Naumai Haere mai

E te iti e te rahi, E nga puia raukura o te Maunga whakaruruhau, araa ko Taranaki tera, tena tatou katoa. Nei raa te mihi whakatau ki tenei taumata korero ma te tini hei whakarauika nga uri o Neha raua ko Ngarere Kipa ki a taatou anoo.

The primary function of this blog is to develop a central point for the easy distribution of information to the wider Skipper whanau, and for the followers of the blog to comment.

This blog will offer opportunities for people to post:

• Discussions and develop a plan for a Kipa-Skipper whanau reunion in the near future
  
• Oral and recorded accounts of peoples lives, both living and deceased;
• Photographic records/images with name attribution, provenance and circa dates;
• Whakapapa and whakapapa clarification, with Iwi and Hapuu attributions;
• News and events that may be of interest to whanau members;
• Other information that may be cataloged into a comprehensive whakapapa database, which may include, but not be restricted to birthplace, date, education, marriage particulars, achievements/service, occupation history, obituary, burial site.

A brief background:
I along with other whanau members have been numerous discussions over the years about a Kipa-Skipper family re-union, but due to peoples commitments and the daunting task of trying to contact and organise a re-union of this scale, we have regretfully deferred from the chance to make a really special thing happen.

Last week I was back in Taranaki, after a busy 3 days of tattooing the international musicians that were performing at WoMAD I started mokoing some of my relatives (3 of the Robinson Whanau, Bev Gibson, Raewyn Ashby and Lee-ana Robinson). Eventually the discussion turned towards Uncle Albert Skippers' tangi in February at Katere Ki Te Moana/Tarereare which i was unable to attend due to family and works commitments. The discussion inevitably covered some of the family news, the tangi and some of the relatives that had attended. We also concluded that we would be remiss if we didn't begin to initiate a plan for a Kipa-Skipper whanau re-union. I started to see that by using the technology readily available to most of us, that we could make this process far more more accessible and efficient for all involved than the traditional snail mail normally used.
So..... this is the first time i have used a blog, after discussion with my 'marginally' better half she suggested that instead of creating a Web-page which has to created by someone with more nous than me, and the web-page has to be paid for, registered, built and posted and it is very hard to manage and interact with unless you have a very good idea of what you are doing.
I don't have any idea of what to do with a web-page... so i have therefore created this blog to initiate the process and move it along a little bit. I plan to post images as soon as practicable (as soon as i source them and figure out how to do it).

So the first thing you can do is send out, text or ring anyone that you know that is genealogically descended from Neha and Ngarere and also any others that may be able to provide comment, and direct them to this site. Most public libraries have easy or free access to the computers/web so there is little excuse for people to not be able to connect and comment. All that they need to do is scroll down to the bottom of the page and press the box with 'Subscribe by email' and that way you will be connected for us to contact. You are also able to comment, which will go up on the page for public consumption for everyone to read. So to avoid offending people by possibly providing incorrect or misleading information or potentially offensive comments, PLEASE check your spelling and context of your comments before pushing 'PUBLISH POST in the orange box. By pressing this box it is up on the web for public consumption. I have the ability to amend or remove offensive or libelous comments by followers and will do so if I receive complaints or consider material is inappropriate.

Secondly the next thing you can do is arrange your memoirs of those who you have known and even details of your own life that can be shared with others, you may not think that they are important, but when we are all gone, we won't even realise how significant that information may be to our relatives and uri (offspring).

Thirdly the next thing you could do is make a plan on either (1), how you could plan to post the information over a period of time, or (2) allow someone else to do that for you.

Forthly, you may consider how you could best plan to resolve logistics to get your family to Taranaki for a family re-union (possibly new year 2011/12?) It would also be advantageous to comment on ideas of what you might want to do whilst at the re-union.
RK