Let our taiao speak

"Trust in your intuition!" and "Let the rakau speak!" are some of the whakatauaki our Aunty Midge always says. She drums her words into our hearts and souls, we know she is right in what she says as our emotions, bodies and mauri resonate to her wisdom. Our tuakana teina kinship our elders speak and spoke of with our rakau was lost to the time of our tipuna who were stripped of their reo and tikanga. Reo and tikanga brought a complimentary world of relationship where reo moved your soul, spirit, mind and body, words were one with the behaviour. All of us have an affinity with our natural world around us. Te taiao is our tipuna world. Nature made us, produced us, gave us a life to experience and contribute to life on going.

One of our beginning tasks as part of our diploma for Rongoa by our Aunty Midge Goldsmith was to "Let one rakau choose you. Get to know this rakau, its whakapapa, purakau, whakatauki, traditional understandings, environmental setting, scientific name, chemical make-up, medicinal properties, characteristics and traits. What does this rakau tell you about who you are as a person?". I felt my heart drum again, I knew my rakau, we had met before but I was afraid of it and what it brings to the journey, my own truth. Just its name brought nightmares. Little did I know my rakau would now be a conscious part of my life's and growing purpose.

Meeting my rakau for the first time

Not too long before we first met our Aunty and her son our Cousin and heard the task of resonating indepth with one rakau, my sister and I went to a one day rongoa course in Thames. I have always wanted to be entrepreneurial and had a connection to native plants, panipani and wairuatanga through my parents Willie Tangaere Kaa and Bella-Marie Moko-Kaa. Through wanting a rongoa business my sister Mererangi said we must learn our tikanga first. Through the deepened journey of tikanga in the embrace of te ao Rongoa I met and resonated with Makomako also known as Wineberry in Thames. This meeting remains unforgettable and layers of this moment connect with moments before and after. Wairua truly works in magical ways.

Excitement filled our being on the one day rongoa course. The day felt serene being with like-minded others who too felt the spirituality of plants. We had karakia, were introduced to the space and each other, and were prepared with a great sense respect for the meeting and greeting into the ngahere.

On the instant as we trailed towards the ngahere I noticed an umbrella-like plant with bright green leaves and pinkish reddish veining on the underside as we moved down the steps. I said in my mind to this rakau "Wow you are beautiful". I was so drawn to its colours and the way the sunlight filtered through it. Mere and I were both taken aback by the majesty of her ngahere of which looked quite grown but the plants were only 2-6 years old. Their young presence brought the child within out as we felt the need to excitedly say hello to the plants (sometimes in our minds), give them high and low fives. I felt as if I were in the most joyous day care for children. The creators and caretakers of deeply caring, nurturing and protective of their ngahere and the plants bubbled with happiness in their care. We entered a sacred crystal circle as a group, danced and sang, and shared our experience.

After the sacred circle our guide asked us to connect with one plant in the ngahere, to spend time with this rakau, let them know who we are and korero. To mihimihi is quite special to Maori a sacred connection and journey of 'ko wai koe, ko wai au' knowing there is relationship with everything transforms your being. As I walked around I was not sure which rakau to go to but eventually I went back to Makomako and not knowing its name I knew Mako as a rakau that umbrellas, is translucent and vibrant. In connecting once again I closed my eyes told Mako my name. I shared my worries about my Nan who has heart issues and asked if this rakau can help with this ailment. I felt a cooling sensation within my body, my imagination showed organs that were inflamed receiving what to me felt like a light mirimiri. I felt the reparation. Here all our senses are part of the 'rongo' process. Later after this day during our rongoa diploma course I learnt that rongoa speaks of the five senses and the spiritual side to each sense.

The toothed serrated edges of the Makomako rau did remind me of a shark and later it was confirmed the rakau I connected with was Mako. In this knowing the name is significant in an indigenous world revealing who someone is. In my learnings Mako meant facing your fears to over come the greatest challenges in your life. Mako meant an admittance to myself of my own truth. Mako meant great perseverance and an acknowledgement of your own fears with the unconscious fears. In my sub-conscience I have an image of meeting Mako the Shark asking permission to be allowed to enter the realm of Tangaroa and Hinemoana during my first mihimihi.

Our rakau uplift us, help us focus, be in tune and intuitive, they balance the feminine, masculine and divine child within us all. Being with te taiao is humbling and deeply moving. Although there is much more to share on this never ending story I end this writing with a whakatauki left by our tipuna 'Kaua e mate Wheke, mate Ururoa! Don't die like the Octopus, die like the Hammerhead Shark!' May we all persevere in the challenges of life to pursue our purpose.

Ko Tane toku matua

Ko Hinemahau toku mama

Ko au tetahi tamaiti o raua

Ko Makomako ahau

Binomial name: Aristotelia Serrata

Family: Elaeaocarpaceae

Na Hoana Kaa

Te Karanga a Tī-Kāuka

Kia ora. Firstly, I would like to thank-you for taking the time to visit our page and also taking the time to read about what rongoā means for us. To begin we are starting from the point when rongoā became a more full-time vocation in our lives. To take our rongoā journey to the next level we knew we needed to take an educational role and became students joining rongoā courses. Before we started our certificates and diploma we went to a one day rongoā course in Thames. I didn’t know it at the time but it was here I truly met with who would become my continuous rongoā teacher, tohunga and friend Ti-Kauka. But my very first encounter with this rākau began within my childhood as learnings passed on from tīpuna to mokopuna.

Ngā Tī-Kāuka Kārangranga

As we’d drive into the heart of our turangawaewae (standing ground) along the dusty gravel road home my nanny would always point to the top most point of our small mountain we called Mangatī. “Look moko, Nga Tī-Kāuka. Now count how many there are. Are there 12? There should always be 12 because they represent the 12 disciples. And there should always be 12 there on Pōhautia there across the Waiapu river. They are calling to one another because we are all the same whānau.”

This memory of my Nanny is a constant reminder for me of how these values utilised by our tīpuna carried them through hard times and taught them the values in sharing the abundance in the fruitful times. Ngā Tī-Kāuka Kārangaranga brought families together as the point measured between them is the fishing spot. Two sides of the Waiapu river became one as the whānau gathered there to fish, feed and be a community. It is through the structural supports systems such as this that reminds us of the important tīpuna values of whakapapa and whakawhānaungatanga.

Whakatauki

Ka whati te Tī, ka wana te Tī, ka rito te tito te Tī. This whakatauki about Tī complements its resilience braving the elements of tempest storms and when broken, destroyed or cut down it has the strength to grow again. This resilience is about whakapapa, whānaungatanga and kaitiakitanga. This tree is about the self. Not in a selfish manner but within selflessness and self-reflection. Tī-kāuka is food for birds, insects and humanity, the dried leaves are great fire starters, it has medicinal properties that nurture mothers and babies and because of its unique structural capacity is often used to mark and define wāhi (space/place) balanced within both tapu (sacredly restricted) and noa (the lifting of certain restrictions).

The awakening

Choosing the rongoā path meant for me a significant growth in spirituality and consciousness. As a child my experience with the significance of Tī in my life was like a distant dream, something I had to remember. Meeting one on one with my rongoā rākau Tī up close and personal was different thing altoghether. In my rongoā studies we research the meanings within ourselves of mauri and the some of the different stages of mauri. Mauri Mate, Mauri Moe, Mauri Oho, Mauri Tū and Mauri Ora. As a child my understandings can be described as Mauri Moe such as a state of being asleep, remembering or dreaming. My mihi with Tī in my adulthood can be described as Mauri Oho where something within me was awakened. In this state of Mauri Oho I physically and spiritually felt moved.

As I was to give a hongi to this rākau my mothers face came to meet with mine and we embraced nose and forehead to one another and a healing between us had begun.

This journey has had many ups and downs but ultimately meeting with Tī that day means I always have a moment of turning, a realisation that things needn’t remain the same. And this beginning means significantly that new beginnings happen all the time. And in actuality nothing is separate and apart from one another, in fact we are all different forms of the same thing because all life has a direct whakapapa to the same source. The same story can touch people in different ways, in one moment of togetherness our differences and similarities can create and enhance the experiences we all share. When we really delve into the spiritual realms an understanding of oneness does not mean to be the same but an expansion of the consciousness that created uniqueness in pluriversity.

Our journey is infinite.

Nā Mererangi Kaa