Kua hui tahi ngā tāne tata ki te rima tekau ki te Marae o Aotearoa i Matariki mō te wānanga Hawaiki Kura, ko te kaupapa kia whakapakari i te hauora me te oranga o ngā tāne. Ko te kaiwhakahaere o Hawaiki Kura, a Kiley Nepia, e whakapono ana he kaupapa nui tēnei mō te tāne Māori i tēnei ao hurihuri.
“Ko ngā hua nui pea, kua tahuri anō te tāne ki te rapu he aha tēnei mea, te tāne Māori, i roto i tēnei ao hurihuri. He aha rā ētahi o ngā mātāpono, he aha hoki ētahi o ngā taonga tuku iho, ā, ka taea e ia te whakamahi i roto anō i te ao i ia rā,” hei tā Kiley.
“Me he mea kei te kōrero au ki te hunga tāne, ko ētahi kua haere mai i roto anō i te pōuriuri. Nō reira, kei te whai māramatanga, kei te whai rātou kia puta anō rātou ki te whai ao, ki te ao mārama,” hei tāna anō.
Ka tū te wānanga i rangi okioki kia āhei ai ngā tāne ki te mutu i ō rātou mahi ōtirā ki te aro ki te kaupapa o te oranga tonutanga.
“Ko te wawata nui, kia hoki mai mātou, mātou ko te whare, otirā, kia whakapakari ake hoki i ētahi o ngā pou ki konei, ki Taranaki nei. Kia whanake pai tēnei kaupapa ki tēnei takiwā o te motu. Me te mea anō, he wā anō ka tae atu a Hawaiki Kura ki ngā tōpito katoa o te motu, i roto anō i te hiahia o te tangata,” hei tā Kiley anō.
“I tīmata rā a Hawaiki Kura i roto i ngā hiahia o tōku iwi ake, kātahi ka horapa haere i te Waipounamu i te tauihu. Nō reira, te takiwā o te waru tau mātou e whakahaere ana i tēnei momo wānanga, nā wai rā, nā wai rā, kua puāwai mai”.
Healing and connection: Hawaiki Kura wānanga held at Aotearoa Marae in south Taranaki
The Hawaiki Kura wānanga at Aotearoa Marae has become a source of healing for many men, including Aron Bishop, who travelled from Manawatū to seek a fresh start. For Aron, this journey is about breaking long-standing cycles and reclaiming his identity for the sake of his future generations.
“To break away from patterns that I’ve been stuck in for years bro, cycles going nowhere and im done with that life im done with being the old Aron everyone knows me by and im adamant with change aye,” Bishop said.
“To be someone that my mokopuna and my mokopuna to come to look up to aye brother. Like how the bro was saying I don’t want to be that stigma guy that everyone looks like ah he’s just the same,” he said.
Aaron is also dedicated to changing his internal mindset and is putting his whānau at the centre of his hauora journey. “For myself, change myself though, cause I don’t really care what the outer world says. But yeah I’m more focused on my children and mokopuna to come aye, just to set that role model that I haven’t had around me or in my family for a long time brother”.
Warren Nicholls, from Ngāruahine Iwi Health Services, said that the wānanga provides a vital pathway to wellbeing through Māori-centered methodologies.
“Actually it’s time to be purposefully who we are, re-indigenous ourselves to re-indigenous our tane and support them on a journey where actually the methodology is Maori,” Nicholls said.
“Good men bring good whānau, and you know purely its one step towards our growing ora of whānau. Tāne the first step you know we’ve got aspiration for wahine wānanga and rangatahi and just take this to wherever we can but we’ve got to have a starting point,”