the whakapapa of superficiality and loss of mātauranga

You might be thinking, what does superficiality have to do with kai (food)? Or better yet, if it’s even a word lol it is by the way, I had to check a couple times just to make sure. but more importantly, we’re flowing on from last week’s post and kōrero about the life cycle of kai. from seed to when we consume it in a meal, there are certain parts of that process many of us don’t engage with anymore and as a result,

our connection to kai becomes superficial and solely about the food or the act of eating.

The kōrero last week and the workload I’ve had in this time has meant a. loss of sleep and b. making associations with other rituals and processes in our lives that are compromised and consequently made superficial — and what this means for our mātauranga (knowledge systems and capacity).

Now, I'll have you know that sleep is one of my favourite things in the world. #napqueen haha so the more I sat with this kaupapa (topic) over the last week, the more it got me thinking about how we go through different phases of sleep and the various cycles we go through as well.

Just a quick overview, each cycle serves different functions. there’s the transition to rest mode. the phase to recover and restore the tinana (body). the phase for mental restoration (REM sleep fyi).

When we go to sleep late or wake up early, we're cutting out parts of those cycles our bodies and brain need to recover, store memory, make connections etc.

Which part of the cycle are you missing out on?

And what does that mean? What is the whakapapa (process) of interrupting those cycles and how does that play out in our lives?

This is following the same approach we had with food last week. from seed to plate, there are so many steps in the process and each one has its own little network bursting with storehouses of knowledge and mātauranga.

With each subsequent loss or removal of those steps — thanks to legislation i.e. Tohunga Suppression Act 1907, Native Schools Act 1867 and also forestry, introduced pests, the mainstream health, justice and education system………… just to name a few ha we’ve learned to cultivate a whakapapa of superficiality.

I went out into the ngahere (forest) last year with my whanaunga and he was schooling me on how deforestation contributes to loss of mātauranga. for example, when you listen to waiata (songs) from around the motu (islands/country), I guarantee most waiata will reference a tree in bloom, its berries or its beauty to describe a person or place etc.

This guy spins a few yarns but this one caught my attention, he went on to say something like ‘but when pests come in or the whenua (land) is deforested and those trees are taken away/eaten, which attract certain species of bird or insects, who eat the berries and help pollinate it… they start to disappear.

with them, our mātauranga.

If there are no trees to attract the birds who eat the berries and help with pollination for new plants to grow.. there won’t be any trees to reference in waiata? An entire line of whakapapa to that place and to what grew there, how it nourished, sheltered or protected our tupuna (ancestors) is gone.

I should probably apologise for saying we’re ‘cultivating a whakapapa of superficiality’ when that’s not entirely true because to cultivate means to make conscious decisions of when to work the land, what to plant and when.. it’s an intentional effort. Which is what our tupuna were doing before European arrival, so perhaps a more accurate term is we’ve been conditioned to adopt that whakapapa as its been forced upon us for the last couple hundred years.

If you think of anything better, let me know hehe but what I’m trying to emphasise is how

everything has a cycle or a process.

And each part of that process serves a specific function. By cutting some of that out, by disengaging or disconnecting from it, we lose out on part of the ritual, part of the mātauranga and part of the māramatanga (enlightenment, understanding), depth and substance that comes from all those streams converging together.

Whether it be for convenience or otherwise — what’s the real cost?

Tēnā tātou,

Hana.