KarakiaKa tohia atu koe, ki te tohi nuku, ki te tohi rangi.

Kia hoaia koe ki te putiki whara, kia tiaia koe ki te manu rere rangi.

Te rau o titapa kia pai ai koe, te haere i runga ra.I rangahaua koe i te po-uriuri, i te po tangotango.

I rakaitia koe ki te piki kotuku, te rau o te toroa, te huia titama.

Whakina e tama nga kupu o te riri, nga kupu o tawhiti he mea ka mau mai.

Ka kapiti runga e, ka kapiti raro e, he pokanga nuku, he pokanga rangi.

Pou hihiko, pou rarama, tiaho i roto, märama i roto.

Tena te pou, te poutokomanawa, te pou o enei körero.Hui te märama, hui te ora e-e.

The relationship between Wairua and Maori Wellbeing.

A psychological Perspective

Hukarere Valentine

Kia Ngawari ki te Awatea:

In Search of Wairuatopic in context

Research Goals

Kia Ngawari ki te Awatea – an exploratory study

Overview

Placing wairua in context

My story

“I know what your going to do, I know when your going to do it and I know how your going to do it…”

In Search of Wairua

The source of existent being and life (Marsden, 2003)

Wairua is necessary for the existence of the body and with wairua

comes the dawn of intelligence (Henare, 2001)

A person is born with this Mãori spirituality it’s how that thing is

nurtured when you are growing up that is the important thing

(Broughton, 1999)

“Every act, natural phenomena, and other influences were

considered to have both physical and spiritual implications”

(Pere, 1982).

In Search of Wairua

To explore what Maori mean when they talk about wairua

To explore the relationship between wairua and Maori wellbeing

Research Goals

Qualitative research Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis Tikanga Maori Approach

Sample size 8 participants

Results of Data Analysis 4 master themes, 14 subordinate themes

Study one An Exploratory Study

Study One Analysis Results

Descriptions of WairuaWairua is fundamental for Maori

Wairua knows no boundaries

Wairua is a perceived sensation

Wairua is relational

Experiences of WairuaWairua provides a connection

between te ao Mäori and te ao

wairua

Through wairua Mäori experience a strong sense of conviction

Beliefs of Wairua

Wairua enhances growth

Wairua provides balance

Mäori Worldviews Mauri (life force)

Whakawhiti whakaaro (communication)

Whakapapa (identity)

Whenua (land)

Tapu (spiritual restrictions)

Mana (spiritual integrity)

“Koro, what is wairua? the child asked, eyes wide open.

Wairua my moko is what gives us life, handed down to us from a time past.

At the moment of your beginning, you shared with me the wairua of your tupuna.

For I am your link with the past, and you are my link with the future…”

Descriptions of Wairua

“...every Mäori have potential to have wairua whether they can understand what it is or not, it’s still there.”

“You can’t talk Mäori health unless you talk wairua, it’s as simple as that.

There are healthy Mäori and Mäori health but they are not necessarily the

same thing.”

“He maha nga peka o te wairua maha nga peka.. te wairua a te tangata, te

wairua o te whenua, te wairua o te Körero, te wairua o te tamaiti, te

wairua o tena whakatipuranga o tena whakatipuranga, te wairua o tatou

matua tipuna, te wairua whakahaere te tangata kia tau te wairua.”

There are many different dimensions of wairua…;wairua of the people,

wairua of the land, wairua of the spoken word, wairua of the child, wairua

of different generations, wairua of our ancestors, the wairua that directs

and inspires a person to engage.”

Descriptions of Wairua

Connection between te ao Mäori and te ao wairua

well aunty Mary was at… work then and she sort of raised off the floor and she said she came down and she said to the boss, “I’m going home”, Boss said, “What, you can’t go home!”, you know cause work isn’t finished she said, “I’m going home, something’s wrong”.

Strong Sense of Conviction like when we were doing the tape and we were trying to

figure out how to make it work and while I was busy and when I went to get the bottle of water the voice said have a karakia and it was just as I was going to say it Mary brought it up…(third party) well as she was saying the karakia I was saying that’s not going to work! and then I just switched it on and it started to work I was going ah shit...

Experiences of wairua

Enhances GrowthKi a au nei, te mea hei tino whakapakari te iwi Mäori me

piripono i tenei

mea ki te wairua kua korerotia nei, hoki ki te kainga hokia ara te korero

a te Rangihau e kii ana “hokia ki o maunga kia purea koe e nga hau o

Tawhirimatea”

“To me what we really need to do to strengthen Mäoridom is to hold fast

to the wairua essence. We need to return home as Te Rangihau said,

“return to your mountain so you can be cleansed by the winds of

Tawhirimatea.”

Provides balanceI believe everything they do positive for our physical being

they do for our

wairua as well

Beliefs of Wairua

Whakawhiti Whakaaro (Communication)Karakia: The karakia is the vehicle that moves you from noa to tapu and back again so that, ah so karakia is an important part in all Mäori

Waiata/te reo: I was thinking about waiata and te reo see when you have different dialects …depending on where you’re from…the waiata and te reo go with the rhythm of the environment.

 

The essence of wairua is within our chants, songs and haka.

Maori Worldviews

Whakapapa“The importance of whakapapa has been reduced to

something that you

only hear on the paepae, therefore the wairua of whakapapa is

diminished or ultimately broken and that is a severe cause of cultural

disarray hence so much health and mental health problems. The flow of

wairua from nga atua me nga tipuna has been ruptured.”

Maori Worldviews

Tapu

“There’s a lot of dimensions of tapu, one of the ones that we’re familiar

with is about um putting people into a special space. A special space that

like if you didn’t know me and you came up here and you wanted to

talk about just say your sexual experiences or something that has

happened to you sexually you won’t come up and start raving on to me as

a stranger aye but if I was to have karakia and we went into that special

space you would find that you’re a bit more relaxed and you would

probably be more willing to talk about it.”

Maori Worldviews

Mana

mana may be linked to wairua a lot stronger than people may think,

mana is an indicator of one’s standing, ones standing or ones... depth of

Knowledge

...like mana you can get from your mother your father at the time of birth.

You can increase that mana by what you do, like that’s a lot of people talk

about wairua doing that but I think it’s the mana that maybe is a way of

gauging your wairua.

Maori Worldviews

Summary

Wairua exists within and between Maori, the elements and their environments.

Wairua is a necessary aspect of life and being

Wairua is an innate quality for Maori

Wairua enables a person to relate to themselves, others

and their environment

Wairua is linked to my ability to understand and know the world

KARAKIA

Kia tau ki a tatou katoa te atawhai o to tatou ariki a Ihu Karaiti

me te aroha o te atua me te whiwhinga tahitanga ki te wairua tapu

ake ake ake Amine

THANK YOU for YOUR PATIENCENga mihi ki a koutou katoa