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A summary of the Te Oomai Reia Romiromi Wananga
The Mataweka marae in Central Hawkes Bay was quite special for our Romiromi wananga, especially with the different spaces we got to work in. It was especially chosen for its close proximity to the Pourerere beach. The underlying theme of the wananga was for tauira to experience the spiritual cleansing purepure in the sea as an integral part of romiromi.
The Purepure Ceremony – at Pourerere Beach
This is an excerpt from my doctoral thesis to give you an idea of the structure of the purepure. ‘The takutaku have a traditional structure, symbols, ritual actions and images that are inclusive of ‘the whole of the universe, the earth, sea, sky and beyond into the night’ (Shirres, 1997. p. 62). The doctoral study of Dr Michael Shirres in Anthropology (Māori Studies) researched the acculturation of Jesus into the world of the Māori, and the interpretation of karakia was interwoven with the philosophy of takutaku (Shirres, 1994). His research describes three sections of the karakia. The first section is in the invocation of the Atua followed by a statement of intention (Shirres, 1997; 1994). The second section is in the loosing and binding ritual which releases any negative spiritual forces that bind the divine attributes or intrinsic tapu inherent within the subject. The last section is in the action of requesting the desired outcome with a statement that gave it sanction.
In my own experience, the definition of karakia in Shirre’s study is explaining the structure of a takutaku. Papa De La Mere used a range of prescriptive takutaku chants for various healing purposes. Some takutaku were for purepure (cleansing and clearing), some were to call people back from the darkness of sadness, others opened up the senses and then there were takutaku that sent the energies of those who have passed to the other side. All of the takutaku in my collection from Papa De La Mere, invoke the spiritual phenomena of nature by incantation. The online Unabridged dictionary defines the word ‘invoke’ as a means to call forth or upon (a spirit), to cause, bring about or act on my behalf to heal on command (n.d.).
My first experience of invoking the spiritual phenomena of nature was at my first wānanga with Papa De La Mere in Whitianga in 2003. He conducted a purepure ritual in the sea that illustrated the precise structure of karakia as described by Dr Shirres, except that Papa defined takutaku as a traditional spiritual cleansing ritual of Te Oomai Reia romiromi. The first stage of the purepure ritual in the sea began with the arranging of the children in the middle of a circle of wāhine (women), surrounded by tane (men) who were in a wider outer circle around them in the water.
Here is a summary of the purepure experience by Harmony Rawiri who shares her matekite vision.
It was a deeper experience than I expected. I had written a name in the sand before the Pure “AIO” and then Aunty Charlotte called us all for karakia before going into the water. When we finished karakia and Aunty Charlotte told us to start walking out into the water, Syd and I were in tune with each other. Without words we looked at each other and walked out into the moana. We were in our own Zone and when we were called to stop, we turned to align ourselves as Pou in the water with the two Pou placed on the shore.
When Aunty Charlotte started her takutaku everyone blacked out for me as I could no longer see the whānau who were placed in a circle in the middle of us four pou. Tangaroa was moving about his ways and I tuned into him and I said to him “he pou au tangaroa” and I stated “ko au a Tangaroa, ko Tangaroa ko au.” It was then that I felt myself sinking down as if the ground opened up. I opened my eyes. I looked at Huia who was one of the pou placed on the shore and I couldn’t see her but I saw her head as there was a big yellow fire ball above her. She was one the pou on shore opposite me. There was a blue flame over her head. I freaked out a bit and then remembered that this is what we are here for and I turned back into Tangaroa as he kept smashing against my body and said “ko au a Tangaroa, ko Tangaroa ko au”. I looked across to Whaea who was the other Pou on shore she had a red fire ball face and a bluey, green flame above her head. I closed my eyes again and I started feeling crabs on my feet. Although I wanted to move my feet, my feet were literally being pushed into the ground and I was still, even though Tangaroa was swaying my body. I opened my eyes again and saw the same blue flame, a purpley green flame as I looked in the middle where our whānau was placed. I still couldn’t see the people in the middle, only the colors of the flame. When I looked across to Syd, her head was pāua colors and her flame above her head was radiating like a pearl colour, almost as if she was a uenuku. All four of us pou had the flames above our heads but Syd had all 3 of our flame colors. I felt myself and the mauri, then everything went silent.
The minute Aunty Charlotte finished her takutaku, it felt like I was dropping to my knees but it was actually the ground pushing me up then Aunty Charlotte appeared right in front of me. It felf as if Tangaroa was taking me towards her. It was beautiful to come out and see Aunty Charlotte’s face smiling as that brought me back and I could see again. We had a harirū to acknowledge our important mahi for the pure. After this, out of curiosity, I returned to where I was standing as the pou and when I put my foot in that spot, there was a deep hole there. I had this feeling that I was being told that we were finished and I should not place my feet there as if I would remain there.
When it was time for everyone to move around and harirū, I saw that Syd’s aura was all over everyone. I did notice she was the last one to get out of the water and I believe that was the mauri. That aura was beautiful. The colors were healing. The spiritual cleansing work of the purepure was done’.
The whakawatea session we did with our Tohunga Rongoa Robbie Richardson aligned with this purepure kaupapa as well.
The following reflection of the Whakawātea was written by Ayla Reti
E rere ana ngā mihi ki a Whaea Robbie, ki tēnei māreikura, mōna I tākoha mai I ōna mātauranga, ōna wheako, hei oranga mō tatou katoa. Ko aua koha I rau atu ki ō mātou kete hei hāpai I a mātou I roto I tēnei ao hurihuri. Ka kore rawa te puna aroha e maroke I te rā.
On Saturday morning after our first whakawatea session in the mattress room, we then moved across to the whare tupuna Nohomaiterangi. Here we gathered and sat around the room in a circle. Whaea Robbie gave an example of how she cleanses her energy and releases that, that no longer serves her highest good from generational cords, to past and through to present. What really intrigued many participants, was how simple this practice was and the way in which it was taught by Whaea Robbie, allowed participants to grasp an understanding of how to apply this practice ourselves, on a daily basis. Whaea Robbie suggested to do this practice in the morning and in the evening for example at 7am and again at 7pm. Participants were asked to close our eyes and picture white light flowing down upon us from the heavens. She called upon ‘ngā Anahera pono’ and reminded participants that this is who she calls upon and each individual is different and therefore we call upon who we feel connected to, for example our spiritual team, light workers etc. She simply asked to be cleansed and released of all that no longer serves her highest good and pictured the light flowing down upon her and cleansing her. As we closed our eyes we too held this image and called upon those that serve our highest good to cleanse and release. It is a very small whare tupuna and it was a very hot day with no breeze, however when we were all tuned in and doing this exercise there was a slight breeze moving through the room, participants described it as “magical”. On completion as everyone around the room began to open our eyes, there was a very light and peaceful feeling. Such an important practice, a life skill and tool to be equipped with.
Whaea Robbie then shared kōrero around kēhua/ spirits that had not yet crossed over. She asked us all to close our eyes and feel if there were any around us and grasp the image of the first number that came to mind. When participants opened our eyes we all shared our numbers and this indicated the number of spirits around us. Whaea Robbie then guided us on how to ask and invite these spirits to move on and cross over. Such a beautiful experience that touched the hearts of many. Whaea Robbie then asked us to close our eyes again and feel for any spirits and to again grasp the image of the first number that appeared, this number indicated if all spirits had moved on and if some still had a number then these spirits were not yet ready. Many participants felt spirits in the whare tupuna as well as their own surrounding them and many on completion had no number remaining or a much less number than when we started. Other participants described seeing images for example one wāhine saw a Korowai above her and later was informed that this was a Korowai/ cloak of protection.
Whaea Robbie then shared kōrero in regards to “portals” and asked participants to close our eyes and feel any portals around or inside of us. She then asked those willing to share if they were a portal or felt portals around or inside of us. Many shared and all participants could feel portals around and some inside. Whaea Robbie then asked participants to close our eyes again and ask for assistance from our spiritual team to help us in closing these portals. Again such an important yet simple skill to learn due to the way in which it was delivered and the safety of the environment and our guide. All participants very much appreciated this and looking around the room on completion, many participants looked a lot lighter and understood the kōrero shared, in regards to the negative impacts of having open portals and having these open, how vulnerable this makes us. We had two participants in particular who felt that they themselves were portals and how this caused them much upset and disturbance in life. One felt as if she was a magnet, this made her feel vulnerable and quite exhausted. As we all sat around the room, we supported Whaea Robbie in tuning in and sharing our energy to help this wāhine close this portal. She shared afterwards how empowered she now felt and that the vulnerable feeling had now left her. Another wāhine shared how much she had been struggling and how her as an open portal had been affecting her day to day life recently. She shared that she would go for 5 days without being able to sleep, seeing frightening images and overall feeling very vulnerable, upset and unsettled. Again Whaea Robbie asked all participants to support her in helping this wāhine by tuning in and sharing our energy to support her. All participants respected being a part of this practice and the openness of the wāhine to share her recent experience in our safe environment. The room was full of aroha and due to this Whaea Robbie with our support was able to guide this wāhine through the process of closing this off for her. Tears were shed, love and support surrounded her and she was able to go through this process with Whaea Robbie.
On completion of this workshop many participants described feeling cleansed and light. Many described the experience as “magical”, “empowering” and “life changing”. Whaea Robbie and Charlotte asked all participants to slowly stand and leave the whare and reminded participants that we would feel a little off, perhaps a bit light headed and not quite ourselves and therefore we all must head across to the wharekai to drink and eat together to bring us back to a place of noa as this spiritual clearing mahi is tapu.
The romiromi session in the afternoon on Sunday provided a summary of the mahi we had done in the prior wananga with Whaea Robbie being an example for the tauira. Nga mihi aroha mo tou tautoko Robbie. We were able to do a takutaku to shift and change the energy then go into mirimiri to do an intuitive diagnosis of what memories are sitting in the cellular memory of the body. From there on it, we looked at how we might open up the different areas in the body so that the memories were able to be released. There were a number of exercises we did to gain access to the Whatumanawa with various experiences shared by pairs. It is the eye of the heart that is at the base of this mahi. As I mentioned in the wananga, Papa De La Mere di many workshops with us with a special focus on the whatumanawa as the ancestors will come through to show you what to do and when. The secret is staying out of the mind, trying to work out what they have said. Now that I am older, I trust what the ancestors tell me and I am obedient to what they show me to do without question but this has taken a lifetime to achieve. Remember the difference between the human mind and the whatumanawa. In the mind, there is only YOU and that is finite but the whatumanawa is infinite and the ancestors there go back to the beginnings of time. So, it is vital that you practise your breathing every day so that you can discipline yourself to be in the whatumanawa instead of the mind.
