Whakaaturanga

This weekend was a very interesting. Sadly I lead into the weekend knowing that I wasn't going to be participating in the whakaaturanga. Having had to sit on the side for my rugby grand final I had accepted that the same thing was to happen so I was mentally prepared for that.

My aim was to go into the weekend helping where ever I could and be beside my brothers and sisters along the way for encouragement.

As the night went into day and the day into night I observed everyone learning the final moves, knowing where there places are, perfecting grasps of their rākau, preparing the marae atea, weaving and fitting kākahu, embodying the movements of their rākau, embodying what is looks like to be a certain bird, mastering the footwork, mastering moving as one,  thinking about the best place to stand, remembering lines, battling with egos of others, battling with your own ego, trying not to think about being hungry, working in the heat, sore feet, containing excitement of whānau that are coming to watch, thinking about what whānau will think,  working alongside each other and teaching what you know and have learned, protecting your ariki (if it was me again nope!, battle formations, remembering what side to go to or not, sparring, controlling your ihi,  karo, pao, ngā ahae mezmerized whānau, excited tamrariki, kina, kina, kina!!

The journey leading up to the whakaturanga is always special but I was blown away by the efforts of my brothes and sisters. At one point of the whakaaturanga a whole heap of smoke was blowing over the atea as I looked over one of the kids had pulled a few of the big rākau out of the fire and they created a heap of smoke. I went over to Bon and said "Oi!! you were supposed to be looking after the fire!' he seemed to be in a somewhat trance, he steps out of his trance and says 'nah sis i'm the audience at the moment." At that moment I turned to the all the people watching and every single person was mesmerized with what they were seeing. It was such a cool sight to behold and made me so proud of all whānau.
Ko tō manawa, ko tōku manawa.