Tea, Rongoa and Raising Babies in the Language
On a sunny, Hakihea morning, I drove to the old Chronicle Building in Whanganui to visit the new store Kaputī Studio and meet wahine Māori owner Whitney Nicholls-Potts. The wooden entrance floors led into the warm and welcoming shop, filled with all things tea and Te Ao Māori. The scent of the tea greets you as you walk through the kūaha. I felt instantly at home as I walked in with my hubby and toddler in tow.
I wandered through the space and admired the taonga, pukapuka and tea that is Kaputī Studio. As I looked around, I felt a sense of familiarity. I recognised the works of many wāhine Māori across Aotearoa and the stories of their creations. As we sat for our kōrero, Whitney poured a cup of her hand-made Ngāhere Sencha tea, crafted using mātauranga Māori and her life experience. Feeling her manaakitanga with the warmth of the brew, I asked her, “ko wai koe?”.
Whitney: Ko Whitney tōku ingoa, nō Ngāti Kuri ahau. He māmā ahau. Ētahi wā he kaituhi. For five years, I’ve been crafting the Kaputī Studio kaupapa. This business reflects who I am and where I come from, an amalgamation of everything I love, my upbringing and my family.
I remember growing up going to the marae and always having tea there. My grandparents in Dunedin were always having cups of tea on the land. They worked the land a lot, and a kaputī on the billy was how they would have a break. Connecting over a cup of tea.
Hera: Can you tell me about Kaputī Studio?
Whitney: Kaputī Studio is a range of hand-blended teas. Each tea has been created with an experience in mind. They’ve been created from personal experience. My koro loves green tea, but not flavoured green tea. It was like, “Okay, I’ve made us something we can enjoy together.” There’s that sort of story behind them, that connection.
Kaputī Studio was also about my journey learning te reo Māori. It was about exploring that. I started a market stall with my friend Whitney in Grey Lynn, Tāmaki Makaurau when we were both young māmā and learning our reo. Our kaupapa at the time was to ‘Mihi as much as possible’ in te reo Māori to see how far you could take the conversation in a safe way.
We have whakataukī on the packaging that celebrates the poetics and beauty of te reo Māori with your wā kaputī. Have a rest, have a reflect, you know, and go to that space. Having a kaputī is another way to have the reo. My Papa, a kaiako reo Māori helps me with the translations.
It’s an evolving kaupapa that’s very much informed by the people it resonates with. I love the relationships I’ve built through Kaputī Studio and connecting with people like Ataria and many other wāhine Māori who are trying to do things differently.
Hera: I get that sense. Ataria and I always joke when she comes to stay at my place that she drinks me out of ‘tea and home’ instead of ‘house and home’. We literally sit around, boil the pot and wānanga and drink tea. Basically, she drinks all our tea. I really like how you’ve linked te reo Māori with drinking tea.
What inspired you to start Kaputī Studio?
Whitney: Working at t Leaf T in Wellington at university was influential for Kaputī Studio. That was where I learnt about world tea culture. The owner is incredible and passionate about tea. Tea ceremonies and the art of tea practices are worldwide in places like Japan, China and South America. I love that.
We have our own art of tea here, but it’s undefined. That was another part of the kaupapa; finding what is uniquely Aotearoa about our kaputī culture.
Hera: Oh, I love that. How do you think te ao Māori links into the tea ceremony experience?
Whitney: I think it’s about kōrero. You know, sitting at the long tables in the wharekai where we have the kaputī and biscuits. Yeah. It’s about that. When I was studying te reo Māori, we’d go on our noho wānanga, which would be when you’ve been doing lots of karakia, waiata, kōrero. And then you have your cup of tea that refreshes you and cleanses your throat after all that singing, so I think those are uniquely Aotearoa experiences.
It’s also about mahi. Working hard is a value I hold close to. We go out and do our mahi, whether physical mahi or creative, mental mahi; whatever the mahi is, kaputī is where we take a break. Let’s have a rest. I always felt like those were the things that were uniquely Māori in our kaputī culture.
Hera: That’s beautiful. Plenty of times at the marae and you just sit and wā whakatā. I’ve done some reo Māori study myself, and every hour you’d have your 10-15 minute break to kia tau.
When and where did you start Kaputī studio?
Whitney: I originally started with a market store at the Whanganui River Markets. It wasn’t called Kaputī Studio back then. When I moved to Tāmaki, was on maternity leave, and had my babies, I decided to start another market stall for some pocket money. I made a big pot of chai and sold cups of it.
My friend Whitney and I had our babies at the same time. So we did Whitney and Whitney kaputī at the Grey Lynn market in 2017. It was the same format I brought from the Whanganui markets, but then I started learning about rongoā and doing other blends.
Hera: With your rongoā, did you do a course, were you just connected with someone in the know or did you do your own research?
Whitney: A bit of all of that. Growing up, my Pāpā was taking us out to harvest rongoā. We witnessed that, and you take it for granted when you’re younger. The memories of dad boiling the wairākau up and me having to drink it. He always boiled it up really strong.
I had my own babies, got into natural health care, and did a rongoā course at te wānanga o Aotearoa. I want to do another one because I did the certificate but was hapū and didn’t finish it. But I loved it. So there’s that, and then a curiosity started coming into me.
It’s a lifelong journey learning about rongoā. Everyone is like, “I’m still learning about rongoā.” I definitely want to keep on that waka going forward.
Hera: Learning te reo Māori is a lifelong experience, learning about the other aspects of Māoritanga and rongoā and all those things. It’s an evolving journey.
How is the journey so far been for you? Ngā piki ngā heke?
Whitney: Yeah. Big ups and big downs. Juggling it with being a mum. I do it to have flexibility, but at the same time, it’s like having another baby. You worry about it all the time. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking, ‘I forgot to reply to that person’. But at the same time, I know it’s what I love doing, so I feel grateful and lucky to continue to do it and just push myself.
The other day I told Mum I was quitting, and she said, “don’t you dare.” The best thing about it is the relationship building, the connections you make with other people on the same haerenga.
Hera: It’s about finding, you know, the people whose hearts align with yours in a way that it’s hard to explain. It’s beautiful.
You saw my little one. I only have one too. It’s a big mahi. Big mihi to you for raising your babies and this baby. You give so much, you’re giving to the community, and so we’re very privileged to have someone like you.
I saw recently that you ran a wānanga with Awhi Ora Rongoa. I’d love to hear a little bit more about that. What’s in store in the future?
Whitney: We’ve been lucky enough to be pulled together by another awesome wahine Māori. We just started a group chat and formed an online sisterhood. We all have a rongoā connection in our mahi. Awhi came into the space, and I put the pānui out and asked if she would like to do a workshop here. community is so important to me and this kaupapa.
I want to activate the space and collaborate with other like-minded wāhine Māori. She came in for the workshop, and it was a beautiful afternoon. It adds to the mauri of the space as well. Hopefully, in the new year, we’ll do more of that. You know, sharing mātauranga and what we know in our mahi with other keen people. Making it accessible.
Hera: I’m on a te reo Māori journey and craving more of it. You’re creating a space where you can come in and get tea and that mātauranga.
Whitney: I want to do reo here, not a class but a kōrero group. Where we all come in and have tea and kōrero. Because I’m craving that too. Kōrero Māori and be staunch and disciplined about it. Come in here; we only kōrero te reo Māori. There are heaps of us like that, eh?
Hera: I’m a kaiako at Castlecliff School. There are kaiārahi te reo there who are first-language speakers. I’m still learning, but I say to them, ‘kōrero Māori anake’. It is so good. Because it forces me to absorb rather than translate in my brain.
Whitney: You absorb it rather than trying to take it over. Because you can. Like how Grandmother Willow told Pocahontas to ‘listen with your heart.’
Hera: That’s so right, I’ve been studying online, and I absorb it and can read it. But then I come to kōrero and freeze up. It’s that practice of listening and speaking with your heart instead of using your hinengaro
Whitney: Yes. Because then you’re trying to translate Pākehā thoughts into Maori. And it’s always like kāo. Whakaaro Māori.
Hera: What’s next? Is there anything else that you’ve got on the horizon?
Whitney: I’m taking it day by day. I’ve always had big lofty visions of what could happen with Kaputī, like growing our own rongoa and having our own tea plants. But of course, with the way the world is now, I’m taking it day by day and letting it evolve in this lovely community. And just creating more events to come together and see what happens from there. Because you never know, you fire off each other all the time. You know, when you meet someone and go ‘well we should do this’. ‘Okay!’ So it could take any path.
Hera: Looking around the taonga you sell, I can see you’ve got the works of Aroha from Maimoa Creative and the Nuku: Stories of 100 Indigenous Women pukapuka, which I got for Ataria for Christmas last year. You’re making those connections with wāhine. Creating that kind of community.
Whitney: Oh, yeah. The books hold a real presence - not just as the creations of the wahine who authored them - They contribute to our wider collective story and I love that we now have access to these kōrero as reference and as inspiration while on this haerenga, the great unlearning I call it, rewiring thinking to be Māori.
Hera: I have the Māori At Home pukapuka. It sits on my table, and if Hōhepa is having his kai, I’ll pull it out.
Whitney: I do that too. I’m such a nerd as well.
Hera: Raising tamariki in the language, it’s hard, eh? I didn’t grow up speaking much Māori. We had the basics. How is the language reclamation journey for you? I find some days I’m feeling good about it, I’ve got it. Other days, I’m like, omg, I don’t know enough. How’s it for you?
Whitney: It’s precisely the same. I think we’re all in together with that, māmā like you and I, and every time we talk to each other and express it, it’s just like, thank you. Thank you. Because there are those days when you feel the despair of being unable to get into that space where it can flow. Then you realise that there are other things too that you might be carrying, or you know, something else that’s, you know, dragging your self-esteem down. But nothing feels better when you’re on those good days, and it flows.
You question yourself all the time because it’s really hard. My boy started kura kaupapa this year. I cry nearly every day when I pick him up, and he’s talking in the reo. It reminds me to stay on the waka. Tells me that I’m doing the right thing.
That’s been the journey for me, and that continues to be the journey. I keep Awa FM, Māori TV and the Taringa podcast in my ears.
Hera: You get into that flow when you’re immersed in it. We’ve been listening to Frozen reo Māori, released on Spotify yesterday. I know what you mean by keeping it in your ears. It’s keeping it alive all the time.
And even my boy, like he’s only just started talking, and I completely resonate with that whakaaro around feeling this joy in your heart when you hear them. It’s like, oh my goodness.
Whitney: It’s like, you’re not gonna have the identity crisis I went through.
Hera: Is there anything else you wanted to share?
Whitney: To wrap up would just be to say, since this is going into Awa Wahine Magazine, huge mihi to her and the mahi that she does; thank you so much. I love how Awa Wahine provides the space for wāhine Māori voices. It is such a mahi rangatira to open it up and break down those barriers.
Hera: Thank you for sharing your beautiful kōrero and space; what a privilege.
Ka nui te mihi ki a koe, mō to kōrero, mō tō whakaaro, mō tō aroha. Tēnā koe.