“Ko hūpē, ko roimata hei whakamauru noa i te mamae e kai kino nei, ā, mā te wā rawa te rāwakiwaki e whakangaro.”
“Mucus and tears will ease the intense pain and eventually in time the depression will recede.”

Death is something that challenges me. My grandmother passed away on my ninth birthday and it was my first experience of death that I can remember and my first experience of a tangi, that I can remember.
From that moment on, there was always this fear, this selfish fear of losing a loved one.
Despite this, I love the way we mourn and honour our people when they pass on. Over three days, we share stories, we shed tears, we allow the hūpē (mucus) to flow, allowing the grieving to take place; it helps us to let go, it helps the deceased to let go and it prepares the pathway for the wairua (spirit) of that person to transition from this place to the next.
I love the whakatauki (saying) above as it talks about the flow of hūpē as an important part of the healing process. It also reminds me of when you have a cold and the flow of hūpē is like an internal cleansing, an emptying out, removing the blocks that mucus on the inside can cause.
M deepest sympathy and aroha to all those who have lost loved ones recently, there seems to have been many over this past week. I knew that one day I would talk about this and I had no words until now…
And I want to acknowledge the passing of Katarina Te Heikōkō Mataira… her passion and commitment to te reo Māōri has inspired in me an even stronger desire to speak my reo everyday, to ensure our Māori language, my Māori language is alive and well for future generations.
Kia kore ai e ngaro tāku reo rangatira – e te Kuia e… e Te Heikōkō, ko tō ataarangi ko tōku ataarangi ko tō reo ko tōku reo, haere atu rā e Kui, moe mai, moe mai ra…
Arohanui,
Jo x