Ā mātou kōrero

  Puna Rua-Whiti Whenua Kanuka An Australian friend recently shared her delight in thinking of the complexity and the depth of ‘Yindyamarra’ – meaning to respect, to honour, be polite, be gentle, to do something slowly.   Yindyamarra is at…

  ‘A season of loneliness and isolation is when the caterpillar gets its wings.   Remember that next time you feel alone’ (Mandy Hale). One of our team said something the other day that got me thinking – it was…

  Passing through the Southern wonder of Gore, I was struck by the monument to my childhood; the original Flemings Mill in which New Zealand iconistic kai, Creamoata, was produced.   Creamoata, a brand of finely ground oats, was our staple…

  And I know you’re shining down on me from heavenLike so many friends we’ve lost along the wayAnd I know eventually we’ll be together TogetherOne sweet day… All of us have a healing song.   A song we go…

  I listened to a fabulous korero tonight with everyone’s favourite Taua, Dame Aroha Hohipera Reriti-Crofts and Takutā Ferris.   Takutā shared an inspirational comment – “you are our tupuna’s wildest dreams’, to which Taua Aroha responded that her greatest…

  They say that you cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if you have not dined well. There is a whakatauki that says, ‘I orea te tuatara ka patu ki waho’ which encourages us to apply creative thinking, adaptability…

  “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope”.  Maya Angelou The sunrise this morning was blazing in its beauty.   Astounding, awe-inspiring, bedazzling.   It reminded me that sometimes the simplicity…

  One of the most useful pieces of advice my mother gave me was ‘pick up a tea-towel’.   She’d say, “don’t wait to be asked, just make yourself useful”.   Her view was that it was better to be…

  Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.” When you have a solid sense of place, an innate and intimate connection to your tribal landscape it can be defining…

  In 2004, Koukourarata legend, Dr Irihapeti Ramsden challenged the obsession with depicting Māori as ‘warriors’ or ‘toa’ by her now oft-quoted vision “Once were gardeners, once were astronomers, once were philosophers, once were lovers”. Many read her words as…