We meet three people working in different ways to revive and reclaim mātauranga Māori within a modern context.

In episode two, we meet three people working in different ways to revive and reclaim mātauranga Māori within a modern context.

by Briar Pomana

Taonga tuku iho is an intrinsically Māori approach to life and whakapapa, a process in which through a multitude of mediums can both empower and heal. As Māori, we stand on the shoulders of our tīpuna and carry their knowledge forward.

Episode two of He Kākano Ahau: Wawatatia looks deeper into practices and taonga that may have been left behind in our histories. It engages and opens wānanga with artists, activists and communities that every day, are unlocking parts of themselves that have previously been shunned from the light as a direct result of colonisation.

Host Kahu Kutia takes listeners deep into the ancestral land of Mātaatua waka with friends Lanae Cable and Sarah Hudson, two of three artists who make up the decolonial research collective Kauae Raro, and then further down the country to Te Whanganui-a-Tara to meet Jayden Rurawhe, an uri of Te Rarawa iwi and co-director of the show He Tangata.

Kauae Raro is nothing short of magical. On their Instagram, images of earthy tones and pigments in various jars and mixtures are a feast for the eyes. It is with these traditional whenua-derived colours that researchers and artivists Lanae Cable, Sarah Hudson and Jordan Davey-Emms are relearning, returning and creating with the materials of their tīpuna, directly from the taiao.

The pigment kokowai, found in clay or rocks, comes in a variety of shades most often tinged red-brown. For some, the pūrākau of Hineahuone and Tāne comes to mind. This narrative may then lead to ideas around beginnings, birth, deepness and space, conceivably thoughts of life, land, and love. Kokowai for others is simply hardened mud and rock.

All of these ideas, say the collective, were shared by the people walking these lands centuries ago.

"It was used by our tūpuna as art-making material, in ceremony, to rongoa. Sunblock to keep sandflies off. For painting. There were also beautiful practices of adornment, like makeup - painted cheeks, foreheads, lips, bodies, whole bodies. Sometimes you can see kapa haka roopu have a red, sometimes that's kokowai."

Communities such as Kauae Raro are working to reconnect with the land and with each other. Walking and touching together they are animations of their ancestors in the purest forms and this reclamation is happening everywhere in Aotearoa.

Kahu explores this journey with Jayden Rurawhe as their theatre show He Tangata ushers in Wellington Pride…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details