For rongoā Māori practitioner Donna Kerridge, the Waitakere Ranges are the 'lungs' of Auckland.
Donna says every person in Aotearoa shares responsibility for the taiao (environment).
Rongoā Māori practitioner Donna Kerridge Photo: RNZ/Justine Murray
The rāhui (access restrictions) in the Waitakere Ranges assist the ecology of the forest and curb the spread of Kauri Dieback, Donna says.
Overlooking the view, she describes her feelings about the mountain range:
“It just reminds me of the greatness of our natural world. It’s hard to believe this sits on the edge of our biggest city…but it also makes me a little bit sad that our Kauri is sick…we need them to keep our air soil and our water clean and their very much under threat.”
Donna understands other messages from nature, too - the restlessness of the tīwaiwaka (fantail) and the quality of rivers and streams.
"The biggest concern for me as a species and as a culture is we need to recognise that we are also part of nature…rongoā for me, and the tīwaiwaka movement, is putting Papatūānuku first… we must work in a way that does not harm her.”
In 2004, Donna set up the Rongoā Māori website Ora New Zealand.
She is a current spokesperson for the national collective of rongoā Māori practitioners Te Kāhui Rongoā and has worked as a guest lecturer at various whare wānanga and tertiary institutions.
In previous years, Donna has featured on Māori Television and is a regular writer/contributor to online media platforms.
Donna's whakapapa and iwi connections are to Ngāti Tahinga and Ngāti Mahuta.
She remembers a childhood with her aunties and kuia who knew about the medicinal properties of plants, but the word ‘rongoā’ wasn't used.
The plant kūmarahou was made into a tonic Donna was "made" to drink.
“I know that if you coughed, you had to drink this, and it was the most unappetising looking remedy it was brown to black with slimy things in it, I don’t think my whanau knew how to strain our rongoā… and maybe that’s just the way our whanau do it.”
The practice of rongoā Māori didn’t feature much in Donna's life until she had children and looked at other ways of caring for them instead of defaulting to prescribed medication.
“It’s not that I didn’t like western medicine, it’s just I’d rather use it when it’s needed and take a more pro-active approach."
Donna at Arataki Visitors Centre, Waitakere Ranges Regional Park. Photo: RNZ/Justine Murray
Donna studied towards a Bachelor of Health Science and remembers a case study exercise in class where students had to come up with a treatment plan as part of the mock assessment.
“I heard over and over again we’ll give them so many milligrams of this and so many milligrams of that, I suddenly realised that the person we were looking out for really just needed a babysitter for three or four days…many of the conditions that were causing her pain would self-resolve… we were never taught that as a treatment.”
Not long after that Donna decided to switch career pathways and combined her study and knowledge of rongoā Māori to set up a small practice in Helensville.
Over the past two decades, Donna has been busy travelling around the country sharing her knowledge.
Rob McGowan, known by many as 'Pa Ropata', remains one of her mentors. McGowan’s recent publication Tiwaiwaka – Healing the Mauri of the Whenua is about the urgency of restoring papatūānuku and the connection of people to the land.
“Much of the way Māori see the world has been redefined in a modern world and I think it’s really important we don’t allow that to happen. It’s okay to evolve but I think is being done to us rather than by us… What rongoā might be or what mana or mauri might be. [These concepts] are being translated into languages outside of the world in which they were intended for… I think words only truly make sense when they are part of the culture that created them."
Rongoā Māori practitioner Donna Kerridge Photo: RNZ/Justine Murray
When time allows, Donna makes rongoā (balms and tonics) using modern and traditional Māori methods.
“So many of our kaumatua [and] kuia no longer have people at home who can go and get their rongoā for them and the younger people don’t always know the right plants or how to prepare the rongoā… That’s why I used modern preparations, so that our kaumatua can access the rongoā whether they have their mokos (grandchildren) at home or not.”
