Te marama, te whānautanga, te raranga
Say it: HEE-neh-tee-teh-REH-por · Hine = woman; te repo = the swamp/wetland.
Hine-te-iwaiwa presides over the maramataka, over birth, and over the crafts of women. She is cycle, care and skilled hands.
Ko wai tēnei? — in plain words
The wetlands — the in-between country that is neither land nor water. Swamps fed and hid people, and preserved things that would otherwise rot away.
Whanaungatanga: Associated with Tangaroa's fresh waters and the life of the wetland margins.
Where you already meet them
Te kōrero — the story
Associated with the moon and its phases, she is called upon at childbirth and in weaving. The maramataka — the lunar calendar that told our tūpuna when to plant, fish and rest — moves under her care.
A common misunderstanding
Swamps were not 'wasteland' to be drained. They were pantry, pharmacy and archive — and their loss is felt as the loss of a relative.
Ngā uara
Raranga
Patient work, strand by strand.
Whakawhānau
Honour beginnings and the people who tend them.
If you are new to this — start here
Find the nearest wetland or waterway to your home and go stand at its edge.
I tēnei ao — acknowledging today
He mihi
Hine-te-iwaiwa, kaitiaki o te marama, tēnā koe.
Hine-te-iwaiwa, guardian of the moon, I greet you.
Ngā taha o te ora