Discovering how the connection with the land creates hauora

The healing potential of connections between Māori and whenua is being explored in Tangata Whenua Tangata Ora: Investigating health gain through whenua initiatives

The five-year Health Research Council-funded programme is a collaboration between Whāriki Research Centre at Massey University and five sites across the motu.

Ngāti Tawhirikura Hapū is one of those telling their stories about hauora and whenua. Other sites involved are Te Rūnanga o Ngā Wairiki Ngāti Apa, Maungaharuru Tangitu hapū of Ahuriri, north of Napier in Heretaunga, Waitaiki in Te Wai Pounamu and Tū Tama Wahine o Taranaki in New Plymouth.

“There is an intrinsic need for Māori to have a connection with their ancestral whenua, to the mātauranga Māori, the knowledge of their iwi, their hāpu and whānau,” says Post Doctoral Fellow Ken Taiapa, a member of the research team based at the SHORE & Whariki Research Centre. “This research project aims to support and honour that connection –particularly where it was severed and is being restored - and the difference it makes for both the individual and the wider whānau.”

Ken has his connection to the Ngāti Tawhirikura Hapū, both through being a whāngai to the Watene Taungatara Waireinga whānau, and previous research into māra kai, which brought him into the community garden at Katere ki te Moana Marae.

“In 2016, I was part of a working-bee group organised by Glen Skipper visiting māra kai sites. Through conversations with Glen, and with the support of the Trust, it was agreed I would work with the hapū to tell the story of Te Moeone Mārakai as my Ph.D. research,” he says. “I have a real interest in the health and wellbeing generated by Māori through kai production, the way harvesting is carried out sustainably, and the traditional knowledge that is handed down through the generations to support reconnections with the whenua.”

Ken is now working with the Hapū to support them to tell their stories and identify what they want to share more widely.

He says initiatives such as the Kaimahi 4 Nature programme, which is supporting the vision the Hāpu has of regenerating the banks of the Waiwakaiho awa, are providing entry points for Māori back to the whenua.

“We want to explore how initiatives can support the hauora of participants and the wider Māori community. In themselves, the environmental benefits are considerable, but the sense of well-being the connection with the whenua creates goes so much further.”

“We are proud as a Hapū to be involved in this valuable māhi,” says Bev Gibson, Trust Chair. “There is more we need to understand especially how essential access to our whenua and special places is for uri of Ngāti Tawhirikura and other whānau, and what more can be done to enable uri to reconnect to help their healing and their hauora.”