How to source a Whakataukī

A student contacted me, wanting to use a Whakataukī (effectively a Māori 'proverb', but the meaning is more 'sharing of a cultural treasure' than something as prosaic as a folk saying) in an assignment, but had found two versions, with two different translations.

The first they found on the Umbrella Learning site, which read "E hara taku toa I te toa takitahi, he toa takitini" (2025), and was translated as "My strength is not as an individual, but as a collective"; the second from Inspiring Communities (2018), "Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari kē he toa takitini", and translated as "My success should not be bestowed onto me alone, it was not individual success but the success of a collective".

Neither of the sources the student had found struck me as being particularly expert. So I suggested that the student do a GoogleScholar search for each of the two versions of the quote, putting each Whakataukī in double quote marks, so the exact text string was sought each time (i.e. "E hara taku toa I te toa takitahi, he toa takitini" and "Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari kē he toa takitini")​ and see what they could find. The reason I suggested a GoogleScholar search is because any sources they found - books or articles - are more likely to be peer-reviewed - so are therefore more reliable, verifiable, valid and, theoretically, more accurate. I wanted them to find a sound source where the interpretation was robust; or, even more important for a Whakataukī, a source with mana. With gravitas.

If they found nothing, I suggested they repeat both searches in their favourite search engine, and see if they could at least find more of a consensus on both the Māori language version and the English translation, and would hopefully find a somewhat more reliable source. 

Luckily, GoogleScholar turned up a great example, complete with appropriate diacriticals: 

"Ēhara tāku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini" from a paper by Quigan et al. (2021, p. 283), with the translation provided, "My strength is not mine alone, but that of many" (p. 284).

Even better, the source of this saying was explained as being from the "Pāterangi of Ngāti Kahungunu, who maintained that collective effort of many was necessary for the completion of any task" (p. 284). That suited my student's uses nicely.

It is always worth looking for where something comes from. 

Sam

References:

Inspiring Communities. (2018). Whakatauki information sheet. https://inspiringcommunities.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Inspiring-Communities--Whakatauki-information-sheet.pdf

Quigan, E. K., Gaffney, J. S., & Si’ilata, R. (2021). Ēhara tāku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini: the power of a collective. Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 16(2), 283-306. https://doi.org/10.1080/1177083X.2021.1920434

Umbrella Learning. (2025). Introduction to Te Whare Tapa Whā. https://learning.umbrella.org.nz/enrollments/283188040/page/1064978659