When I finished my doctoral research and laid down my recommendations, like a wero, for someone to reach down and pick up, I knew in my heart no one would. Our Māori midwives were too busy catching babies and fighting the system or teaching the system. Many of our whānau were never given customary options around birthing practices to include in their birthing plans and the world was and still is spinning out of global control.
So, I picked up my own wero to instigate change and hesitantly shared the little I knew to add to what I knew others would bring to this kaupapa over time.
We started with the learning, creating and singing of oriori, we added in taoka puoro (traditional Māori musical instruments) and their value in the healing and birthing realm, we made whītau muka (flax cords for tying the umbilical cord), we brought in Māori art and health practitioners, Taua and Poua, we ran wānaka on atua for whānau and listened to the needs of our attendees who suggested a wānaka for our takatāpui whānau and customary birthing knowledge.
Our funding covers the wānaka but our collective passion and belief in the creation philosophy as a tool for wellbeing covers our commitment to the rejuvenation of our tūpuna practices in the maternity journey. We are not experts but we are kaimahi who by doing are learning. Our tūpuna did the same, they observed, they learnt, they practised, they observed and they learnt some more.
We, under the Hākui banner, are doing the same and sharing our learning with whānau Māori living in the takiwā of Kāi Tahu, to activate the mātauranga.
The Hākui whānau of practitioners is growing, and we have learnt that we cannot rejuvenate customary birthing practices alone, yet collectively we can. Karawhiua!