Te Awa Atua

Image Credit: Graeson Mclellan

Te Awa Atua

Waiwhero. 

Period. 

An ancient river of whakapapa. 

A flow of blood. 

Descendant of Papatūānuku, Hineteiwaiwa, Maui. 

Who? What? A man? 

Tapū, she is very. 

Noa - it’s just your time of the month. 

A whānau celebration of life. 

Your individual problem. 

Her whare tangata ready for her descendants. 

You can have children now but not too young. 

The dreams of her unborn tamariki. 

You’re not pregnant. 

A time to be nurtured by her tāne. 

Avoided by men. 

Intergenerational mātauranga from her Atua, Kuia, Koroua,

To her and her descendants. 

Intergenerational trauma,

The Bible segregates you from your community. 

She is a wāhine; her awa atua flows. 

Just a girl who got her period. 

Te ritorito 

Just blood 

Te waiwhero 

Pollutive and Unclean 

Tapū te ora, 

Noa 

He ora, ora. 

No life lives

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