Mai i Aoraki mauka, kā rere ōna roimata, hai Waitaki ki te tai o Araiteuru.
He mokopuna o Raikaihautu, Hotua Māmoe, Tahupōtiki, Kahungunu, Rangitāne.
Tiana Mihaere is inspired by the moemoeā [dream] of creating a Whare Hauora that puts Rongoā and Matauraka Māori at the centre of wellbeing and healthcare within Māori communities. Tiana is currently in her fourth year studying a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, but also completed her Diploma in Rongoā Māori (Māori Holistic Wellbeing) through Te Wānanga o Raukawa.
“There is no middle ground, between Rongoā Māori and being a doctor currently, so I will create my own path. I am really passionate about what that looks like,” Tiana says.
Together with her partner, Jess, who is also a Rongoā practitioner, Tiana has established a charitable trust called Te Pahī o Āio Nuku. The kaupapa of the trust is centred firmly on building up the capability of Tiana’s marae in Moeraki.
“Mana Rakatahi ki Moeraki is a kaupapa that addresses the intergenerational disconnect between our people and their whenua. It is for our young people to provide them with a space to exist and learn the pūrākau [history] of our tīpuna [ancestors].”
“I have a lot of aspirations for the tamariki who are to come, that they will grow up always loving who they are,” says Tiana.
Part of this kaupapa, and a concept that Tiana plans to embrace as she develops the Whare Hauora, is maramataka. Maramataka is the connection between the moon and our wellbeing and Tiana plans to spend this summer learning more about this traditional way of measuring time.
“I want to look at how the different mata [faces] of the marama can inform the way that we practice within the Whare Hauora. There are different times of the marama where people can be really unsettled and there are certain types of work that you can do in that time and certain types of work that you probably should not. It is about us un-aligning from the Western calendar and spending solid time understanding how maramataka informs how we feel,” says Tiana.
Mō tātou, ā, mō kā uri ā muri ake nei – For us and our children after us.