Grief is complex. Communal grieving, loss, and healing is not done over a few days, it takes continued practice, purpose, and process. It can take time to cope with the intergenerational heartache, confusion, shock, and disbelief that an individual, family, and people experience. Historical grief can look like perpetual communal unwellness and loss(es) through suicide, homicide, overdose, distrust, and family dysfunction. Grief lives amongst our communities as a silent wounding. Traditional mental health practices often fall short of addressing the systemic losses felt from colonial and historical traumas, leaving few ways to define this collective experience.

In this presentation we will discuss reclaiming our Indigenous healing ways for radical communal grief work through practice, pedagogy, data sovereignty, and data storytelling. Participants will be invited to consider the possibilities of community-led wellness through the Community Activated Medicine (CAM™) Framework™, a Practice-Based Generating Evidence data gathering approach, and agency-led community-based research practices that inform to activate wellness. This will amplify our collective Indigenous voices, post traumatic wisdoms, and reduce re-traumatization and communal grief.

The theme of this year’s conference attests to our voices, solutions, decisions and time as being central to improving the social and emotional wellbeing of indigenous peoples. It implies and affirms that marginalising these very elements of our being have had (and continue to have) a negative impact on our wellbeing. In seeking to platform our voices and solutions, our elders and advocates are often worn down in the process. Their social, emotional and cultural wellbeing has suffered.
In imagining an alternate world where our indigenous voices, solutions, decisions and time are valued and validated, this presentation posits that indigenous agency, autonomy and self-determination hinges largely on ownership – the obvious example being of land and country.

Andrew focuses on the importance of indigenous peoples also owning and governing our non-profit organisations, businesses and initiatives as a means for platforming our voices, solutions, decisions and time with the least friction. By doing so we gain more scope to introduce our cultural wisdoms into the mainstream. We also have the opportunity to take the best from all knowledge systems to create innovative solutions.

MANAWISE Group is an integrated community-advancement firm; owned and led by Pasifika for the mainstream. Ownership of our entities and initiatives has allowed us to embed our cultural wisdoms into our mainstream work across child protection, training, consulting, labour hire and recruitment and the community sector. We believe that innovation lies at the intersection of culture, and it is our duty to bring that to the community/market in a practical and impactful way. Our work is guided by our mantra which speaks to respecting those who have come before us and the agency we have in designing our future and creating history:

Respect the Past | Conquer the Future | Create History

Our indigenous people are deep, powerful, multidimensional beings. As we reconnect to our mauri, (inner life-force) we evoke our Rangatiratanga. (self-sovereignty)
Heoi, many environments don’t offer practical solutions to whakakaha te hinengaro. (strengthen the mind)
Our hinengaro (mind) is our greatest gift and our greatest demise.
What if we cultivated sovereignty over our minds? Perhaps then, we can walk into any room knowing that what we possess inside is innate.

To embrace Te Hokinga Mai (The return home is to practice “whakakaha te hinengaro”
WHY? We get to live long, healthy lives; break generational cycles and determine a new legacy for our future.

The 8 stages of my model of Te Hokinga mai can empower us to do so.

8 Stages of Te Hokinga Mai
1. Arotake: Assess your commitment, readiness, willingness, and initiative.
2. Whakaata: Reflect on past experiences, patterns, narratives, and behaviours.
3. Whakamōhio: Identifying memories and language that shapes beliefs and understanding their significance in life and ancestral lineage.
4. Whakarongo: Building intuition (sense, perceive, hear, be aware) and balance, embracing the infinite nature of existence, and anchoring in authentic vibration.
5. Whakatau: Cultivating self-awareness, self-regulation, and sustainability while honouring each phase of life and adapting accordingly.
6. Whakaoho Acquiring tools and structures to empower authentic flow and embodying tino rangatiratanga.
7. Whakatinana: Practising and embodying learnings; in harmony with lived experiences, shaping personal matauranga (knowledge).
8. Whakaako: Sharing lived experiences, teaching, and blessing others on their journeys.

Through commitment, consistency, and trust, we establish a level of reliability for our community.

He haerenga roa ora tēnei.

This is a life-long journey; requiring patience and determination.
Patience is our greatest ally and determination keeps us moving because settling is not an option.
Standing in our mana is standing for our people.
One brave soul can impact our community exponentially, but strong leaders have a united community.

Show me what you are made of, show your communities what you are made of.

E tū nei e te iwi.
Nau mai haere mai ki te haerenga o Te Hokinga Mai.