledge of our ancestral marae, there is still a desire to be connected to it, and that is valuable," she says.
Dr Kukutai says Te Kupenga is one of the only surveys around the world that collects large scale demographic data from an indigenous perspective.
Copyright © 2014, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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