Our Mission
Our mission is that whānau are connected, inspired and empowered to share opportunities to thrive and lead in Te Ao.
Te Rua o Mahara Wairarapa is a new trust that has been set up as a mechanism to allow us to action our ideas, dreams and create opportunities for our whānau to return home to Wairarapa.
Our Pou
As an organisation, we have repurposed Mason Durie and Rose Pere’s Māori health model of te whare tapa whā. A model set up to look at the health of our people. Repurposing this for our future-focused organisation there are four pou (pillars) that will hold us up as a trust. These are Whakapapa, Hauora, Kaitiakitanga and Matauranga.
WHAKAPAPA
A sense of identity and the sharing of this knowledge is very important to Māori. This is Whakapapa and helps us to understand who we are, as well as where we've come from. The alternative to this is the loss of such identity and whakapapa connections and is a contributing factor to our disproportionate statistics in our society. In essence, whakapapa gives us a sense of belonging and understanding of who we are as a hāpu, a whānau and as an individual. Everything in Te Ao has whakapapa and every solution we want to implement needs to have it’s whakapapa understood.
HAUORA
Hauora is a Māori philosophy of health. It comprises of four elements being taha tinana (physical well-being), taha hinengaro (mental and emotional well-being), taha whānau (social well-being), and taha wairua (spiritual well-being). Each of these four dimensions influences and supports others. It is important for us to support our whānau and their hauora through any initiatives we do.
KAITIAKITANGA
Kaitiaki is a Māori concept and in a basic understanding is translated as guardianship. It is understood easily in mainstream New Zealand as being a guardian for the environment however there is so much more than this. Understanding whakapapa and being a Kaitaki of data we may produce, concepts and pūrākau we may share.
MĀTAURANGA
Mātauranga is about the collection of our knowledge, stories and information. Te Rua o Mahara as a name is about us going into the depths of memories to return the stories and knowledge we need to remember. Our tīpuna had some much knowledge and through colonisation we have lost a lot of this. Our job through Te Rua o Mahara is to help return this to our whānau and ensure they feel empowered to stand tall on who we are.
All of our initiatives are to promote, inspire and empower our whānau to return home so that our Wairarapa whānau can be confident in who they are and be empowered to make decisions about our taiao.