Diverse spiritual faiths and practices

In my own navigating through wairua, if I could say that, I’m always trying to work out what was matakite and what is tohungatanga, and the difference, and where the overlaps and stuff are. And my thinking around matakite, you know just from my perception and the things that I do, that there are people that they pick things up. They’re really sensitive, they can pick up maybe voices, they can see faces. They can apply healing, work with energy. You know? That, that sort of thing. And I think one is about “knowing” and the other one is about “knowing why”.

And I think the tohunga is about “knowing why”. And what I mean by that is that when ah, something goes wrong they know how to intervene. Where, where sometimes the matakite knows the, the large stuff, or they can be a kai mirimiri, they could be, you know, could be making rongoā. So, they feel the wairua. They, they know it. But the only thing negative that, that they don’t know how to intervene to change a course. And I think a tohunga knows why and what I mean by that, that if something goes wrong then they know interventions to redirect it, or to bring it away. And when I say that, I mean I talk about mākutu [supernatural, bewitching] and stuff, they know how to intervene. That’s how to break that up.

You know the other side [is], the ability to perceive energy from those that aren’t living. But I think you can also perceive that energy from those who are living. Yeah… I believe that there is a Higher Power, but it’s not necessarily God. It is an Atua. But I don’t know what that is, I don’t envision that, I just know that there’s an energy that is greater than all of us.

The wairuatanga, I find, is that in each of us, in everyone on this earth… at birth… we’re born with a spirit… and that gives us our wairuatanga. That gives us that, that feeling to do good. And sometimes we listen, and sometimes we ignore it. Now, I don’t know whether I’m, ex-explaining it right… I give you another example, [a] practical one. If I want to go to the marae… I believe I need to get into the right wairua for the marae. Ah because you got your wairua, but your wairua operates in different ways depending where you are, what you want. So, if I want to go to the marae, if I’m going to a tangi for instance, I prepare at home. I dress accordingly, I put on my pango [black] clothes for the marae. When I put on my pango clothes… I also say my prayers. And the prayers I say again is the whakawātea [clearing prayer]. That’s all part of spirituality.

Spirituality is not- I don’t believe there’s one word for it. We’re not Pākehās. But, you can, you can explain it… in your actions… it starts from dressing and preparation. You say your karakia, ‘whakawātea ia koe, ka haere koe'. Because when you go to the marae it’s not about the living only; it’s about [the] living and those that have passed on. And so, you have to, I believe, prepare yourself for that… to accept what you’re going into and how you’re going to operate… and usually… I operate… as a kaikaranga. Or even if I’m not… you’re still… in that ‘realm’ I call it. And, and then when you are operating it, then you know your whole outlook is one of (and I’m talking about myself, not of others), is that you’re aware of the spirituality; you’re in there [that wairua space] and for me the spirituality is about my Māoritanga. And so, I remain in that role while I’m there. It’s the Māoritanga, and I come back to - my values; respect, manaakitangata [caring for people], tiaki (protecting), whakawhanaungatanga (connecting), those sort of things. That’s what I can tell you about wairua. It’s not one word…

[T]he definition in English. Oh, I think ‘wairuatanga’ is just spirituality for me. Yeah, it’s a bit different, it’s a wairua. When we speak in Māori, I know that wairua would be, you know, two-way water. So, I take it back to just to make this clear. When we, from my understanding, from our tribal wānanga is that when I meet someone the first question I’ll say, ‘Nō hea koe? Where are you from?’ And then I say, ‘Ko wai koe? Who are you?’ Well the ‘wai’ in there is relating to the wairua, which is you have two waters that run through you, one is female, one is male. Ko wai koe? Where do your sacred waters run from? One’s from your father’s side, one’s from your mother’s side. So wairua. And my sense is wairua [is] a binary concept of that we are all a product, everything is a product, everything is a whakapapa, and everything has a product. Part of that whakapapa for us as Māori is that it’s divine, that we come from our ancestors and from the creation. So, I can’t explain that in one word, but to me that’s what wairua is.

Rihi: Oh yeah there’s ‘wai’ and ‘rua’. I mean it depends on your upbringing.

Ned: For non-Māori it’s deep for them to understand.

Rihi: Yeah, well the coming together of the two waters is the wairua which is about the life force and how we’re made. I mean that’s one teaching I’ve been taught. You know we are water, like cousin [name] said ‘we’re made from water’ so wairua can mean that, in that sense. [For] some people it’s, it’s about a spirituality for want of a better word.

Ned: Oh yeah, I say to them, ‘you know the kindred spirit?’ They go, ‘yeah’ – ‘Wairua’.

Rihi: [We] try and help our staff understand… from our perspective what it means in their terms.

Ned: Because they are- they have a spirit, you know.

Rihi: They have a spirit, they have a wairua.

Ned: We [say to the health professionals’] ‘We call it a "wairua", you’ve got a spirit. Some people have got a bad spirit, you know eh?’ And they go 'oh yeah.’

Rihi: And they do know.

Ned: So, they get that, so we have a bit of fun with it. We don’t make it too heavy… We actually laugh about it and have jokes about it, but they actually understand it by the end of the day.