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Te Ao Māori News 02.06.2022
‘Evil, cannibalistic and demonic’ – Gloriavale’s view of Māori revealed
Former Gloriavale resident Constance Ready is healing from her time with the Gloriavale religious sect by finding joy in reconnecting with her Māori roots.
Ready talked about growing up at Gloriavale and explained why she left at a recent Real Talk event in Rotorua, which aims to inspire rangatahi with people with unique and challenging stories.
Ready talked to teaomāori.news about her experiences inside and outside of the religious sect.
She said she took time to review her time at Gloriavale to decide if she wanted to return back to the community or move on from them.
“I had to get away for a while to give myself a chance to make that decision about what I wanted to do.”
Ready said the environment of Goriavale was one that was “crazy, controlling and manipulative”.
Te Ao Māori News 27.05.2021
Victim of bullying shares her journey to inspire others
Esmé Hunt (Ngāti Mutunga) was bullied as a high school student for years and the depression and anxiety she suffered later in life was a result of that.
Hunt was a key speaker at Real Talk, an event in New Plymouth where influential Māori speakers shared their stories, to inspire and empower others.
“I shared how I had to find myself after believing what the bullies would tell me, that I was worthless and all that kind of stuff. I didn’t actually realise that I was internalising all those comments.”
Hunt says the abuse continued after leaving school. She was physically assaulted by another teenage girl.
“It’s been a journey to peel back the layers of that mamae (hurt) and step into my truer self and it’s brought me to my purpose. It was a horrible experience but it’s really enlightened me to what the world needs more of which is empowering women to prioritise their wellbeing because no healthy person will tear down others,” she says.
“No healthy person who has their needs met has any desire to seek out other people they can humiliate or hurt, whether or not its hurt from their own whānau at home or they have their own inner insecurities that they haven’t quite processed,” says Hunt.
Te Ao Māori News 20.04.2021
Raniera Rewiri teaches the importance of tāne finding their voices
Raniera Rewiri, also known as Plant Based Māori, is teaching others the importance for tāne to feel comfortable to speak up about their feelings.
Over the weekend, Real Talk was held in Whanganui where six influential Māori speakers shared their stories, to inspire and empower others. Rewiri is the first tāne to speak at Real Talk alongside empowering wāhine.
During his kōreo Rewiri shared his perspective about how tāne struggle to talk about their emotions and feelings.
“Wāhine came up to me afterward saying that this would have been a great kōrero for their tane to hear but what I said was it was also a great korero for wāhine to hear to really try and understand or to get that perspective of how tane are struggling to find the language to what we are feeling,” he said.
“So being able to speak to that really just helped to provide some understand to the wāhine in the room.”
Rewiri says the responsibility for tāne to speak up falls on the older generations of men in their whānau.
Te Ao Māori News 31.03.2021
Influential Māori speakers share personal stories to empower others
Over the weekend, the first 2021 RealTalk event was held in Porirua where five influential Māori speakers shared their stories, to inspire and empower others.
The event, soon to visit Whanganui, New Plymouth and Nelson, discussed important topics including whakamomori or suicide, sexual harm and overall hauora.
Speakers included social media star Nicola ‘Nix’ Adams who has amassed a huge following by sharing her experiences of addiction, homelessness and grief through the power of social media.