Manukura | Tui Taurua – Healing Our Spirit Worldwide
Published:
July 31, 2024

I had the greatest privilege and pleasure of attending the Healing our Spirit Worldwide conference. The Ninth Gathering, 11–15 September 2023, Vancouver, BC Canada.
The abstracts that I presented at the conference were greeted with such emotion that I was touched to the core.
My Story: I felt honoured but somewhat in awe of the many responses and love that greeted me within the first five minutes of my entering the conference until my steps faded at the closing of the conference. I was asked to participate in numerous photo opportunities. I felt very much like a celebrity and was quite overwhelmed at the range of emotions that welled within my puku over the Healing Our Spirit Worldwide Conference week. Together we shared tears, laughter, karakia, kisses and precious pieces of memories from the past, present and future.
Unexpectedly, I moved into roles identified by many over this year and reinforced at this conference:
– Ambassador representing the Māori Lived Experience voice.
– Mental Health Warrior,
– Queen of Ngāpuhi
– Daughter o te Tino Rangatira (Highest of Chief)
– Healer/Tohunga
– Commissioner Tui
The sights, sounds and smells of Vancouver and its people were a wonderous sight.
Each day was a new experience. The sea planes, the vast high mountains, my visual contemplations of the wildlife before civilization in the rivers, mountains, and seas with the first nations people wondering upon their whenua unbounded and opened my vision of the past.
There was a lot of pain and loss in the faces of the Indigenous people, that were heard in their presentations, through the sharing of one-on-one kōrero, in their song and in the beating of their drums.
I noticed youth of many of the cultural groupings led much of the waiata and haka performances. I even saw wāhine carrying their babies on a front harness and feeding their babies while performing. This was beautiful to see.
To see first nations people wearing a full black bear fur ensemble knowing they would have used every part of the bear upon killing for food and traditional practices gave knowledge to their honouring that animal in every which way.
Many of the traditional costumes worn by the first nations people was expressive in both ornaments attached and colouring.
The healers used magnificent bald eagle feathers, traditional song, and drums, and spent up to half an hour if not more on each healing, being attentive on the person in front of them.
The experience was emotional and seemed to open every pore within my wairua, tinana and hinengaro. The residual of the experience stayed longer than expected. As a healer myself, I am aware of inner toll it can take on the healer him or herself. My thoughts went out to their work as it is so important and can make such a difference to the person receiving this wonderful healing attention.
The convention centre was huge, with three to four levels with approximately three speaking sessions in each room so I would suggest there were over fifty rooms going at one time. I am sure I am underestimating this, but I am sure there were so many amazing speakers that it was impossible to attend everyone’s. Some rooms had numerous people in attendance while other rooms had ten people in attendance. So, I am saying the largeness of people in attendance, the hugeness of the building itself and the number of presentations each hour made the conference a busy place to be.
Happiness, contentment, and wonder filled my soul. I grabbed each memory hungrily so my time in this beautiful whenua of Canada would remain forever in my heart.
My final kaupapa of my visit here in Vancouver took me to Vancouver Island in which, my fundraising of my kākahu/korowai that I had made to assist the gathering of pūtea so I could attend the Healing Our Spirit Worldwide Conference in Canada. This korowai was donated by me, and the Whakaoranga Whānau AOD Charitable Trust (WOW) Kaikohe New Zealand, gifted this onto the Indigenous Rehabilitation Facility, Tsow-Tun-Le-Lum, Vancouver Island, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The emotions of passing forward the korowai “Te Ōrokohanga o Te Ao” to kaimahi Hazel and Merrin rocked my tinana physically and spiritually.
I felt like I was leaving my child and I wanted to make sure she was safe when I left her. I conveyed the importance that she is alive, to use her whenever you feel the need. Do not put her in a cupboard. She wants to be part of and in life.
The beautiful first nations wāhine who now have her will send me some photos of them dancing in her. I look forward to receiving and seeing those photos.
That night we stayed on the First Nations Reservation on Vancouver Island. We drove through this large community, and nothing stood out to me saying that this whenua belonging to them the First Nations people. The homes were very westernised, which I put down to the effects of colonisation.
I am so grateful for the seen and unseen who were with me throughout these experiences. I am so grateful for the love and many lifelong friends who I can call whānau. I am thankful to all who have carried me through this amazing journey.
My abstracts that I presented at the conference:
Abstract One: The Impact of Colonisation –
Background: Dad’s early memories took away my culture. I grew up not knowing what it REALLY meant to be Māori. I was always surrounded by the non-Māori Tauiwi/Pākehā people. I never learnt my native tongue or my culture. The parents of my father’s time believed being Māori would not help us in life, therefore we were Māori but not Māori. It was not until my late forties that I started my journey in reclaiming my heritage.
Lessons Learnt: My westernised mental health diagnosis bipolar mood disorder is in contradiction with the healer/tohunga qualities I am recognised to embrace today. Colonisation has much to be accountable for. The treatment of Māori since the signing of He W(h)akaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Niu Tireni (1835) – We did not cede our sovereignty. The Treaty of Waitangi where the colonists believed we did cede our sovereignty, but to Māori, the Māori version of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (1840) says we did not.
The Native School Act 1867 – “The plan was to phase out the native schools once English had taken hold in the community. Initially, the Māori language was allowed to facilitate English instruction, but as time went on official attitudes hardened against any use of the Māori language. “In later years many Māori children were punished for speaking their first language at school”.
The Tohunga Suppression Act 1907 – The general non-Māori populace that Māori were a “lost race” the effect of banning the practices of spiritual and cultural leaders was to hasten assimilation.
Conclusion/Next Steps: This kōrero (story) unfolds my reclamation journey through my activism of the Tangata Whaiora Māori (Māori Mental Health Lived Experience) Movement.
Abstract Two: Equally Well / Nga Waka o Matariki Strategy –
Issue: Tangata Whaiora (Mental Health Lived Experience) Māori die young and earlier than Tauiwi/Pākehā people. We have multiple existing morbidities which stems from the impact of colonisation.
Background: Māori require recognition and implementation of the intentions and obligations to honour Aotearoa New Zealand’s founding documents He W(h)akaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Niu Tireni (1835) and Te Tiriti o Waitangi (1840).
Results: The Equally Well strategic intention (2019) was to create a Māori health strategy. The journey began from the creation of a whakataukī (proverb) which began in earnest in June 2022. The timing in the Māori calendar birthed Matariki in the name. Ngā Waka o Matariki brings forward a spiritual and visual connection to the authentic Māori voice that stems from a place of honesty and integrity and within it are embedded the connections we (Māori) have, to Papatūānuku our earth mother, and to the natural environment (Te Ao Māori worldview).
Nga Waka o Matariki Equally Well Strategic Plan – Honour, Inspire, Act
Whakataukī Collaborative Leadership Matrix
Puta hua te rere o te wai – The splash of a raindrop one at a time (An idea)
Ka rere te wai, ka timata te puna – Streams begin, water flows (Talk to each other)
Ka rere atu te awa – A course is made, away it goes (Knowledge gathering)
Ka huihui ngā puna kia kotahi ai – Streams join as one (Voices merge)
Kiki ana kotahitanga mai, ka pahu – Momentum gathers, the river surges (The strength of unity is our momentum, our power)
Ko tātou te awa – We are the river (Our work joins us)
Ko te awa ko tātou – The river is us (We are joined because of our work)
Ka puta ko awa ngā roto me te moana nui – The flow of streams combines; into the great ocean they flow The gathering mentors and supports the voices of the many. He Tangata, he tangata, he tangata. It is about the people, the people, the people.
Papatūānuku e, whakarongo mai i oku ngākau, waipuku ngā roimata e, auē, auē, auē – Papatūānuku hear out hearts filled with tears of joy. We celebrate the destination of transformation. Aue, aue, aue hi – Oh what joy.
Conclusion/Next Steps: Ngā Waka kōrero is about numerous waka (canoes meaning allies) paddling separately but drawn together by passion, knowledge and experience in the health and mental health sector to amplify the Māori voice. The breadth of experience in this group comes from lived expertise, clinical practice, strategists, and educationalist, joining our collective voices to initiate movement and transformation.… “In essence, the whakataukī is the life force to the collaborative movement; that will inspire unity to work as a team, to use all our skills to collectively achieve transformational change for the people.”
Abstract Three: Hinengaro Oranga Toa (Mind of a Warrior) –
Issue: Experiences of twenty plus years from my first admission, with thirty years of continuous psychiatric admissions. The taking up to twenty tablets a day had me over medicated and sitting on the couch. Westernised practices were not working, and unhelpful suicidal actions were not only risk taking but the continuous awakening in hospital emergency departments certainly impacted on my hinengaro oranga. I did not understand this world. I felt lost, useless, and worthless.
Background: Years prior I had been introduced to the Te Whare Tapa Whā. (Durie M Dr, 1996) This model helped me to begin to identify a Te Ao Māori way of practice which transformed into a personal recovery model, Te Hinengaro Tangata Toa. This subsequently opened a pathway which I used as a foundation to deal with my past and present trauma. These actions turned into a springboard that transformed and ultimately changed my destiny and therefore my future.
Lessons Learnt: My kōrero for this presentation is to share the practices on my recovery journey while highlighting the importance of our Te Ao Māori worldview on us as Māori with Mental Health Lived Experience. This approach will also show that my application transformed and healed my present.
Hinengaro Oranga Concepts:
· Tika/ Pono
· Arohatanga
· Manaakitanga
· Tautokotanga
· Mātauranga
· Whakapapa
· Te Hinengaro
· Te Tinana
· Tangihanga
· Hākari
Conclusion: Today, a further twenty years forward and knowing how to live in a wairua only space, I reaffirm this model continues to encourage an inner strength that drives my advocacy/advisory/activist work. Finally, I am alive, and I am at peace (2023).
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Tui Taurua.