If you have made it to the blog section,
Nau mai Haere mai,
Welcome
Through the Eyes of Tāpuhi is a personal touch to my website. It is the blog post section.
Here you will find my interpretations and insights into various issues related to Tāpuhitanga (reclaimed as Māori midwifery praxis) and the experiences of Tāpuhi LMC ™.
Tāpuhitanga is the full expression of reconciliation from the midwife educated and trained to be a Pākehā midwife who happened to be Māori, to the wāhine Māori who was born to become Tāpuhi.
Tāpuhi LMC ™ is the practitioner of Tāpuhitanga. There is nothing like this in the world, until now. These insights are my own interpretations of my doctoral journey and the teachings therein. It is a philosophically distinct worldview and different curriculum to Pākehā Midwifery New Zealand.
Why on an open platform you may ask?
He māmā noa iho. Simple, professional isolation is a debilitating process.
As midwives I am certain you would appreciate the reality of your working environments.
Where bullying and gatekeeping is normal practice.
I don’t work like that. It is not my way.
I choose integrity over popularity.
I will not be bullied and nor will I have my voice silenced again by a profession renowned for “eating its own young”.
Reclaiming Tāpuhi as Māori birthing practitioner and Tāpuhitanga as Māori midwifery praxis has shifted me from the white midwifery peripheries and brought me full centre in my own lands, with my own people. Up front and personal as Tāpuhi. I am not a shadow of my cultural identity. My identity does not walk out the door when I engage in professional spaces. I am Tāpuhi. Unapologetically, Tāpuhi.
Dear Heart, I trust you to hold me anchored.
Sometimes though I wish you would speak up louder.
The Brain seems to think its jumbledness is more important.
Constantly, keeping me stuck in shadows and prismed insights.
Dear Eyes, do you think misting up adds clarity?
And Dear Hands, you are not very helpful, trying to tap sense into me half the time.
Pretty intense if I say so myself,
Dear Voice, you become the funnel of articulate messiness.
I pray Dear Fingers can express Dear Voice, truthfully.
(J Martin, BIPOC Journalling Circle, 6 December, 2020)