Māori were living in Aotearoa, New Zealand when Abel Tasman from Holland in 1642 but especially English navigator James Cook in 1769 - put NZ on the map - that’s when the British and Europeans took notice with the early arrivals introducing many different ways of life. This included firearms, alcohol, the bible and private ownership.
Loss of Connection
This progressively diminished Māori connection especially with the natural elements and within their own Māori peoples - that upon the colonialisation of NZ - this was not what Māori thought was going to be the end result of the ‘te Tiriti o Waitangi' - (the English version of which is known as the ‘Treaty of Waitangi') – an agreement between two sovereign parties: the British Crown and the Māori .
Misinterpretations and violations of the ‘Spirit of the Treaty’ led to break down and huge personal loss which were basically ignored - and Māori grievances becoming prominent as a result, marginalising many in their own country. Wars over land and confiscation by the new Government were widespread. But this was no different from European conquest in Africa, the Americas, Australia etc.the original inhabitants became tenants in their county of birth.
Whakapapa - Genealogy - Bloodlines (and more)
Overriding Māori connection is the central theme of Māoridom being whakapapa … and papa pa and pa - two words - Catherine’s understanding is that - pa - denotes the idea of touching something - and when it is doubled - one can literally say that it doubles the original idea. If pa is touch, what is double that? Imagining when we see a double word like that - it is a transcendent idea of the original idea …. In this example it’s “connection”, which is central to Papatuanuku - Mother Earth - that connection - that is sacred - integral - so whakapapa is a core essence of who you are - because it’s our bloodlines, but more than that - it is that Māori belief is that they descend from God. That we´are children of God.
Catherine’s learning comes from her Kaumātua and Kuia - her male and female elders.
Kaupapa purpose (and more)
Kaupapa kau means - two parts - ka and u - ka is like an activator - it sets you in space and time - u - is like the idea to grasp something … kaupapa and - the papa part reminds you of your whakapapa - which reminds you of your connection to Papatuanku - the Earth Mother - the deity - the divine personality which is our Earth - and she then connects us back to Io-matua-kore - our parentless one - who was the first child if you like of pure potential energy … that Māori track back to the source energy - the source of everything.
She said that we need to fundamentally realise that from way back up until now that we need to grasp the idea that we are a divine spark - so from that awareness, what are we to do? What is our kaupapa?
Catherine says that upon this spark realisation - she is not going to be small … she is not here to waste time :) It's just “pono”: Truth.
Listen to her passion and power!
Realising our Potential
Catherine decodes for us the divine art within all people - and that we can grow into the light of our own true selves - when we are fortified with this deeply acquired knowingness - coupled to Aroha (compassion).
This is where Catherine vibrantly expresses herself in a very big way - that she wishes to leave a legacy - and change the world - and she is acutely aware that this is possible. We can make truly glorious transformations in this world.
A river being recognised as a living being
This lively interview covers the Whanganui (awa) river here in New Zealand with a catchment area of over 7,000 square kilometres as finally being legally recognised as a living entity in its own right - that under Maori auspices ‘ the river owns itself’ - and that it can now be revered as a living extension of Papatuanku - Mother Earth that is in itself heralding a paradigm shift to one where we recognise the sacredness of life and that we exist in a living pulsing universe.
Same for the Te Urewera park being over 2,000 square kilometres being the historical home of Tūhoe. Part of their traditional territory.
This interview introduces Bolivia and Ecuador and ‘ the rights of nature’ under the umbrella of Pachamama - that the world is waking up on a planetary scale that within the the atmospheric bubble of the biosphere we are far more intimately connected than we realise. Through air, water and minerals. Plus an essence as well.
That things within nature are our relatives - we are all connected through the web of life - that all biota share breath - be it animals, trees and vegetation plus humans all breathing in air and like other animals we humans breathe in oxygen and breath out CO2 whilst other more fixed biota - trees and vegetation breath out O2 and breathe in CO2 - in a profound symphony of interconnectedness and homeostasis.
And she says why should only humans get rights? Nature needs them too, which then brings up the intrusion into the natural world of Corporations declaring themselves as having legal personalities and in the US where it is entrenched and they are really pushing this agenda of Corporations having human rights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood
Where Corporations are saying they are equal to humans in having human rights and even superior to humans and natural persons and environmental rights and she sees this as just an abomination - that the judiciary and the legislature of countries are going down that road and have abused and corrupted such a critical idea. That as she has a Law degree, she carries more weight in her knowingness.
The interview continues around a statement that Tim poses to Catherine, who deftly answers it in a diplomatic matter and from a higher level of consciousness.
Tim states: That because the Māori acknowledge and revere their ancestors and their past, whereas the Pakeha or white man especially in NZ, Australia, Canada and the USA, who as recent immigrants to these countries have all left their origins of Britain or Europe in the 17 and 18th century - have in many ways separated from their roots and in not honouring the past, instead consume the future - which we see as Corporations extracting from mother earth at an increasingly furious rate and leaving environmental desecration behind them - including major social purples for the localised inhabitants.
We are all Consciousness
Catherine, answers by stating - we could look at this and possibly get bogged down - instead she ramps this thread to a higher level, saying before we start looking at us based on colour or culture - that we are consciousness first - that she is ‘wairua’ in spirit and that we are humans first - then our other identities follow - that she is a woman - and then you can say she is Māori and that she does not want to get into separation an us and them thing - it is a ‘we’ thing - that’s what we are - humans living on a planet.
That there are so many crises on earth today and we have to address them together and we all have value and we all have something to offer to find the solution and she implores us to come together in the spirit of cooperation and solve that which is surrounding us and coming up over the horizon.
Unity of Purpose
So this is both our opportunity as well as our challenge - this she says ‘is the holy grail of where we must go’ - so can we come together and collaborate more and see the commonalities and not go to the differences - first - that just our reaction to go to these differences first when the true answer is the coming of unity of purpose and embracing goodwill in our individual and collective journey.
Catherine says we are here to experience diversity but in peaceful accord or words to that effect.
Listen … She is a superb communicator
The Journey is the Reward
It’s not about the destination - it's about the journey - and the discovery during this process / unfoldment.
She talks about some of her friends that have been given over to their grand parents for their upbringing - and they are a different breed of people - and it is clear as night and day - and it's lovely - that the children have a reverence and a respect as well as a calmness about them - that they are more grounded. She notices that in most cases their perspective is more expansive. Catherine would like to see this happen more, because Māori have done this before, but through the colonisation of NZ many old Māori traditions have been diluted and changed and many lost.
Children and Education - Knowledge of your Surroundings.
Knowing the bird life in their local area, their sounds, plus how many grasses does a child know? - and insects? - the difference between benevolent insects in comparison to honey bees and wasps and hornets. Plus trees and herbs, especially for their health giving properties. Fish names and whereabouts also.
Catherine covers earthing - getting outside on the lawn or in a field and lying in the grass and connecting barefoot. Or tree hugging and the electromagnetic science of feeling the electromagnetic field - that we can become in-balance if we are sensitive to be a ‘body whisperer’ in being receptive to what the environment and nature itself is whispering and breathing into us.
People say knowledge is power and Catherine jumps in saying ‘nah nah nah’ - acting on knowledge - is power …
She talks about academic associates who keep adding degrees to their name and continuing to educate themselves but possibly not having the time to share this new knowledge as in receiving and then giving. The same goes for our body and spirit - we need both a healthy spirit - wairua and a healthy body ‘temple' - it’s all about balance and combining all the parts of ourselves to become a full whole being. And she says that we have to be our best at the same time communing with nature to grow into the light of our own true selves.
Covering James Cameron’s movie Avatar that all the roots of trees were interconnected into one vast neural network right around Pandora the moon - and that the indigenous Na’vi could also connect through their hair to both trees and animals that were part of the natural order of that whole ecosystem. That there was in fact no separation - all living beings, Na’vi, animals and trees were interconnected. We humans are too -with the sharing of breath.
Chaos theory that has ended in it order
Catherine mentions chaos theory and eventual order out of chaos as in Mandelbrot theory - where all the parts are reflections of the whole - like the Russian dolls one inside the other - inside the other - inside the other - of nesting dolls Matryoshka - matry for matriarchal - motherly.
The ubiquitous Bruce Lipton comes up in Catherine’s conversation that we as a humanity ‘the human race’ are an evolving giant organism’ in our own right - as well as our planet being a super organism as well - that within the universal context that God is flowing to evolve what she is (she laughs) - universal consciousness or whatever we want to call it - Io (in Māori) and that the whole shebang - God is continually expanding and refining and finding new ways to experience itself - and so it is never ending … being eternal.
That we need to recognise this and that we are a part of that which surrounds us as we shift our consciousness to another higher level. Catherine excitedly states that she really wants to lean into this as she feels like it is being on the fringe of something new - where we can break out of our skin encapsulated ego and awaken to the true brilliance of who we really are.
Involving Everyone and Looking Within.
Then the question how do we assist in engaging people to encourage them into the realisation that we are all on a profound spiritual unfoldment, if we only shined our focus into our inner life and illuminated our shadow and our ego, that actually holds us back when we are here to release ourselves of our darker limitations. That the fear of ‘change’ being one of our barriers to engaging … We tend to make sure we avoid pain and seek out all kinds of pleasure … as people like and prefer certainty and dislike uncertainty intensely and that is why people fear change. Thus our society remains conservative.
Catherine talks about the ego looking back to the pleasures of the past or the future - when in fact the goal for us all is to be in the present - because that is where all the gifts are.
Cosmologies.
That the universe is both Yin and Yang it is both Tapu and Noa from a Māori perspective
The breath of Life - the Ha - comes into Catherine’s - discourse - including change and chaos.
Tim throws this into the conversation:
Ourplanet.org - is the Mothership of GreenplanetFM.com - his key quip - ‘it’s more than a revolution it is a paradigm shift.’
New and Larger Concepts
That we are co creators - if we are born of the Divine and we are divine sparks we must … have some of the characteristics and attributes of God - or universal wisdom and energies … which is creative power and being co creators
* She thinks that the young and the millennial are moving fast and awakening to many empowering possibilities
* Science and spirituality is converging - quantum mechanics and unified field understandings and wholeness
* Science is also saying that most indigenous people have been right all along - that our body has another energy field or soul/spirit and that our planet is a super organism. That everything is an illusion - that we are all just energy fields - same for all matter
* That the Golden Rule for Māori is tika, what is right and correct - Pono truth and integrity - and Aroha is compassion - and more … Love
* If we are just mindful to the best of our abilities - (as above) we will go far and create miracles
* It’s about values and your 'wairua' - spirit
She talked about consequences when violating natural law = Cause and Effect
Teaching Children - Tamariki (children) and Mokupuna (grandchildren) that acting too proud has consequences
Wants the study of ‘Civics’ to be in the curriculum into schools as most young people are disempowered and lack real connection to one’s local community
Civic - relating to the duties or activities of people in relation to their town, city, or local area and iwi - Māori peoples.
Plus more science into schools - the study of basic consciousness and basic quantum physics as she thinks the cart (focus on the molecular world) is currently before the horse (understanding consciousness).
Then at the end I belatedly ask her about her moko - her chin tattoo - and an interesting exchange happens. First Nation Peoples in the South West of the USA have them too.
This was a very insightful energised interview and sharing that is very compelling for all who wish to deepen their inquiry into indigenous matters.
The ‘kaupapa' (purpose) of Catherine's website is to share knowledge and wisdom that expands the collective consciousness, and contributes to the empowerment of people everywhere to be happy and free.
This kaupapa is underpinned by her desire to progressively realize her own personal happiness and freedom. But, as often said, one cannot be truly happy and free unless ALL are happy and free - so, I guess this will be an ever-evolving journey rather than a destination.
https://www.catherinem-ikenn.com
Catherine (Bl/B.Soc.Sci, LLM) hails from the two Māori peoples of Ngāti Kuri and Te Rarawa whose traditional territories are located in the Far North of the North Island of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Married with one son, she has a strong passion for indigenous human rights, environmental protection and lifelong education.
In the mid 90's she worked as a Government Policy Analyst and as a solicitor in Wellington. Since 2000, she project managed her Te Rarawa peoples’ historical Treaty claims settlement negotiations with the Crown, and later became a negotiator herself for her Ngāti Kuri peoples' settlement negotiations - both settlements of which were legislated in 2015.
In 2005 Catherine was awarded the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Indigenous Fellowship (representing the Pacific), and continues to represent her peoples in different UN work, as well as on two technical working groups (regarding climate change, and the Monitoring Mechanism for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) affiliated with the National Iwi Chairs Forum. She has also held several trustee positions for her peoples’ governing boards, and local schools (she's currently on the Board for Kaitaia College).
