“Ko te ahurei o te tamaiti arahia ō tātou māhi”

Let the uniqueness of the child guide our work

One of our research approaches is in the honouring of Mana Tamariki, acknowledging the power of the knowledge and experience that children hold. Whenever we talk to people about soil, it’s always the children who are closest to ‘getting it’ straight away. They know the bends on the river that have the smoothest clay or the squishiest mud. One kotiro from Ruatāhuna spread light grey clay on her face, referring to it as “Māori sunblock”. Another tamariki from Waikaremoana told us of a patch of mud that smells like “rust and chop-suey” which could indicate an iron-rich deposit. These intuitive, lived experiences of children are invaluable to our research. In fact, all of this ‘reconnecting’ with the whenua is very child-like. For research purposes, we allocate time to be more like kids, who are perhaps, more like our tīpuna.

The kids we meet are physically in touch with nature, intuitively experimenting and using natural resources like our tīpuna once did. A perfect example of this is using earth as rongoā, applied to the skin as protection from the elements, this mātauranga has been handed down in pūrakau, and noted by ethnographers. We were also lucky enough to see it first hand in the embodied knowledge of our tamariki. We are grateful to all of the kids who revelled in sharing their knowledge of the taiao with us, without you, our reconnection with the whenua would not be the same.