Pepeha: how to introduce yourself in Māori

A pepeha is the traditional Māori way of introducing yourself: before your name, it names the mountain, river, canoe, tribe and marae you descend from. Almost every line is the same short sentence, Ko Taranaki te maunga. ‘Taranaki is the mountain.’, and it ends with Ko Mere tōku ingoa. ‘My name is Mere.’ For people who are not Māori, most published guidance now recommends a different introduction, often called a mihimihi, that says where your ancestors came from, where you grew up and where you live, instead of claiming a mountain. This guide covers the grammar of every line, gives a complete example with a translation, and sets out what Māori writers and New Zealand universities advise.

Updated 7 October 2026 · 12 min read

Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Māori examples play Papa Reo, the te reo Māori voice made by Te Hiku Media from recordings of native speakers.

What is a pepeha?

Te Aka Māori Dictionary defines pepeha as a tribal saying, a set form of words or a saying of the ancestors. Today the word is used mostly for the introduction built on those sayings, the one you are asked to prepare at school, university or work. The film-maker Tainui Stephens (Te Rarawa), writing in E-Tangata, describes what the landmarks stand for: “A mountain represents the timeless foundation of a people, and its peak something to aspire to. Tribal waters, whether a river, lake, or ocean, evoke the ebb and flow of our humanity.”

Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, gives the way Ngāti Porou identify themselves as an example of a tribal pepeha:

That is the whole idea in three lines: a person is placed by the land and the people they come from. Because those come by descent, a pepeha is inherited rather than composed. As the te reo teacher and author Hēmi Kelly puts it, “We don’t create our pepeha. We inherit it through our whakapapa.” The words used in the lines are covered in the guides to Māori family words and Māori place names.

The order is not arbitrary either. The educator and linguist Keri Opai explains it as knowledge from the traditional house of learning: the pepeha runs from mountain to water to iwi, hapū and marae because it follows the water cycle, the mountain catching the rain that becomes the rivers that nourish the people.

The lines of a pepeha, one by one

The University of Otago publishes this template as one example. It marks the waka, ancestor, marae and parents lines as optional, and other templates put the lines in a slightly different order (Massey University’s starts with the waka). Each blank takes a name.

Tupuna is one ancestor (tipuna in eastern dialects), and its plurals are tūpuna and tīpuna. That is why a line about several ancestors uses the plural my as well: ōku tūpuna.

The grammar of a pepeha

Almost all the grammar in a pepeha is one sentence pattern and one choice of possessive. Both are things a beginner meets in the first weeks.

Ko: the sentence that names

Ko is a particle with no English equivalent. It marks something specific, a name or a particular thing, and a sentence built on it identifies: this one is that one. There is no verb in it. Ko Taranaki te maunga. is word for word Taranaki the mountain, and English adds the is. The name comes straight after ko, and the thing it names comes last. It is the same ko as in the question Ko wai koe? ‘Who are you?’, though Keri Opai notes that older speakers were more likely to ask Nā wai koe?, which he translates as “Who do you belong to?”

Te or tōku: “the mountain” or “my mountain”

You will see both Ko Taranaki te maunga. and Ko Taranaki tōku maunga. Otago’s guide says some people use tōku, indicating that something belongs to them or that they belong to it, while others use te, and that a pepeha can look like either. With te the line names the mountain you affiliate to; with tōku it calls it yours.

Why it is tōku and never tāku

Māori has two words for my. Te Aka explains that tāku is used when the possessor has control of the relationship, and tōku when the possessor has none and is subordinate to what is possessed. A mountain, a river, an iwi, a marae and your parents were all there before you, and your name is part of you, so every one of them is tōku. For more than one thing the t drops off: ōku mātua (my parents), ōku tūpuna (my ancestors).

The ā forms only arrive if you go on to the people who came after you: Ko Pita tāku tama. ‘Pita is my son.’ and Tokorua āku tamariki. ‘I have two children.’ There is also a neutral taku, which Te Aka describes as not governed by the two categories. That is why some templates write Ko … taku ingoa, and it is correct too.

Nō … ahau: where you are from

Nō means of, belonging to or from, and it carries the same ō as tōku: you belong to a place, you do not control it. Nō Ingarangi ahau. ‘I am from England.’ The ā partner nā is the common mistake here. Ahau and au both mean I, so nō … au is the same line.

Your name

Ko Mere tōku ingoa. ‘My name is Mere.’ is the usual close. Massey’s template gives the shorter Ko … ahau, I am …, which is the same ko sentence with the name pointing at you.

A complete pepeha, with a translation

Here is the full shape, with Taranaki names. Te Ara records that Te Āti Awa of Taranaki affiliate with the Tokomaru canoe and that Ōwae, at Waitara, is their central marae. Mere and her parents are invented. A real pepeha belongs to the person whose whakapapa it states, so treat this one as a model of the grammar, not something to borrow.

A hapū line, Ko … tōku hapū, would go after the iwi. Rāua ko is how two names are joined: Hēmi and Ani. The greeting at each end is koutou, the word for three or more people, because you are addressing a room; Māori counts the people it speaks to rather than marking politeness (see formal and informal you, by the numbers).

Pepeha for non-Māori: what the published guidance says

This is the question most people searching for a pepeha template actually have, and there is no single answer. Māori writers and institutions have published different views, and several have changed their advice over the years. Here they are side by side, in their own terms.

Do not claim a mountain or river as yours

The firmest common ground is here. Tina Ngata (Ngāti Porou) told the NZ Herald in 2019 that saying a pepeha is “making a genealogical statement as Māori”: “I am Ngāti Porou, and my maunga is Hikurangi. Even if I married somebody from Taranaki, and lived there, had children there, I wouldn’t claim Taranaki.” In the same report the teacher Donovan Farnham (Ngāti Awa, Tūhoe) shared a template whose lines name the mountain that speaks to your heart and the river that eases your worries. Maimoa reported in 2026 that the template was widely embraced but caused discomfort for some Māori, which forced a re-evaluation, and quoted Farnham: “It doesn’t matter how many generations my whānau spent in Ireland or Scotland, I still wouldn’t try to make up a clan.”

Karaitiana Taiuru’s template, adapted from Otago’s Māori/Indigenous Health Institute, keeps Ko … te maunga and Ko … te awa for a mountain and river from your home region, and offers a separate line that acknowledges a mountain without claiming guardianship or whakapapa. He also notes that some Māori may take offence when an Air New Zealand flight is named as a waka. Stacey Morrison is blunter: “Ko Air New Zealand te waka is outdated. Let’s leave that one in the 90s.”

Keri Opai’s template

Opai, writing in E-Tangata in an extract from his book Tikanga, holds that it is appropriate for non-Māori to have a pepeha but that it must be built differently, because the Māori one encodes indigeneity. His template is “pick and mix”: use the lines that apply. The translations follow his.

Te Taura Whiri’s short mihi

Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, the Māori Language Commission, publishes a three-line mihi that it says can be used by anyone, formally or informally: Ko … tōku ingoa (my name is …), Nō … ōku tīpuna (my ancestors are from …, if you know and want to say it) and Kei te noho au ki … (I live in …). It notes that tīpuna is the eastern form and tūpuna the western, and leaves the choice to you.

A simple mihimihi from Maimoa’s interviews

In Maimoa’s 2026 interviews, Hēmi Kelly (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Tahu – Ngāti Whāoa) says pepeha “should be reserved for Māori” and advises being explicit and clear rather than metaphorical. After his own example of a non-Māori mihi, the article gives this simpler mihimihi, with its translation.

The last two lines are how this kind of introduction can honour a mountain you live near: you live under its shelter and on the land of the iwi who hold it, which acknowledges both without claiming either. Verbavia’s course teaches the same approach in its pepeha lesson: Nō Ingarangi ahau. is a real introduction, not a lesser one.

If you are Māori and do not know your pepeha yet

Many Māori do not know their whakapapa, through the impact of colonisation, including adoption and state care practices. Dr Emma West (Ngāti Hine), who was adopted out as a baby and learned her whakapapa at 50, wrote in E-Tangata in 2025 that being asked for a pepeha can bring real shame, and that it should not. Her suggestion is to say exactly that: that you have whakapapa Māori, that you have yet to learn the names of your whānau, hapū, marae and iwi, and that you are on a journey to learn your pepeha. She quotes Rawiri Waititi: “Although you may not know your mountain, your mountain knows you.”

How to deliver a pepeha or mihimihi

Massey University describes mihimihi as the point when everyone at an event introduces themselves and establishes links with each other, usually at the start of a hui. Otago’s guide places it after the formal welcome, the pōwhiri or mihi whakatau, and notes that people ordinarily stand to speak. A mihimihi is more than the pepeha: Massey sets out an opening, a farewell to those who have died, an acknowledgement of the local iwi, a greeting to everyone present and a close. Its example lines:

• Read the occasion. Otago warns that at a tangihanga it would not be appropriate for an undesignated speaker to stand and deliver a pepeha, that not every work meeting opens with mihimihi, and that when unsure you should follow the lead of others.
• Learn the short version first. Keri Opai advises memorising Tēnā koutou, ko Mere au, nō Waitara au, tēnā koutou katoa., with your own name and place, for when there is no time to prepare.
• Do not rush it. “Don’t rush through the bits just because you know them,” Stacey Morrison says. “They’re names that need to be heard.”
• Get the place names right. Te Taura Whiri suggests finding the Māori name for your town, and the macrons matter; the pronunciation guide covers how to say them.
• Have it checked. Otago advises asking someone with expertise in te reo before reciting a pepeha in a formal setting.

Going further

The greeting either side of a pepeha is covered in Māori greetings for emails and everyday life. The words in a pepeha are among the first in any Māori vocabulary, and how many Māori words you need sets out how far the most common ones take you. Verbavia’s free te reo Māori course teaches the ko sentence in its first week and the pepeha itself once the possessives are in place.

Sources

1. University of Otago: Mihi – introductions (pepeha template and delivery)
2. Massey University: Mihi whakatau and mihimihi
3. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori (Te Rangaihi Reo Māori): Learn your mihi
4. Keri Opai, E-Tangata: Pepeha for non-Māori (2022)
5. Karaitiana Taiuru: Culturally safe mihimihi for non Māori (2021)
6. Michael Neilson, NZ Herald: Can Pākehā pēpeha? (2019)
7. Aroha and Hamuera Tamihana, Maimoa: Beyond templates, what pepeha and mihimihi mean today (2026)
8. Emma West, E-Tangata: You’re not lost if you don’t know your pepeha (2025)
9. Tainui Stephens, E-Tangata: My pepeha is my world (2020)
10. Te Ara: Tūrangawaewae – a place to stand (pepeha, tribal sayings)
11. Te Ara: Te Āti Awa of Taranaki
12. Te Ara: Ōwae marae, Waitara
13. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: pepeha
14. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: ko
15. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tōku
16. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tāku
17. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: taku
18. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: ōku
19. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: nō
20. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tūpuna
21. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tīpuna
22. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: hapū
23. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: waka
24. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Tokomaru