Identity & Whenua
It’s not that we’re broken,
It’s that were evolving at a pace
that is crushing old belief systems and
upgrading our DNA.
This path is deep,
And the wounds we once licked are now offered up as medicine.
We are not wounded,
We are Awakened.
As we move into the expanding currents of Hina we celebrate the beating drum of the Sun as he dances through the southern skies. For many Maori, Christmas was celebrated through the longest and warmest days of the year. Te Hikumata o Raumati – Summer Solstice was as much a pillar to traditional Maori as the cycles of the moon and her mapping of the seed tides, each harvest, and every ceremony.
There are three moon cycles per season, and twelve per year, each guiding us through the sequence of change, like an internal compass in which to navigate. Solstice, where the veil between worlds thin, and time stands still when the past greets the future of renewed dreams. As we sit within the fullness of Hine Raumati, the Summer maiden, the personification of Summer herself.
Indeed it is time to see the produce of ones hard-earned labour come to fruition, the harvest of our planting is now upon us, the seeds in which we incubated through Takurua (Winter) are now birthed into Te Ao Marama, for the time of plenty is here. There is a frequency that is amplified within the season of Summer, this is evident in the movement within and upon the lands, the putiputi are blooming and vibrant with colour, seeds are bursting forth, fruit and berries filling the puku of the winged ones, the grasses and gardens flourishing with kai, and the people are gathering to celebrate Kotahitanga, the rhythms of coming together.
To think TamanuiteRa migrated through the skies from winter to summer, slowing his footsteps to allow us time to reflect, process and then gather. I wonder if it was around this time Maui-tikitiki-a-taranga endeavoured to slow the sun, so our people could live a fuller, more nourished life. It makes sense, Maui the trickster drawing from his other-worldly powers to give back to his people, for the day is at her longest and the night at his shortest on this day December 21st of each year.
