The Spirit of Manaaki

Māori elder Maata Wharehoka’s teachings on birth, death, climate, and healing

Reveals how Maata integrated her own experiences of trauma and colonialism with traditional Māori wisdom to develop modern teachings.

Shares Māori practices around birth, death, and healing, and Maata’s ritual of Kahu Whakatere to embrace bereavement, transition, and loss.

Tells the story of Parihaka, the birthplace of nonviolent protest, and how its teachings speak to humanity today.

Entering the Māori worldview is like stepping into a verdant landscape where humans and plants, animals, the land, rain, and mountains are united. This may sound like a step into a distant past, but it is the model of living that matriarch Maata Wharehoka has been sustaining her entire life in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

The Māori word manaaki means to protect, to show respect, and to take care. This is the essence of Maata Wharehoka’s wisdom. Transmitting Maata’s wisdom to the world is the task Stephanie Mines set for herself as she shares in The Spirit of Manaaki Maata’s pioneering efforts in healthcare, parenting, and social justice as well as her interpretations of traditional Māori teachings. Stephanie reveals how Maata used her experiences of trauma and colonialism, along with generational Indigenous wisdom, to develop teachings for our times.

Readers will learn Maata’s Māori practices around healing, death and dying, and relationship to elders, as well as her views on the sanctity of birthing, parenting, kuiatanga (the way of the kuia, or women elders), inclusive healthcare, and the Earth. Maata’s practice of Kahu Whakatere—a ritual to embrace bereavement, transition, and loss—shows how death can be a peacemaker and unifier. And lastly, Stephanie lets us see and understand the Māori view of the climate crisis and how to address it with nature-informed consciousness.

With reflective exercises that share the hard-won wisdom of an elder, this book allows Maata’s spirit of manaaki—protection, respect, and care—to reach beyond Aotearoa to the world.