Ko te wai te ara tūhonohono i ngā iwi o Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa.
Ehara i te mea kia noho ko te iti o ō tātou moutere hei whakataukī mā te ao, engari ia te nui whakaharahara o ō tātou moana.
He moana tātou, he moana waiwai. Ko te ao moana, ko tātou tērā.
It is the water that connects the people of the Pacific. We should not be defined by the smallness of our islands but in the greatness of our oceans.
We are the sea, we are the ocean. Oceania is us.
— Professor Epeli Hau’ofa