MAHI A ATUAA WAY OF BEING

MATIU PENNELL & MARK KOPUA

Paia te rangi

I will bring ceremony

I will care and provide

Your companion

Paia te rangi

Tenei te po, nau ma te ao

Indigenise your space

Whiro te tipua

I will consume, control

and take you

With false promises, insults

and threats

You will fall and we will

become one

Whiro te tipua

Ka ma te ariki

Ka ma te tauira

Remain an active

learner

Tawhirimatea

I can caress you or turn you

over

I can lift and support

I have a temper – a blinding

temper

Tawhirimatea

Hongihongi te

wheiwheia

Embrace negative

feedback

Te Kuwatawata

I guard the path of peace

I maintain balance

Before me is chaos

Beyond me is peace

Te Kuwatawata

Lean into the

uncertainty of

learning

Lean into the

discomfort of failing

Tangaroa

A great falling of water

came to me

I control the temperature

I have children of the sea,

sea and land and the land.

Tangaroa

Let the first response

be human

We see the tiniest glimmer

of hope, potential, opportunity

Stay collective no matter what the

challenge

Together we flood the fear with

light

Whiro. Hinatore

Te Mamaru Uepoto

Peketua

Within the darkness lies

the lightWhiro. Hinatore

Te Mamaru Uepoto

Peketua

Lord of the forest and its creatures

Father of mankind

Separator of Rangi & Papa

Liberator of confinement, of the

darkness Tane

Find the ‘Tane’ from within

you and bring ‘him’ to the

fore

Tane

Lord of war, of strategy and

strength

The rakau mata-rua

Tumatauenga

The opposite to risk is

connection

Tumatauenga

I am kindness, father of Pohutu-kawa of Rongo-nui

Making paths across seas, land and sky

Rongo Rehua Tumatauenga

Replace the anaesthetic experience

with an aesthetic experience

Rongo Rehua Tumatauenga

I bring the reflecting waters of the heavens

The water that Whiro will shy from.

I am of the upper-most-spaces

Hine-kau-oro-hia

“It is not a chemical imbalance,

It’s a power imbalance”

Hine-kau-oro-hia

I gave my son to contain the anger of others -

to shield my father - Tane

To protect all

Hine-pu-te-hue

Individualism and individual

approaches breeds invisible practices

Hine-pu-te-hue

I govern the forest floor,

My retreat, my mother

Not merely safe.

Haumia-tiketike

The myth of meritocracy

diminishes the capacity

of community

Haumia-tiketike

I govern all Rarohenga

Abandoned, discarded, I will rain fire.

To reshape and scarify your world

Ru-au-moko

Equity is about need

Inequity comes from the

failure to respond to need

Ru-au-moko

The prince of peace of healing over

all, even my brothers

Let Tu-pore-nuku and Tu-pore-rangi

cover you

Let my healing waters flow over you

Rongomatane

Rongomaraeroa

The Mahi a Atua is YOU

modelling a way of being

not telling anyone else, how

to be.

Rongomatane

Rongomaraeroa