![]() “You matter! It doesn’t matter what age you are or anything else, once we are on that hīkoi – it’s absolutely that you’re special,” says Koha. It’s a celebration of women and pregnancy. The wānanga emphasises the special place of “hine” in the Māori universe, the feminine in Māori spirituality that includes the atua wāhine. In validating a Māori understanding of the world and its cultural practices, Koha has created an environment that is a safe space for whānau Māori.Īt the wānanga, day-to-day practical teachings are overlaid like whakapapa on top of a foundation of kaupapa Māori and teachings from te ao Māori. The wānanga delivers antenatal knowledge grounded in Māoritanga and informed by tikanga and mātauranga Māori, including traditional birthing practices. Hine Kōpū is a two-day programme for wāhine hapū on labour, birthing and parenting, which aims to prepare them and their partner for bringing new life into the world. That’s why listening to the kōrero of Koha Aperahama (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) from Northland District Health Board and the programme coordinator of Ngā Wānanga o Hine Kōpū (Hine Kōpū), isn’t just refreshing, it’s downright enlightening. But perhaps the biggest issue was not seeing other wāhine Māori in the system, especially as giving birth is such a vulnerable and intense time. Their cultural postpartum wishes were ignored, and often the time was not taken to even find out what those wishes were. They faced racial profiling and discrimination, mispronunciation of their names, and power imbalances between whānau and senior medical staff. I’ve been told by the wāhine Māori in my life of how they had certain parenting or birthing practices imposed on them that don’t fit with their cultural values. This view of wāhine hapū as taonga seems at odds with how some of our wāhine Māori experience our healthcare system. The word hapū or sub-tribe also has the meaning of pregnancy, whenua translates as land and is also the word for placenta, and whare tangata, the word for womb, also means house of humanity and is a celebration of women as the source of all life. We find it in te reo Māori where the multidimensional meanings of words intrinsic to our identity bind them with the reproductive power of women. She is the direct connection to the atua. In some narratives, whakapapa can be traced back through the women to Hineahuone, the first person formed from the clay of Papatūānuku by Tāne Mahuta. We see it in the pūrākau of Papatūānuku and Ranginui, representative of wāhine and tāne (also the sky and earthly realms). ![]() There are many signs that point to the special taonga status of wāhine hapū and wāhine Māori. This content was created in partnership with Te Hiringa Hauora/Health Promotion Agency. ![]() Ataria Sharman met three wāhine hapū at the Whangārei wānanga. Ngā Wānanga o Hine Kōpū is a kaupapa Māori birth and parenting programme reframing how to tautoko wāhine hapū and their whānau.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |