Championing Mātauranga Māori frameworks as health prevention solutions

Ki ngā whakaeke, haumi – Join with those who connected the waka together. Find your place, you are part of the action.

This whakatauki speaks to the entrance into the moon phases that supports action. This is how we set ourselves up to dream of connection and more open and intimate experience of living (Wawata, Dr Hinemoa Elder).
  
Using Te Whare Tapa Wha framework and the maramataka to guide and inspire innovation in Kaupapa Wellbeing has been the driving force behind the partnership between Healthy Families East Cape and Ngā Wāhine Toko I Te Ora.
 
Under the influence of the Ōturu marama on Saturday the 6th of May our Healthy Families East Cape’s Practice Lead, Tomairangi Higgins, Rautaki Māori, Jade Kameta, and Communications Manager, Ranui Maxwell presented a Kaupapa Wellbeing prototype to our Kaupapa partners, Ngā Wāhine Toko I Te Ora – Te Tarāwhiti (Māori Women’s Welfare League – Te Tairāwhiti).
 
It has been six months since Healthy Families East Cape began collaborating with our Kaupapa partners, Ngā Wāhine Toko I Te Ora – Te Tarāwhiti (Māori Women’s Welfare League – Te Tairāwhiti) to understand what their aspirations for their own and their whānau well-being are. As collaborative partners, we have worked together to co-design a prototype that has culminated in created resources and tools to help our wāhine achieve their aspirations.  
 
The Kaupapa wellbeing has been able to refresh Māori Women’s Welfare Leagues activation of leadership in our communities and within our iwi, hapu and whānau. Māori Women’s Welfare League have been activating leadership since their establishment 1951, and the partnership with Healthy Families East Cape team has been able refresh the adaptive capacity of the community in the direction of greater strength.
 
In attendance at the regional hui were over 40 wāhine, along with the National President of the Māori Women’s Welfare League, Dr Hope Tupara.
 
Dr Tupara spoke about the value of a partnership approach, noting their success with other partnerships. These partnerships are operating at every level of the system, meaning that partnership at this level can impact and influence transformational change at a policy level, and also shift behaviours at a community level.
 
The Healthy Families East Cape team drew inspiration for the framework from insights gathered from the wāhine across our region, and utilised a co-design wānanga that saw the Te Whare Tapa Wha framework help mould the collection of lived experiences and aspirations for wellbeing -  addressing the four taha of wellbeing, taha tinana (physical), taha hinengaro (mental), taha wairua (spiritual) and taha whānau (family).
 
Aligned with the Māori Women’s Welfare League - Te Tairāwhiti Branch hui, Healthy Families East Cape have taken a quarterly approach, delivering prevention solutions via the resource pack and focussing on one of the four taha at each quarter.
 
What came from our co-design hui and insight gathering is that our wāhine acknowledged a holistic approach to well-being, and that there is a passion to utilise a Te Ao Māori worldview - a worldview where hauora can only be achieved unless we address all four taha of our wellbeing.
 
With this in mind, the Healthy Families East Cape team innovated to create resources that support their wellbeing journey, making it practical and drawing upon their overall aspirations - “Te Whare Whare Tapa Wha”, a take on a bingo card.
 
 
The resources included:

• A booklet containing a Te Whare Whare Tapa Wha Bingo Card

• A Maramataka Reflective Journal, focusing on only four of the marama phases; Rākaunui, Tangaroa, Tamatea, and Whiro. The wāhine have also been provided Wawata – Moon Dreamingby Dr Hinemoa Elder. The kōrero in the book draws upon kōrero tuku iho of Ngāpuhi but incorporates Dr Elder’s mahi in psychology to understand our emotions.

• A Sleep Dial, along with kōrero and practical ways to improve sleep. A tool to support and encourage positive sleep habits, with a particular focus on preparing for sleep. The Sleep Dial is driven by insights gathered from the wāhine that speak to their desire to tap into sleep as a preventative factor for health. The Sleep Dial seeks to harness the power of sleep, reducing the number of health risk factors and improves mental health and well-being and providing a practical tool to measure the hours of sleep you need, when to stop using electronic devices like phones and watching TV.

• Wawata – Moon Dreaming Book by Dr Hinemoa Elder

 
This quarter, the focus was on Te Taha Tinana, in line with our maramataka and the season, encouraging our wāhine to “korikori tinana” (move their body) for 20 mins and incorporate daily activities like walking their dog and visiting their awa (river/lake).
 
Healthy Families East Cape is committed to elevating maramataka and embedding the practice into all of our initiatives, and for some of our wāhine this will be the first time they have been exposed to the practice of Maramataka.
 
Healthy Families East Cape continue to gain insight from our wāhine through their reflective journal and deepen the knowledge of maramataka being a prevention solution that creates positive change in our wāhine, their whānau, and communities.
 
Kaupapa Wellbeing is elevating opportunities to work collectively to achieve an impact that makes a difference and evidence Māori systems of well-being.
 
E tū i te tū a Hamoterangi,
Wawata i ngā wawata a Hineteiwaiwa,
E Kā i te ahi a Hinemauhuika,
Tauiratia te mana a Hinetitama
 
Stand tall like Hamoterangi,
Dream big like Hineteiwaiwa,
Be the flame of Hinemahuika,
Be Hinetitama.