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Mā te Māori anahe ngā taumahatanga o te hāpori Māori e whakatika, waihoki takitahitia. Hei te Pou Tikanga Māori mō te rōpū Manu Tāpiki a Kemara Kennedy. Ko Manu Tāpiki tētehi o ngā whare whakarauora tangata o
Te Arawa Whānau Ora.
"Ko wā mātou kaupapa ake he awhina i ngā tāne mate hinengaro ana e noho taumaha ana i ngā māuiui o te hāpori whoi anō kāre anō kia tino pakeketia wēnei kaupapa – he tiaki kau i ngā whānau warawara e puta ai rātou i te korokoro o te parata, ki te ora".
Whai pānga ai a Kemara ki a Ngāti Pikiao ki a Ngāti Whakaue me Ngāti Tūwharetoa hoki. Hei tā Kemara, ki tāna e kite ai kua tino puta mai wētehi wāhanga motuhake i runga i ngā whakapōreareatanga a te mate urutā .
Engari ka kore rawa e whakatata mai nei te mate urutā ki te whare nui e tū mārō nei i roto i tōna Te Arawatanga. " Kia mātara - e rua ngā rau o te taiaha".
He kaupapa awhina me te poipoi tangata e tāmī ana i ngā mate o te hinengaro me te warawara nō roto i te hāpori, tāne mai wāhine mai. He kaupapa manaaki i ngā mātua e whakawhānau tamariki ana, ā, kai te pae tata hoki tētehi kaupapa rangatahi, ka whakaara ake tēnei kaupapa a te tau hou, hai te 2022.
"Mā roto kē e tika ai te koke whakamua, engari takitahitia, kāua mā waho o roto mai, kai reira te mate a te tangata – waihoki he wairua hou tō ia raruraru tō ia pāpuni, takitahitia".
He waka hou tonu nei a Manu Tāpiki he aha koa tēnā e tū whakaiti nei i roto i tōna Te Arawatanga.
"Kāre anō kia tino tika tā mātou haere tū ko tā mātou he waihongia atu kia kōpiupiu noa te ara kōpikopiko e ngā pou mahi. He tata ki te hokorua ngā tangata mahi i Te Arawa Whānau Ora. E rua hoki wō mātou whare mahi kai te tiriti o Haupapa ki te puku o te tāone nui o Rotorua.
Kai te waiwai ngā waha o te Kemara ko te mātauranga Māori te pūtake – koia tēnei te ngākau whiwhita o Kemara, hai tāna ko te hiranga kāuaka ko te rahinga. Ka rua kia mau i ngā tikanga a ngā pakeke kai ngā pūrākau hoki ngā tikanga e ora ai tātou."
Ka hau mai ngā mātanga, kai te whakakī kī haere ngā pouaka ki te tohu tika a te pene e ora ai tētehi mate, haunga kua oti i a rātou te whakatika i ngā pouaka rokohanga kau te whakautu e rātou kāre e kitea"
Kua whitu tau a Kemara hoki e whakaheke werawera ana hai pou mahi i ngā whare herehere – ko te tūkino wāhine tētehi o ngā take nui kai te mauheretia ngā tāne, ko te nuinga o rātou e hanga kūware ana ki tō tātou ao taketake.
"E noho takitahi ana te nuinga o rātou kāre he hononga ki tō rātou na taha wahine – anei te pūtake e koropupu ana te pūngao me te hāputa o Tū" Ko Tū te hoa haere o Rongo kai te iaia me ngā uaua e haere ngātahi ana.
Nā kōnei ka pūare ai te kūwaha ki a Hineteiwaiwa koia te atua o te whakawhānau tamarki o te raranga me te rere o te toto o te wahine – ka nui te whakapono o te Kemara kia oho ake ai te tāne ki tōna wahine ka pai ai tōna oranga. Hai kaupapa haupuaroaro mā ngā tāne.
Nō te Hanuere o tēnei tau tonu a Te Arawa Whanau Ora e whakapakari nei i ōna pātū, ā kai te whakapakari tonutia rātou. Kua pakeketia ngā tini hononga hoki ki ngā whānau Māori e noho kau ki roto o te takere waka, ko te hunga e māuiui a hinengaro nei e mate warawara ana, nā kai te kaha tiakina rātou e ngā Paeārahi o Te Arawa Whānau Ora.
Mā Kemara te ūpoko o Rangitihi e whakarenarena kia kāua e ngāwhā rawatia te iwi.
Only Māori can successfully deal with the problems facing the Māori community, and then only one issue at a time.
So says Senior Cultural Lead for Manu Tāpiki, Kemara Kennedy. Manu Tāpiki is a service provider within the Te Arawa Whānau Ora Organisation.
"We have programmes in place to address the problems of men's mental health and also addiction but they are just in the infant stages.
"We are just holding the space until we are able to help whānau find their way out of their predicament."
Kemara (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) said Covid-19 had created an interesting space because it affected how the programmes could be delivered and that required monitoring.
But covid would not materially affect how the Arawa-centric organisation operated. "It's just something else we have to consider."
Manu Tāpiki is a Health Coach Service Provider that assists in Mental Health and Addictions within the community. They have designed multiple programmes to cater for both Tāne/Wāhine and Whānau during pregnancy. A Rangatahi programme is due to launch next year.
"Only working from the inside out, one case at a time, can we be successful.
"Trying to work from the outside in, proves to be more challenging. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. We have to do things one case at a time"
The cultural content of Manu Tāpiki is Arawa-centric and it is still more-or-less a pilot scheme.
"It's still in the baby stages, really. We need to let staff navigate their way through it first."
The Whānau Ora staff of 40 or so operate out of two buildings on Haupapa Street in the central business district.
There is a huge demand for mātauranga Māori and Kemara is passionate about the quantity and quality delivered.
Experience has taught him that Kōrero Tuku Iho works.
Listening to pūrakau has proven to achieve more than outside clinical intervention.
"Outside practitioners might come in and click all their boxes in looking for a remedy to a problem. But they can — and do — click all the boxes they have made but fail to find an answer."
Working in prisons for seven years gave Kemara insight into what might work. Domestic
violence was one of many reasons our Māori men were imprisoned due to the lack of understanding and the application of Tikanga and Kawa.
"I realised that most of them had no sense of duality — they did not acknowledge having a feminine side. Nor did they recognise a feminine energy. This was why they were caught in a cycle of violence."
Quite often the counterpart to Tūmatauenga was Rongo which in fact remains within the extreme energy of masculinity.
This created an opportunity to introduce the likes of Hine Te Iwaiwa among many others who is associated with Childbirth, the Art of Weaving and the influential cycles of the moon to engage and activate the femininity within themselves.
It gave them all a lot to ponder.
Te Arawa Whānau Ora has been building capability since January and has made obvious strides in building relationships between Whānau within the community that are dealing with mental health and addictions and our Paeārahi (Health Coaches) that are at the forefront of our whānau needs.
Kemara is determined that Te Arawa Whānau Ora has the skills and tools to reconnect whānau.
He lost an arm and a leg in a crash that killed three friends.