Li'o. they/them. 27. tagata Samoa, a hunk of a human with the face of a comedian, pcos-haver, green witchling, pet parent, sensitive crybaby prin. cheehoo!
A young Māori boy doesn't have ADHD. He is Uepoto, the curious.
The boy sits there, his head down. He feels stink; he knows all the adults are there to talk about him, about what’s wrong with him.
He’s always been told off for being so fidgety, for not paying attention. He knows it’s a bad thing.
But when the talking begins, it’s not about how to fix him. They’re telling a story about atua, the gods, and one of them sounds exactly like him! He’s called Uepoto, and he’s always curious. He’s full a mischief, a tutū.
The boy looks up.
“That’s where the healing starts, with an exchange of words,” says Poutu Puketapu, 25, a mental health worker at Gisborne service Te Kūwatawata. Only, that’s not his title here - in this space he’s a Mataora, or change-maker.
And the boy isn’t a patient, or client, or even a consumer. He is simply whānau.
“Instead of labelling them and making them feel like they are part of the mental health system, we reach them with these narratives. When they hear the pūrākau (stories) you see a little spark in them.”
Mahi a Atua is a form of narrative therapy that focuses on recovery from the trauma of colonisation. Māori creation stories are used as a form of healing, connecting alienated Māori to their whakapapa.
The pilot programme began in August last year as a response to the disproportionate mental health issues among Māori, and is backed by the Ministry of Health’s innovation fund and Hauora Tairāwhiti District Health Board.
Māori youth are two-and-a-half times more likely than non-Māori to commit suicide. Māori in general are more often underdiagnosed, and once in the mental health system are more likely to be secluded and imprisoned.
Mahi a Atua is driven by Dr Diana Kopua, an Otago University Māori health academic and clinician who is Head of Psychiatry at the DHB, and her husband Mark Kopua, a tohunga and Tā Moko practitioner.
We, as colonizers, have spent generations engaging in a project of destruction and suppression of indigenous languages and stories. We have dismissed them as mere superstition, instead of highly conserved forms of identity and epistemology. Indigenous knowledge of identity, local flora, fauna, and the Deep Time of the landscape, narratives of self-and-Other providing insight into complex ecological relationships - all these are beginning to be (grudgingly) acknowledged as not only useful, but in some sense ‘necessary’ for wellbeing.
The mythopoetic arises from gnosis - the point of contact between living environment and humanity. For indigenous peoples, I suspect the gnostic interplay stretches for hundreds if not thousands of years - or at least would have, had we not, as colonizers, attempted to break and shatter those links which ran throughout Deep Time in an effort to reduce those peoples in service to capital and authoritarianism.
Ironically, we have even had these weapons turned back upon ourselves - the colonizing peoples having their own localised and highly specific forms of knowledge destroyed or dismissed unless their narrative power could be made to serve State or Corporate Imperialism.
To quote Ursula K. Le Guin: “A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.”
Long live the tales of the Maori - and their tellers!
social media and i have decided we're on a break. but things are heating up between me and texting - inbox me if you wanna stay in touch!! i love y'all ✌🏼
☀️ Known as the “Stone of Success” as it promotes directed energy and enthusiasm to overwhelming or difficult tasks.
☀️ Clears any aura of unwanted negativity, for example would be best worn when interacting around someone you have had a disagreement with or in times if tense family interactions within a home.
☀️ Citrine does not actually absorb negative energies, but merely disperses them, thus the stone is so strong and self reliant that it doesn’t actually need to be cleansed. With this, it is a wonderful stone for promoting ongoing happiness and optimism.
☀️ On the other end of the spectrum, it can be worn short-term for a quick boost in times of sadness or turmoil as a fast way to release tension and cleanse negativity, helping prevent the situation from worsening.
☀️ Enhances self acceptance, happiness and courage in social situations, while bringing a sunny, open disposition to the wearer. A powerful confidence booster that blocks thoughts of self doubt of fear.
Growing up, I was raised to always stay indoors to keep my skin from getting dark. My relatives who traveled all the way from the Philippines bring pasalubong, and I have gotten the infamous papaya whitening soap as a gift.
When I visited the Philippines, the people portrayed in media look nothing like me, and instead are replaced with the mestizos/mestizas who are pale or light skinned, and are the beauty standard. Colorism is unfortunately still a big problem, and it’s so ingrained in our culture that I’ve struggled to even be proud of being Filipino. How can I when society tries to erase my brown skin?
I dealt with a lot of self-hatred, (still kinda do) but I recently decided to change that by drawing these girls. I wanted to draw badass and confident women that I could look up to, but most of all I wanted them to look like me: Brown, Proud, and Beautiful.
If you want just one (of many) valid reasons to hate how the Disney company handled the story of Pocahontas, know this:
When Pocahontas was kidnapped, she fell into a deep depression after enduring mental, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her captors.
She was in such poor condition that her captors thought she was going to die, so they allowed her sister Mattachanna and brother-in-law Uttamattamakin to come to Jamestown to take care of her and nurse her back to health. This is when she confided to her sister that she had been raped several times (by more than one person) and believed she was pregnant. Mattachanna and Uttamattamakin were also with her when they sailed to London and were the ones who had to tell her father of her death (possible murder).
Pocahontas and Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World leave out Mattachanna entirely, but this is how they chose to depict Uttamattamakin:
Disney knew enough about this man to actually add him in a film and call him by his name (which also becomes a running joke because everybody fucks it up throughout the film), and THIS is how they portray him.
If that doesn’t make you sick to your stomach I really don’t know what will.
this. this is why I’m pissed, this shit right here. It makes me so unbelievably angry and makes me cry. I’m so sorry matoaka, so sorry they romanticized your abuse and your captors. I’m so sorry all the white girls dress up as you and defend there reasoning by saying “she’s just a disney Princess” you weren’t just a disney princess and I won’t let you be. you were a scared twelve year old child who went through things no child should ever have to go through. I will not let you be reduced to a bastardized fairytale. your real story will be heard and will not be ignored.
1. Accept where you are and what you are feeling. Wherever you are and whatever you are feeling right now is okay.
2. Move your attention to something that makes you feel better. Even if you feel slightly better, it’s an improvement and it’s working.
3. Simply be aware. Become aware of your senses—feel the water when you wash your hands, enjoy the taste of the food you are eating, etc. Try meditation.
4. Appreciate what you have. Think of all the great things and people you are grateful for.
5. Acts of Kindness. Do big or tiny acts of kindness for anyone you wish, including yourself. You can write someone a poem, draw something, or just tell someone how much you appreciate them. “Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple effect with no logical end.” —Scott Adams
You can choose to do all five of these, a few of these, or even just one of these, and it will work.
when they jonas brothers were like “i came from the year 3000..not much has changed but they live underwater..” that was a politically charged remark about climate change and we all ignored it
1. Become aware of how and when you tearing yourself down.
2. Now that you can catch yourself doing it. Offer counters to the negative self talk. A really useful thing I read was to talk to yourself almost the way you would child. Gentle and patient. Even when they fuck up.
3. Take time to celebrate your small accomplishments. You’ve been attacking yourself for every little mistake. Apply that same fervor to the positive things in your life. Did the dishes even though you didn’t want to? Fuck yeah! Got up and took shower? YES!!! You are taking positive steps to feeling better. Celebrate it.
4. Make lists of things you’re good at/ like about yourself. The first time I did this the only two things in my list we’re that I liked my hair and I had good friends. It was start.
5. Don’t beat yourself up if you screw up steps 1-4. It’s counter productive. When I catch myself calling my self stupid for some mistake or other my response now is,“We don’t talk to ourselves like that anymore. What’s something constructive that could actually help solve the problem.”
Most of the time that seems to work. Not always. But more and more Everytime.
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