Ā mātou kōrero

  “Stand tall in the mana of your ancestors.  Celebrate your divine essence. Know that you are an ancient being that embodies aroha: the presence and the breath of our divine source.    And let your mentors, your speaking mountains…

  I love this time of the year with the kōwhai in full bloom. Wherever the kōwhai are, we know too, there will be tui and kereru, kūkū and kūkūpa feasting on their succulence in the nectar and the leaves.  …

  The atua, Rehua, lives in the highest of the skies.   Rehua, Te Putahi-nui-o-Rehua resides in Rangi-tuarea, the tenth and highest of the heavens.  The powers of Rehua are similarly legendary – having the strength to cure blindness, to…

   The great philosopher Aristotle once said, “to appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it  is necessary to stand out in the cold”. I was trying to remind one of my team this week when we stopped at Kura Tawhiti,…

  “We must take time to define our own path; too quickly we can find the world defining the path for us” This week we took a moment out on a beautiful Southern day to walk at Daffodil Bay, along…

  The writer Louisa May Alcott once said “I’m not afraid of storms for I’m learning how to sail my ship”.   I thought of the wisdom of this saying when this week, Māui Studios founder and great friend to…

  In Tina Makareti’s novel, Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings, the character, Lula experiences a sense of belonging and reconciliation at the whare at Kopinga Marae, Rēkohu, where Moriori ancestors are carved into the building and names are recorded. “The…

  “A circle is the reflection of eternity.   It has no beginning and it has no end. And if you put several circles on top of each other then you get a spiral”.   Maynard James Keenan    …

  When great trees fall,rocks on distant hills shudder,lions hunker downin tall grasses,and even elephantslumber after safety. And when great souls die,after a period peace blooms,slowly and alwaysirregularly. Spaces fillwith a kind ofsoothing electric vibration.Our senses, restored, neverto be the…

  In the 1980s in Aotearoa, there was an advertising campaign established by the tourism department which brandished the slogan, don’t leave home until you’ve seen the country.  This week I had to also remind myself of another slogan my…