TULSA, Okla. — Māori tribe members touched down in Tulsa all the way from New Zealand.
Cherokee Councilman Joe Deere visited New Zealand to learn more about Māori culture and wanted to show them a bit of his, too. What better way than to introduce them to the Tulsa Powow Club.
Deere says the club is an inter-tribal group encompassing many members from different native groups.
"It's very important for us to work together, not only as individuals but as communities," Deere said.
Councilman Deere is very excited to show the Māori how the tribe does things in Oklahoma.
"It's really neat to share cultures because it's all about community," he said.
"Being able to show the Māori what we do with our language and how we do our culture, and how we do the food in the food deserts here just in Tulsa."
Paora Tehurihanganui is the CEO of Tehurafana Water Tribal Health Organization.
"For us, the cross-pollination of cultural ideas is really important," he said.
"One really important concept for us is that we're moving away from health being human-centered and really looking how we can return to our traditional ideologies around how health is environmentally-centered," said Tehurihanganui.
"Going around and visiting these other nations and seeing how they do that on their land is really important for us."
Group Manager of Fana Water, Fallyn Flavell, added that land acquisition is also very important to the tribe.
"Although there are many Māori in New Zealand, we don't own a lot of land, we own three percent of the total land," she said.
"It's important for us to understand how Cherokee Nation acquired all of their land and how they're using it."
Tehurihanganui and Flavell will be visiting until Monday, touring with Councilman Deere to learn more about each other's cultures.
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