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Karakia is often translated or interpreted as “prayer”, but that translation doesn’t quite capture the full meaning. It ...
10/03/2026

Karakia is often translated or interpreted as “prayer”, but that translation doesn’t quite capture the full meaning. It often draws from understandings that sit outside of our culture.

When many people hear the word prayer, they think of religion or faith-based practices. But karakia is broader than that. It can be spiritual, cultural, grounding, and a way of connecting with the world around us, with each other, and with the moment we’re in.

There are many different types of karakia. Some are traditional, passed down through generations. Some have been influenced by faith traditions, and others are more modern expressions that people use in everyday spaces today.

For many of us, karakia can be as simple as pausing, setting intention, acknowledging the environment, or bringing people together before beginning something important. A way to hold space.

Often this history and some of the nuance in this space isn’t always widely known. In supporting whānau on reclamation journeys, I wanted to create rauemi that draw from te ao Māori first and foremost. It was a deliberate decision, giving people space to explore karakia through tikanga, hauora, and connection, before outside influences shape that understanding.

For some, they may go on to find faith-based karakia that resonate with them, and for others they may not. Kei a koe te tikanga. Everyone’s journey is different.

For me, revitalisation and reclamation is about acknowledging the many facets and journeys our practices can take.

The traditional karakia I share are not faith-based, and each one comes with an English translation so more people can understand and use them with confidence and respect.

If you’d like to explore and learn some of these traditional karakia for yourself, your whānau, or your mahi,

Comment “Tihei” and I’ll send you the link to explore our rauemi.

Sometimes when things feel overwhelming or unclear, our first instinct is to go straight to the mind. The mind wants to ...
09/03/2026

Sometimes when things feel overwhelming or unclear, our first instinct is to go straight to the mind. The mind wants to analyse, explain, and make sense of everything. It rushes to fill in the gaps and create a story, but that story isn’t always grounded in what’s actually real.

Our tinana holds its own kōrero. It communicates in ways our mind can’t always comprehend straight away. Feelings in the tinana can be tohu, reminders, or quiet guidance about what’s happening within us and around us.

Learning to slow down and notice those signals is a practice. A tight chest, a sense of ease, heaviness, warmth, tension, these are all ways the body speaks.

Not everything needs to be solved in the mind.
Sometimes the invitation is simply to listen to what your tinana is feeling.

When things get noisy, come back to the body.

What helps you reconnect with your tinana?

Comment hauora below if you want to learn more about connecting to your tinana, tohu and how to respond in ways aligned with your hauora. I will send you more information about our online mauritau course.

I am constantly watching how Māori wahine are told to be "this way" or "that way", and underlying so much of that, is an...
09/03/2026

I am constantly watching how Māori wahine are told to be "this way" or "that way", and underlying so much of that, is an expectation to shrink and to be less. Less outspoken, less enraged, less challenging.

I think back to childhood. Being taught to smile on cue, soften my voice, or make my presence more palatable. Be the "good little girl". I hear the same thing over and over with other wahine, especially during kura, taught to be polite, pleasant, and not to be too much. All of this has left us distrusting and ignoring our puku and wairua, the very tohu that keep us safe.

Its taken me years to trust the intuition that lives deep within.

I watch whakaaro re-emerge all around me, reminders of who we were before the world tried to script our behaviour. Before we were told the shape a wahine should take to be accepted.

Our tūpuna wāhine were not raised to be convenient. They were strategists, tohunga, leaders, protectors of whenua and whakapapa. Their mana did not ask permission.

So when I refuse to shrink my whakaaro, when I stand firmly in my voice, that is not arrogance. That is remembering who I descend from. Sticking to my matapono.

Remembering that my mana was never meant to be folded small.

Being a Māori wahine is not about being pleasant. It is about standing in the fullness of who we are unapologetically, unsoftened, and uncontained.

05/03/2026

Mainstream psychology taught me about the individual. Whakapapa taught me about the collective.

This is the space I draw on in my practice and supervision.

Treating people as whole, connected and not single parts.

I have some spaces left for supervision for those who might want a space to deepen their clinical cultural practice.

Both for individuals and teams

I used to rush through karakia when it was my turn.Sometimes I’d stumble over the words or thought it was a good thing t...
03/03/2026

I used to rush through karakia when it was my turn.

Sometimes I’d stumble over the words or thought it was a good thing to get it done fast.

But the more I’ve learned about karakia, the more I’ve realised something important:

Karakia isn’t just words.
It needs time.
It needs space.
It needs intention.

We can easily fall into habit, using the same karakia every time, without asking whether it truly fits the kaupapa.

I often encoruage people to think about the following

What is this moment calling for?
What is the intention behind this practice?
Is this tikanga in action, for my hauora or just routine?

When we slow down and become intentional, karakia becomes part of caring for people, place and space.

It settles mauri.
It strengthens wairua.
It aligns us with purpose.

If this resonates with you and you want to deepen your practice, whether for tikanga, hauora, or leadership, I’ve created karakia resources to support you.

Comment “Tihei” and I’ll send you the link.

02/03/2026

Hauora check in for your Tuesday.

Tense and release.

Our tinana holds so much, they often brace as if we are about to begin physically hurt, often due tot he stress, rushing and pressure of the day.

Take some time to allow your tinana to release and feel relaxed.

On the release check in to see how familiar this feeling is to you. If it's not, then that's a tohu your tinana is bracing for to long.

What do you need to release?

02/03/2026

A bit bitter sweet harvesting these without my parents there. They were the ones who tended to these most days. With so many texts and phone calls of me asking how there were growing when I couldn't pop over. As they are off on a big adventure, I have stepped in to get one hue through to there final stages - well ready to be dried. The pressure is on. To not be inpatient like last year.

I didnt mean to harvest these either, I've been so careful waiting until the vibes are completely dried up. To the point these practically fell off today. I actually popped over to water them.

I've learnt so much this season of growing hue and it's not even over. As a whanau we have been in wananga since we started with the kakano.

Who else grew hue this season? What did you learn? Also any tips for drying?

I left these in my dad's shed and low key scared what if rats eat them

01/03/2026

Three weeks ago, I was in a busy car park after finding out I needed surgery.

I cried so hard I couldn’t see.
I couldn’t drive.
I called my husband just to cry and it didn’t make it better.

This is the part people don’t always see.
The wave comes.
The tinana surges.
Our mauri completely stirred awake.
The nervous system goes into overwhelm.

Sometimes we need to feel it and sometimes we need to support ourselves through it.

So I tapped.
I slowed my breathing.
I brought my tinana back to baseline or as close as I could get it.

Not because the news changed but because I needed to drive home regulated. It came a point where the crying was making me feel worse.

You see 6 seconds, but it took me 15 minutes of this in the car and another half a day to re-regulate, not to a place of tau, but our of a place of sadness.This is the work. Turning up again and again for yourself during the hardest moment

Ready for a new week, easing back into life, rumaki reo, mahi and pakihi life.

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