Te mana o ngā pūrākau
“Te tika ka mōhio, te pono ka mārama, te pūrākau ka maumahara te ngākau.”
Ko a mātou pūrakau kei te ia o a mātou mahi katoa, kei roto i ngā takitakinga o a mātou karakia, kei roto ano i te tangi o a mātou waiata, ka kitea ki roto i a mātou whakairo, kei roto i a mātou kowhaiwhai e iri ana ki ngā pakitanga o a mātou wharenui.
Kei roto ano i a mātou mahinga toi, te tuhi o te tā moko e mahana ai te kiri. Ka kitea ano hoki ki roto i a mātou ingoa wahi, ki ngā tohu whenua me ngā wāhi tapu makona ano hoki ko ngā ingoa whānau e whakamana ana i te whakapapa o tātou te Māori.
Ko He Oranga Whānau Te Tairawhiti tētahi o ngā peka o roto i te kāhui o He Oranga Whānau Aotearoa. E āhei ana ki te whakapakari i te hauora o a mātou whānau mā te anga atu ki te taiao e noho ana, e akoana, e mahi ana, e takaro ana a mātou whānau Māori. Ka tirohia mātou ki ngā āhutanga pūnaha e aupēhiana i te orangatanga o ā mātou whānau o roto i Te Tairawhiti.
Ka whakamahia e He Oranga Whānau o Aotearoa i te pūrakau hei huarahi whakawhitiwhiti mātauranga ki a ora ai ngā akoranga, ngā kōrero me ngā whakapapa hei whainga mo āpopo. E whakamahia ana anohoki mātou o He Oranga Whānau Te Tairawhiti i ngā wāriu o te pūrakau hei orangatonutanga mo ā mātouhāpori huri noa i te rohe.
Ehara i te mea ko te pūrakau he kupu noiho, ēngari he hōhōnutanga ano tōna. Ko tōna rite mēna wāwātiate kupu pū-rakau ka kitea ano tōna ake hōhōnutanga e rite ana ki te pū o te rākau me tōna hononga ki tetaiao.
Ko te ritenga o te rakau he pēra ki te ao Māori me to mātou nohotahitanga ki te taiao. Ka kitea teneikotahitanga ki roto i a mātou tikanga, o mātou nei kawa, me te momo o te Māori. Ko ēnei wāriu e nohotata ki a mātou o He Oranga Whānau Te Tairawhiti.
E nui ake te hōhōnutanga o te pūrakau ki tā te kupu, he hōhōnutanga we honohono ai te ao tawhito ki teao hurihuri. Kia mātou o He Oranga Whānau Te Tairawhiti he momo tō te pūrakau ki a mātou mahi katoa, kia ea ai ngā wawata i waenga nui i o mātou hāpori.
Ma te pūrakau ka kitea the whakapapa o te kōrero, te hononga o ngā tikanga me ngā wāriu ki ngāāhuatanga o te wā me te taiao hoki. Ko ngā reanga whakawhitiwhtinga ka ora ai te pūrakau ki roto iamātou mahi katoa. Ko tā Jade Kameta te Rautaki Māori mo He Oranga Whānau Te Tairawhiti, “mā temaramataka ka kitea ano te hirahira o te pūrakau. Ko te tuāpapa o ngā pūrakau Māori e āhei ana ki tetirohanga o te ao Māori. Na roto i ēnei tikanga ka kitea ngā pūrakau pēra ki Te Orokohanga o te Ao, TeWehenga o Ranginui me Papatuanuku, ngā pūrakau a Maui me te mātotoru ano o ngā pūrakau Māori.
Ma te mōhio ki te hirahiratanga o te pūrakau ka mārama ano hoki ki ngā tikanga o mua me pēhea ano tewhakaraupapa i enei tikanga ki roto i te ao o inaianei, ki roto ano i ngā whakahaerenga ārai hauora. Me anga tōtika mātou o He Oranga Whānau Te Tairawhiti ki te whakamana i ēnei pukenga pūrakau heihuarahi whakamua mo te orangatonutanga o ā mātou hāpori huri noa i Te Tairawhiti ki roto ano i Opotiki.
E pūmanawa ana mātou ki te wāriu o te whakaawhitiwhiti pūrakau hei orangatonutanga mo te hauora o ā mātou whānau, hapu, iwi. Ko te ataahutanga o ngā pūrakau e kore e rite, he huarahi oranga mo tekatoa.
I tēra marama i hanake a Jade Kameta rāua ko Tomairangi Higgins te kaiwhakahaere o He OrangaWhanau Te Tairawhiti ki te hui o He Oranga Whānau Kahui Māori ki roto o Kerikeri. He ropuwhakatenatena i ngā akoranga me ngā tikanga Māori ki roto i ngā mahi huri noa i ngā pekanga tekau mātahi (11) I raro I te tāhuhu o He Oranga Whānau Aotearoa.
Ko tā Tomairangi, “Te ataahua o te noho tahi a ngā taina me ngā tuakana i raro i te whakaaro tahi, mā tewhakawhanaunga ki a mātou hoa mahi o pekanga ano ka kitea te hirahiratanga o ēnei mahi”. E angawhakamua tonu ana mātou o He Oranga Whānau Te Tairawhiti kia kitea te puawaitanga o ngā whakaaro, mā te pūrakau ka kitea he huarahi ano ki te orangatonutanga o a mātou whānau, me te honohonongawhakapapa e kore e taea te māwehe. Mā te whakamahi me te whakawhitiwhti pūrakau ka ako, mā te akoka mōhio, mā te mōhio ka mārama, mā te mārama ka mātau. Ka tutuki te orangatonutanga ā whānau, ā hapu, ā iwi.”
Tihei Mauriora.
The power of pūrakau in health prevention
“Tell me the facts, and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth, and I’ll believe, but tell us the story, and it will live in my heart forever."
Our stories are everywhere - in the karakia we say, the waiata we sing, in the carvings and kowhaiwhaithat adorn the walls of our wharenui, the intricacies of tā moko that are etched into our skin, our place names, and even the names we carry.
Healthy Families East Cape is part of a nation-wide health prevention initiative that seeks to shift conditions in order to create healthier environments where our people live, learn, work and play.
We take a systems approach to improving the health and wellbeing of our people in order to prevent chronic illnesses.
As we move through unsettling and exciting times across Aotearoa-New Zealand, not only in health prevention, but across all ecosystems, we are seeing more and more evidence of a health prevention system that is centered around Te Ao Maori and Matauranga Maori.
Healthy Families NZ uses storytelling as a vehicle for communication, and affirming our narratives in our systems change approach. If storytelling is one of the mechanisms for change, imagine the power of pūrakau in shifting mindsets and behaviours beyond myths and legends.
Healthy Families East Cape is exploring and demonstrating how pūrakau can influence practice and provide a framework that can be applied across our locality.
Pūrakau isn’t just a translation of the word storytelling - pūrakau goes much deeper.
The literal translation is pū (roots/base) and rākau (tree). They are words that relate to our natural environment.
The imagery of the tree reflects our cultural understanding of social relationships and our interconnectedness with each other and the natural environment. This is evidenced in our whakapapa and protocols and for Healthy Families East Cape, it provides us a blueprint or avenue back towards Mātauranga Māori as a health prevention system.
The power of pūrakau comes from more than just transmitting ideas, but from creating shared meaning and linking identities.
For Healthy Families East Cape, the importance of storytelling and pūrakau to establish and build identity contributes to an ability to co-design, collaborate, and redirect resources towards prevention.
It also serves as a way of distributing knowledge, values, protocols, and our worldview.
Pūrakau is multifaceted in terms of the messaging, multi-layered in terms of the audience, and multipurpose in terms of its application.
“Maramataka is an example of all of these,” says Healthy Families East Cape Rautaki Māori Jade Kameta.
“Māori narratives are based on an indigenous worldview that serves as the philosophical underpinning of our culture and identity,”
“This enables us to engage in thought provocation as well as group problem-solving. Examples like TeOrokohanga o Te Ao (the creation story), the separation of Ranginui and Papatuānuku, the pūrakau of Maui, and many other pūrakau.”
As a result, pūrakau is critical for understanding traditional practices and how these are applied in a modern context, and in health prevention.
Healthy Families East Cape has an explicit focus on improving equity, health and wellbeing outcomes for Māori across our locality, that stretches from the Ōpōtiki district all the way through Te Tairāwhiti.
We have a belief in using pūrakau to reshape our approach to our health and wellbeing. The beauty of pūrakau is that they can provide a roadmap and holistic approach that anyone, not just Māori, can participate and apply to individuals and their whānau. Pūrakau can also be unique to our region, supporting and affirming their place and identity.
Last month, Jade Kameta and Healthy Families East Cape Practice Lead, Tomairangi Higgins, travelled to Kerikeri to meet with other Healthy Families NZ localities as part of Te Kāhui Māori Healthy Families Community of Practice (COP), a rōpū within the Healthy Families national network that has a sharp focus on driving positive change and narratives for Maori.
“Scaling up at a national level has never been more of an opportunity than it is now” says Tomairangi
Healthy Families East Cape continues to focus on shifting mindsets beyond the status-quo and using pūrakau as a vehicle of communication, utilising the power of our whakapapa to connect in a diverse range of settings.
“The more we share our pūrākau, the more we learn. The more we learn, the more we grow. The more we grow, the closer we are to achieving wellbeing as individuals and as a collective.”