Te Mata Ōnaianei
Haromi Williams
Ko te marama, ko Tangaroa a muri
Haromi Williams | Tūhoe
What can 70 years of reflecting on the many ups and downs in one woman’s life, teach us about personal resilience, building relationships, and evolving as a wāhine, a māmā, a hoa rangatira and a kuia?
That is the whakaaro Haromi Williams has explored in her kōrero for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week.
The kaupapa, marked nationally throughout Aotearoa on 23-29 September 2024, focuses this year on building community.
Ngā Mata Wai Ora, the counselling and therapy hub of Te Puna Ora o Mataatua is joining in on this kōrero, by exploring “Te Mata Ōnaianei”.
In this mahi they’ve invited kaikōrero to offer whakaaro to whānau around how the tohu surrounding us at this time help us to gain insight into our waiora.
In doing so, our goal is to whakapakari te hapori mā te whakawhiti whakaaro hei tāpiri mātauranga ki ngā kete.
Ko te marama o te rā nei, Ko Tangaroa a mua. Ānei ētahi kōrero nā Te Rina Ransfield:
“Koinei te marama o ngā wai whakaroto – our internal waters.
“As Tangaroa stretches to accommodate its creatures, the same is happening in you.
Look after your internal waters.”
In her interpretation of this kōrero, Whaea Haromi Williams reflects on the past seven decades of her life.
She uses ōna wheako to speak on the ways she too has looked after her ngā wai o roto over time, he tōmina nōna kia whakamana ki ngā rangatira mō āpōpō.
Breaking her life into twenty-year blocks, ka kōrero ia ki ngā āhuatanga o tōna hinengaro i roto i ngā tau.
She says in her early years, her focus was solely on the lofty whāinga she had set for herself as a young girl and the type of mindset she used to navigate challenges during this time.
Going on to study towards her teaching degree Haromi was in her early twenties when she fell pregnant with her firstborn.
In the later half of her twenties and into her early thirties, Haromi said the focus for herself and her whānau shifted once again – as she welcomed another son and two other girls into te ao.
And in the later part of her life, her focus turned to managing relationships.
Ka kōrero ia mō te aranga hou i tōna ao:
In her later years, Haromi says her role has shifted, with the focus now ki te whāngai te mātauranga ki tōna pā harakeke, hei kai mā rātou mō ake ake – mahi she started as early as in her forties, when she moved home to Ruatoki.
