Abstract
This rangahau explores whānau understandings and relationships with the kawakawa plant’s rongoā Māori practices and properties, through the resilience and sustainability of transmission of this mātauranga. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were conducted with 10 participants, who all whakapapa to many iwi, and ranged between the ages of 30–70 years old, with 6 out of 10 aged 50+ and the majority being female. The findings provide diverse learnings and understandings derived from many generations of transmission of mātauranga of which was interpreted by participants as unquestionably descending from their iwi, tīpuna, atua, and the whenua. The empirical findings of the kawakawa plant’s rongoā Māori properties highlighted the frequent use and application by whānau for all health benefits, particularly ailments such as asthma, eczema, inflammation, mental and spiritual health, and wellbeing. However, more importantly, the narratives identified the plant as a source of restoration and preservation of memories.
The kōrero that emerged from the interviews highlighted the unique relationship that tīpuna shared with atua. The mutual relationship recorded in mythology and cosmological pūrākau illustrates heroic feats, environmental phenomena and adaptive characteristics. Further, the four themes that emerged from the findings included: resilience, sustainability, transmission, and wellbeing. All four themes embodied key cultural, ecological, biological, physical, mental, and spiritual constructs. Patterns within the findings resembled a co-dependency between all four themes underpinned by whakapapa and the essential cultural ethos, which previous literature has affirmed. The kawakawa plant’s rongoā Māori properties and practices should not be subsumed by western biomedical science rhetoric. But, rather see rongoā Māori as a necessary partner to supporting resilience and wellbeing for all whānau. Te Kawakawa Tāraitanga – The Kawakawa Thread is a thesis governed by tikanga-ā-rongoā and grounded in the whakapapa of te ao Māori. It is merely one interpretative aspect of a massive body of rongoā mātauranga Māori. The mātauranga informing this rangahau has come from the many who have come before me and will carry on well after me.