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Kotahi te tapuwae, he mano, he mano ki muri
The first sacred footprint is followed by thousands upon thousands

Kaupapa Māori based creative arts therapy leans into whakapapa. Everything is connected. Everything has a narrative. Narratives are like sacred footprints, offering coordinates, marking the places and spaces where one has been.

Footprints imprint pathways others may follow, learn from, heal and set out anew. Narratives are inscribed in the land and are evoked in the intersubjective nature of humanity interacting with the natural world, and ultimately with the Creative Force. Mana Atua, Mana Whenua, Mana Tangata.

Historical and intergenerational factors have caused an obscuring of ngā tapuwae, resulting in a loss and fracturing of original Māori interconnected and relationship centric ways of being (Williams, 2017). With this dissolution of the collective, the individual becomes vulnerable, resulting in disconnection from the ‘original instruction’ (Nelson, 2008), and an onslaught of dis-ease (Haami, 2019).

Within te ao Māori, art is an integral aspect relating to the attainment, maintenance and dissemination of knowledge. Access to healing may be granted by consciously returning to the land and the footsteps of tūpuna through engaging in the creative arts. The restoration and (re)discovery of taonga i tuku iho, are designed to draw individuals back to the integrated self, the collective, the natural environment and the Ultimate Oneness.

The sacred and essential quest to recall these lost narratives through attuning to te puna waihanga and the Creative Source, illuminates the unique, ancient, yet familiar ‘footprints’ of the Indigenous cultural identity of Aotearoa. Those engaging in this quest, whether for the first time or multiple times thereafter, may encounter the potency of whakawhanaungatanga, building connections leading to belonging – the process and felt sense experienced as (k)new (T.K. Stewart, personal communication, April 19, 2016).

Glossary

Mana Atua: Authority, power and influence of Deity.
Mana Tangata: Authority, power and influence of humanity.
Mana Whenua: Authority, power and influence the land.
Ngā: The (plural definite article).
Taonga I tuku iho: Treasures (of knowledge, customs and practices) passed down through ancestral lines.
Tapuwae: Sacred footprint(s).
Te ao Māori: The Māori worldview.
Te puna waihanga: The spring of creativity.
Whakapapa: Genealogical links, foundational origins.
Whakawhanaungatanga: Building relationships through making connections and whakapapa.

References

Haami, B. (2019). Bringing culture into care: A biography of Amohaere Tangitu. Huia Publishers.

Nelson, M.K. (2008). Original instructions: Indigenous teachings for a sustainable future. Bear & Company.

Williams, J. (2017). Te Ritorito: 'The Treaty of Waitangi and whānau, hapū and iwi wellbeing'. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnlMa5jJu_k