What my DNA test results revealed and taught me about my journey as a white-passing Māori

Ko Tawhitinui te maunga
Ko Tauranga te awa
Ko Hinetera te wharekai
Ko Pararaki te tangata
Ko Maru o Hinemakaho te marae
Ko Te Whānau a Pararaki te hapū
Ko Te Whānau a Apanui te iwi
Ko Tash Bettridge ahau

I recently came across an article written by Megan C. Hills titled What Keanu Reeves taught me about white-passing privilege. The author shares her reflections on what it means to be a mixed-race woman and drawing on similarities with Keanu Reeves, a mixed-race actor and known to be a hero to the Asian community.

After reading the article it got me thinking about my own experiences and it may sound cliché but the points that the author highlighted in the article was the many reasons why I admire Keanu Reeves from a Polynesian perspective. I would also like to highlight that Keanu Reeves also shares Native Hawaiian ancestry and as someone who is a Māori and mixed-race like Keanu, he is seen as an idol for me as well.

Even the name Keanu which is a Hawaiian name, one article stated that Keanu is derived from Keaweaheulu, the name of a famous Hawaiian high chief from the 18th century. However, I came across one article that Keanu once said his Hawaiian name means “cool breeze over the mountain.”

Keanu’s parents gave him a Hawaiian name and even though it is not pronounced correctly in Hollywood, he has lived with the name his parents gave him and has proudly given his definition of what his name meant in Hawaiian.

This got me thinking about my name Natasha. Natasha is not a Māori name or a typical Polynesian name. It is in fact a Russian name and we do not have any Russian bloodline. The real reason why I have this name was that my family didn’t want to give me a Māori name due to their views of giving me a Māori name would be limiting my chances of finding work when I was older. I guess it made it easier for Māori parents to give me a non-Māori name when I came out very pale.

Growing up in a Māori and European household was very normal for me. On my Mother’s side of the family, my Grandfather was NZ European with English and Scottish ancestry and my Nana was Māori from Te-whanau-a-apanui. On my Father’s side, my Grandfather was Australian European and my Nana was Māori from Ngapuhi. My Grandfathers were both Europeans marrying into the Māori culture and adopting a mixed cultural upbringing in the household. The only thing that wasn’t used was te Reo Māori and that was because my Nana’s went through the education system of having the language beaten out of them. Also, it was not to be spoken in the house around my Grandfathers because they did not understand the Māori language. This was normal family life for me and I thought it was normal family life for everyone until I started school.

When I started Primary school, I went to Ponsonby Primary and that was a dominantly European/Pakeha school. Even though I looked fair like the other kids, I did not culturally fit in with them. When my Dad, Nana or cousins would pick me up from school, I would get comments from the kids like “Who are all those brown people?” or “Why is your Dad brown and you are white?” or “Is that your Granny, she is soo brown?” with other derogative horrible words that the kids would say. It got to a point in my life at school, I was getting bullied for my family looking different to me that I would ask my whanau to pick me up around the corner of the school. I did not have many friends at school because the kids were extremely terrible and would taunt me, bully and physically hurt me. When I had friends, I would make friends with all the kids similar to me so all the minorities at the school. I had one other Polynesian friend who I am still friends with today and she was bullied tremendously. Well, we were both bullied by the masses at school by kids and even slight racism from our Teachers. The teachers even told me that I am only 1% Maori because of how fair I am and my intelligence level.

I think my experience with schooling was quite negative because going to school I had to deal with all these issues by students and teachers and then go back to my home life which was quite unstable. I ended up moving schools over 6–8 times until I dropped out as a teenager and completely disowned one part of my cultural identity because I was confused about who I was? for many years. It wasn’t until I travelled to Latin America in my early 20s that I started to appreciate my Māori culture more. I realised that mixed-race cultures were quite normal in Latin America while New Zealanders did not mix much.

While reclaiming my roots from my experiences of travelling to countries that were rich in language and culture, I began the journey of understanding my own te Reo Māori and whakapapa. I grew up thinking I was Māori with skin that doesn’t tan but reflects the sun. However, I grew up with years of being told I am not Māori, constantly being asked about my blood quantum, being told that I must be 1% Māori, 1/8th Māori or I am adopted. This led me to do a DNA test that I am normally against due to privacy concerns and something that Māori do not go by, which is blood quantum.

I think after years of debating with bystanders who had affected my confidence over the years, I needed this as a way of closure. I ordered a DNA kit and took a DNA test through MyHeritage, after 5 weeks of doing the process I got my DNA results.

How MyHeritage works out the confidence level is that genetic Groups provide an enhanced understanding of the places your ancestors came from across 2100+ geographic regions. Being a member of a Genetic Group means that there are genetic similarities between your DNA and that of the group’s founding mothers and fathers.

Genetic groups are assigned with varying levels of confidence. A high confidence level offers a strong indication that you are indeed a member of this Genetic Group, while a lower confidence level reflects a less conclusive indication.

It turned out that I am 59.8% Polynesian with Māori roots, 27.5% Scottish, Irish, Welsh and English, 6.7% West Asian, 2% Greek and South Italian, 1% Baltic, 0.8% Finnish and 2.2% Native American.

The whole process of reading my DNA results is that I can finally feel at ease with who I am as an individual. I think with Māori we know our whakapapa runs deep and blood quantum is not an indicator of who we are as Māori.

I am very blessed to have experienced a mixed upbringing as a Māori and a Pakeha with my Grandparents. Even though there were many hardships in our whanau, I would not trade in my identity for anything.

I miss my grandparents very much and I miss my Nana’s like anything. I haven’t been able to cry for people who have passed on since they have passed on. I am also very grateful for the spiritual gifts that I’ve inherited from my Nans. I think the last sentence only Native people would understand that.