Depicted below is Hineahuone created from te whaea whenua - mother earth, Papatūānuku, whose sacred regenerative clay was taken by Tāne and moulded into a feminine form to become his wife, copulate with and populate their world. Tāne blew into Hine's nostrils making her sneeze, exclaiming - Tihei Mauriora! - the breath of life! - an expression of emphasis used in te reo Māori (Māori language).
My journey as an art therapist spans over many years when I entered the mental health sector after graduating from Waikato University in 2001 with a BA Religious Studies degree, to work in a consumer led consumer managed organization. I had a dual role as a day-center coordinator while completing an MA Arts Therapy degree at Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design in 2005. Having Māori, Pacific Island and European clients provided a great starting point as a fledgling art therapist before resigning 5 years later to work part time coordinating a grief, loss and separation programme for children aged 6-12 years, and coordinating activities in a hospice day-center, prior to leaving for Australia in 2007. I completed the last 6 months of an MA Arts Therapy add-on clinical year in Perth which led to employment in a Women's Health & Family center working in the Mental Health department with women experiencing enduring mental illness, who had dependent children and women at risk of developing mental health problems. Working within a multidisciplinary team also gave women with dual diagnosis drug and alcohol related, postnatal depression, domestic violence and multicultural women's programmes, access to the mental health art therapy programme I facilitated. It was a rewarding place to hone my skills as an art therapist working alongside amazing colleagues, until returning to Aotearoa at retirement age in 2014 to take up nanny duties for the whanau (family).
I am an Māori kuia (older Māori woman) who is empathetic to other women's perspectives and worldviews. Adding a wide and varied dimension of lived experiences to my practice via an indigenous cultural lens, complicated long term marriage and eight smart as grandchildren who challenge and teach me something new about myself everyday, has given me insights from both personal and work experience. I have come out of retirement to meet the demand for qualified art therapists/art psychotherapists to fulfil a growing need from the impact of COVID19 on mental health and wellbeing and give back to a profession that took me on a ride of rewarding highs and humbling lows. With God's grace I hope this continues into and beyond the 2020's. Nga mihi.