TPH (Tupakihi, Pukatea & Horopito) Super Balm

KIA PIKI TE ORA!!!!

28th NOVEMBER 2014 - HEI MANAAKI (WK 15)  

MAKING (Tupakihi, Pukatea & Horopito) 

TPH SUPER BALM

We were privileged today to have Kyle make some TPH Super Balm - used for the Iron Maori participants - containing the three essential oils and leaves to produce this wonderful healing, pain relief that soothes sprains, strains and breaks.

Kylie explained that she has her whanau use it after intensive training to help alleviate some of the pain that occurs as a result of a lot of hard physical workout or activities.

She explained that it was important to soak the fresh leaves of the Tupakihi and Pukatea in oil for at least three months before use - her personal preference is using the Rice oil found in was more porous and soaked into the skin easier.  Kura on the other hand explained she prefers olive oil but then others prefer a mixture of both rice oil & olive oil so the choice is up to the person making the oil.

 

The Pukatea and Tupakihi oils are added in equal amounts the heated in a stainless steel pot then the dried Horopito leaves are added the combination of the three provide, healing, anesthetic and heat that give a unique potent relief to aches and pains.

Allow time for oil to infuse together whilst on the heat.  Remove from heat and begin slowly adding chunks of bees wax whilst stirring until you are able to dip in a cold spoon into the mixture and in begins to solidify (similar to checking when jam is ready) at this stage it is ready to start bottling.

Label jars clearly with name of rongoa contained and date of bottling.  Pour into glass jars and allow to cool before putting lids on the jars to prevent sweating.  Dark jars are best, but if you do use clear jars store them in a dark place.

Labelled Jars

 
      Use Stainless steel pots

 Hot wax carefully poured Jars of hot wax cool

bees wax solidifies

TE RARAWA HUI FEEDBACK - 27TH NOVEMBER 2014

Feed back from Te Rarawa Wananga hui held at Mahimaru Marae yesterday - spoke on he  stages of development - to delegate a presentation out to each of our roopu, here is other research  starting from the whakapapa

Io - Te Kai

Te Po - Wikitoria / Lillian

Moana - Te More

Joe / Viv - Te Kore

Kyle & Rena - Te Whe

Te Kura / Mere - Te Waonui

Jo / Teresa - Te Rea

Mellissa / Peter - ??????

Kohatu Korero: Papa Te Kai Talked about the triangles the Tahiti - Rapanui - NZ if you are in a house you should always place three hangi stones at the back and in the front - in the four corners of the property and three in the ceiling of the roof.

Spoke on all the tamariki of Ranginui & Papatuanuku - Excellent stories shared between all those who attended - by the end of the day we had a structure that will be the beginning of the Conference in November 2015.

SHOW OTHER METHODS TO RENDER BEES WAX TRIALED 

Last weeks blog showed step by step on process how to extract bees wax using the sun with a glass cover.

This another way where I boiled the honey burr comb the step by step method is in this link

Here are photos of the end result

render produces large amount of bees wax

 

some residue remain as I should have added more water to float wax

Residue can be used as firestarters for BBQ or fireplaces

Add captio 

TATARAMOA

For those who are having trouble sleeping or a restless child boil 6 Leaves to 1 ltr of water will give you a good sedative to help you sleep well - be careful not over use it otherwise you could overdose - drink in moderation

If you add biddy-bids and it strengthens the mix - a great rongoa - if giving to a restless child only give them a small teaspoon no more 

LACE BARK

Whaea Moana is having trouble with sore eyes so Kura & Papa Jo made a mix with some Lace Bark leaves dropped in cold water - allow to sit a little while and drop water droplets direct into eyes.  This will relieve painful, stinging and tired eyes.

NEXT CALENDAR DATES

On the 5th of December if the weather is good we will go out to the Ngahere - unfortunately the weather prevented that visit today so our target is for next Friday instead.  

On the 12th December we will be having our last class at Ahipara for the day and will have a BBQ on the day.

Whaea Viv will inform us later when we will be starting back up in the new year in February sometime. 

Rendering Beez Wax & Grey Power lunch

KIA PIKI TE ORA!!!!

21 NOVEMBER 2014 - HEI MANAAKI (WK 14)  

 

Wonderful to have our whare warm again with a number of new visitors joining us for our class today.

Had feedback from Teresa about her visit with Whakatane with Te Awanuiarangi last week.  She shared some of awesome mahi that we have been doing and they were very impressed with our blog and the wonderful learning that has been happening as a result.  

9th and 10th of December will be a certificate ceremony which our roopu have been invited to at Ngawha for some of the men who have been doing the courses for Rongo and Tourism graduating.

It was great to have Mardy Hart (Teresa's mum) join us today she requested the translation and whakapapa of the waiata Taku turanga ake for a niece - Whaea Mere had a copy of the translation on hand but we will as a roopu follow up on the whakapapa of this waiata

RENDERING BEES WAX

 

Today, Kura and I demonstrated how to render the bees wax ready for making balms. Ideally a polystyrene box can be used with a curtain netting pinned onto it with a glass on top.  Today I went to the Op shop picked up a $5 crock pot with lid and an old curtain netting which we washed and used as an alternative instead to place the wax on to melt.

Method: 

1. Put a small amount of water at the bottom of the dish (this will help to clean the wax and remove any excess debris)
2. cover dish with netting then tie the curtain netting to the dish (or pin down if using a polystyrene box)
3.  place wax on top of netting and cover with glass lid
   
4. place in sunny area, allow time for the wax to melt
   
5. when completely melted remove curtain and drain out water and remove the clean wax
   
   
   
   

6. it is now ready to add to any of the infused oils to make balms

There are other alternative methods to rendering bees wax which I have linked as other examples

IRON MAORI BALM

A huge thanks to Papa Jo and Whaea Viv for this jar of Iron maori balm made with Tupakihi, Puketea and Horopito.  Thank you both for sharing this - I'm sure it will help with my hubby's injured Achilles tendon that is having trouble healing.

Although we have done previous blogs on Tupakihi have found out a bit more about the Puketea and Horopito.

Puketea

Māori used the bark of the tall pukatea (Laurelia novae-zelandiae tree as a painkiller, boiling the inner layer to make a decoction. Pulped inner bark was also held in the mouth to ease toothache. Pukatea bark contains pukateine, which has a chemical structure similar to morphine. It was first isolated in 1910 by Bernard Aston, the first chemist at the Department of Agriculture. (ref: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/14459/pukatea)

Horopito

(Ref: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/13879/lowland-horopito)

Horopito, or mountain pepper tree (Pseudowintera colorata), is found growing down the line not found up in the Far North. It contains a chemical that leaves a peppery taste and burning sensation when chewed but it is this heat that is used in the balm that Papa Jo and Whaea Viv make for the Iron Maori runners. In recent years, its ground leaves have been used as a condiment in some foods. 

AHIPARA WANANGA

30th January 2014 Kura has been asked to do a wananga on some of the rongoa growing on the land at Ahipara B2 

TE RARAWA CONFERENCE HUI

27th Mahi Maru Marae Te Rarawa conference hui starting 10am - 4pm 

Also a financial literacy presentation coming up in next few weeks but next week we will meet at the ngahere.

TE HOUTAEWA CHALLENGE RUN

28th March is the Te Houtaewa Challenge Run - need to keep this date in our calendar as a main event next year for our roopu.

GREY POWER LUNCH

1pm we had lunch at the Sea Dragon for Grey Power members and potential members - wonderful lunch - great host - excellent networking.  Only our roopu would think to sing "E papa" with the chopsticks.

NGAHERE VISIT

Next week Friday the 28th November we will be heading to the Ngahere for a practical class.  We will all be meeting up at the office first and car pool out to the Ngahere to the Mangamuka Reserve.

TIN CANNING & ATARANGI

KIA PIKI TE ORA!!!!

15TH NOVEMBER 2014 - HEI MANAAKI (WK 13)  

Fabulous to see so many new people every week coming to be apart of our roopu - each week we see to have alot of new faces, sharing stories and understandings about all sorts of kaupapa.

ATAARANGI 

This week Papa Te Kai took our new classmates through Karakia and counting using the Ataarangi Rakau method of learning Te Reo Maori.  It is so neat to see how different people react to this method of learning. 

TIN CANNING

Great to hear all the contributing stories to some excellent discussions on what "tin canning" was in the old days,  Whaea Winnie and Nana Porter shared how their whanau use to do tin canning which was a popular practice done around new years.  The practice had a number of variations depending on the area but never the least great to hear so many fabulous stories emerge from our elders - with so many of us younger generation never experiencing "tin canning".

WANANGA MAURI - INPUT AND DISCUSSION

This was some of the feedback from the hui we had with various community members in preparation for our Te Rarawa Wānanga in 2015. 

From this feedback came some wonderful discussions on Mauri that we will take with us to our next hui.

Hui for Te Rarawa Wānanga (conference) 6th November 2014

Mauri as a possible theme for conference

Look at workshops that are interactive

Concentrateon one thing (kaupapa) at a time

Government have already done the research and kōrero which is lost somewhere – need to change that it comes from a Iwi perspective so we are able to capture information and retain it how we want

Te Reo is an important waka to help transfer knowledge but we also need to be mindful of those without the reo

Karakia was important – not necessarily linked to a particular hāhi there were time for different types of karaki eg; preparation times at night, early morning.

We need to come back with to a second hui / wananga – bring kōrero with us focused on the theme/kaupapa “MAURI” -  to be held at a marae – Te Kai will look at maramataka to see what will be the best date to hold our next 1 day wānanga with our roopu.

There has been kuia /kaumātua hui with tamariki at Pukemiro and Aniwaniwa perhaps that is another area that we could join 

Papa Te Kai will look at the Marama taka to set our next hui date to be confirmed later

DEADLANDS VIEWING & HISTORY OF MITIMITI

KIA PIKI TE ORA!!!!

7 november 2014 - HEI MANAAKI (WK 12) 

Today our roopu had a private viewing of the DEADLANDS. Although a very graphic and hard out movie we had a good discussion about it after the viewing back at Te Houtaewa Maori Trust.

Though we had a number of views about the movie but many felt that was "how it was in those days".  The type of "Utu" or revenge for any type of transgression of tapu often resulted in loss of life.

One of our Kuia - Whaea Winnie explained some of the history of Mitimiti with the rock which much blood was spilt 

Here is another korero regarding  Mitimiti from Waka Huia

 

Titoki & Honey

KIA PIKI TE ORA!!!!

31ST OCTOBER 2014 - HEI MANAAKI (WK 11)  

TITOKI

Today we had a wonderful day with Papa Jo handing over the 'lesson' to Kylie to talk about Titoki.

A versatile tree  with the seeds that can pressed to release a high quality oil uses by watch makers in the old days.  The seed although not nice does provide a source of food.  The leave burning of smoldering are great as an insect repellent. 

This book was a wonderful source of much information about the Titoki and all other rongoa.

  

HONEY & BEES WAX

A huge thank my whanaunga Robbie Murray from Tai Tokerau Honey who was generous enough to koha some honey and bees wax for our roopu to make rongoa. We will have a practical session later this month at making balms using the wax - we are all looking forward to that.  We will be able to share some of our end product with Robbie as a gesture of appreciation for his koha, it also offers an opportunity to see an extension of other possibilities with his mahi.

 

KOROWAI

Kylie modelling her awesome contemporary Korowai that she made.  Feathers purchase from Trademe pre-sewn on long strips that she then sewed onto a fabric - the taneko pattern strip was also purchase pre-made.  She did a wonderful job at putting it all together.

Our tupuna were very innovative and adaptable people who would be proud of the clever initiatives such as this to create beautiful cultural taonga of today,  well done Kylie - ki runga noa atu koe!!

 

Other wonderful taonga that were shared today included a beautiful Pūtatara that was made as a thank you gift by some of the young males who Peter and Teresa work with at Ngawha.  Also Papa Joe and Whaea Viv recieved some lovely hand made taonga as a gesture of appreciation for their mahi with this roopu as well.

Maori legend tells that when Tane descended from the heavens carrying Te Kete O Te Wananga (the three baskets of knowledge) gifted from his father Rangi, he left behind a putatara as a koha (gift).

This and other legends indicate why this instrument forms an important cornerstone of Maori practises and spiritual beliefs. The 'voice' of a putatara can be blown over many miles signaling an enemies advance. When played by a tohunga (priest) however the instrument can produce a remarkable range of sounds, easily described as out  of this world.

(Ref: http://www.tahaa.co.nz/taonga-puoro-mainmenu-30/putatara-mainmenu-40.html)

 Pūtatara (carved)

 Free-hand drawings

Next week we have our first Te Rarawa conference hui at Te Oranga on Thursday 6th November.

We have also arranged to have a private viewing of The Deadlands, at Te Ahu Center - need to promote among our whanau to get 30 minimum attendees.
Should be awesome