entering new phases isn’t always easy, or welcomed — at first.

Whiro is coming up in a few days, bringing the new kaupapa with it: Urutengangana.

The eldest, the baddest, the one I’ve been fascinated by for the longest time.. There’s something about this guy, I don’t know what it is, maybe that I don’t know too much about him but he just peaks my interest… and it’s been a minute since the #atuablogseries covering an atua (elemental being, god) over the cycle, and the timing feels right, so here we are. Cool, park that up. More on him soon, but first, let me give some context to today’s post.

I’ve been feeling down this past week. Surprised, shocked, disheartened — all the feels since learning of how many people ‘can’t see the forest for the trees’*, don’t see how interconnected each of us are, how our communities function as an ecosystem, like the ngahere (forest),

where the different elements contribute to and create the conditions for that environment to thrive and flourish.

The benefit of diversity is demonstrated in the taiao (natural environment) and since we descend from the taiao and are the culmination of those elements and functions, it’d serve us well to align individual behaviours for collective benefit. #whakapapainaction.

There’s an abundance of examples in our kōrero, karakia (incantations/chants), pūrākau (stories), whakataukī (proverbs) that encourage collaboration, collective contribution, that embody ‘seeing the forest for the trees.’ But isn’t the ngahere Tāne (atua/god of the forest/pursuit of knowledge)’s domain? Why you talking about Urutengangana?’ Valid questions. Ha, well…..

the forest is the analogy, how we enter into or out of that space, is Urutengangana’s realm.

Uru can be translated to mean ‘to enter’ and that’s the current we’ll be vibing with. Even if we used the moana (ocean) as our analogy and ecosystem, Urutengangana’s function and expression is still the focus of this wānanga.

We’re embodying Urutengangana constantly. We’re entering into or out of something/somewhere physically, emotionally, creatively, mentally, spiritually, intellectually, socially, all. the. time.

The more we learn/unlearn about ourselves, we’re challenged to enter into a deeper, more extensive understanding of who we are, who we’re not, our place in the world, why we’re here etc. so of course, the more we learn about others and how they see the world, we’re challenged in a similar way.

To enter into deeper parts of the ngahere, that have always been there, but just not obvious or made aware to us, initially…

Entering new phases isn’t always easy, or welcomed, but necessary to learn more about ourselves and the world around us. Sometimes what we learn may be shocking or not what we expected, but it’s always been there — even if we couldn’t see it at first.

We can’t fix a problem we don’t know exists, we can’t heal a wound we won’t acknowledge. When we expose it and bring it out into the light, that’s when we affect the greatest change.

Enter into that awareness first and with that, decide what to do next.

Nāku noa,

Hana.

*nā John Heywood. Tricky place in the sentence to try include who coined the term, voila, footnotes.

side note, checkout “evergreen” by Yebba or the cover by Jayden Randell.