Kaitiakitanga Bicultural Professional Supervision & Workshops
Nau mai, Haere mai
Welcome
Tēnei te mihi maiohā ki o koutou
This online platform weaves across the landscape of my world as Tāpuhi. These are my interpretations and findings drawn from the many questions of my doctoral journey. It is organic. It is free flowing.
Who are Māori midwives? Are WE just brown Pākehā midwives? Is Māori birthing knowledge long-buried beneath colonization? What is Māori midwifery? What is the relevance of Māori midwifery in today’s climate?
Can Māori midwifery be reborn into the current socio-political nature of Midwifery globally and nationally? Or does Māori midwifery require its own stance, its own tūrangawaewae, to stand in its’ own true beauty and whakapapa?
My growing understandings and teachings as Tāpuhi have launched this website. It was a difficult and important decision to create a public forum open to scrutiny and assumptions surrounding Māori midwifery.
I make no apology for speaking forward and sharing my journey of Āta titiro – Unlearning what I have learned and remembering what I know.
I am unapologetically Tāpuhi.
There is so much to share with each, and every one of you.
Enjoy your visit.
Jacqueline R M Martin
Tāpuhi
What Tāpuhi Consultancy Offers
Kaitiakitanga
Kaitiakitanga (bicultural professional supervision) offers clinical and cultural supervision, mentorship, advocacy and peer review from the worldviews of Māori
Workshops
Upcoming workshops will explore the philosophical foundations of Tāpuhitanga Māori birthing
Tāpuhitanga Māori Birthing
Tāpuhitanga is a body of Māori birthing knowledge and practices that far exceed the parameters of Pākehā midwifery. This way of engaging in the world is a rich tapestry of Māori traditional birthing practices, embedded in pūrākau, rich with allegory and metaphor (Martin, 2021, extracts from Ph.D manuscript). These teachings were created to encourage Māori into birth work, as valuable changemakers, as birthing professionals under the kaupapa of raising whakapapa hou without compromising our unique cultural identity and place in the world.
Tāpuhi is the Indigenous birthkeeper of Aotearoa who aspires to grow an in-depth appreciation and knowledge base built from the philosophies and pedagogies of Māori. It is not a new way of engaging with the world but, it is a new way of understanding Māori birthing. Tāpuhitanga is my original contribution to the birthing world. (Martin, 2021, Ph.D. extracts)
Haere mai e tama puritia te aka matua
Amsterdam Reedy (2011) articulates this kiwaha as, “philosophy and practice, stating, “when the philosophy is right, then the practice will follow”. It stands to reason, the practitioner will follow in line. The preparing of the Māori midwife requires culturally and clinically appropriate educational pathways to increase the Māori midwifery workforce. In doing so, Māori midwives will be able to work in clinical environments which will not compromise their cultural identity.
I need courageous people.
*Taapuhitanga and Maaori Birthing will be used interchangeably with Tāpuhitanga Māori Birthing. The former acknowledges my Waikato dialect in written format, enunciating, the long vowel sound.
Interested in Tāpuhi Consultancy’s Services?
