Accessible ways to connect with te taiao

For this tau hou Māori (Māori new year), we’re celebrating the way disabled people connect with the stars of Matariki that are associated with the natural environment. Everyone accesses te taiao in different ways, and for some, it may involve some creativity and innovation.

Franceska Riria Tangaere (Ngāi Tāne, Ngāti Porou)

For Franceska, maintaining connection with the natural world is a large part of self nurturing. Not being raised in te ao Māori, Franceska finds her way back to her tīpuna through te taiao, particularly through the forest and ocean.

Te wao (the forest) is a place of healing for Franceska. Recently, she says, some tūī and pīwakawaka guided her into a ngahere where she met some tūrehu (supernatural beings that live in the ridges of hills and mountaintops). “I sat with them and they gave me many answers on things that were on my mind and on my manawa (heart),” Franceska says. “So for me, the ngahere is a place full of magic and mystery, but also a place I feel safe to talk when I don’t feel so good.”

In Tangaroa (the sea), Franceska feels lighter. “Tangaroa is a magical big brother for me and I always feel wrapped in love and playful.”

“Matariki is a coming home to yourself, a coming home to your ancestors,” says Franceska. This Matariki will mark three years with her moko kauae — a taonga she took the chance to receive when it called.

As Franceska’s learnt more about herself, she’s learnt that everyone is born with a connection to te taiao. “It will always be a space where you’re welcomed…we just have to nurture ourselves and love ourselves enough to know that we have that connection.”

Gareth Lynch

Having been a surfer and a lifeguard, Tangaroa has always been a part of Gareth’s world. “I’m always extremely grateful to get into the ocean. It’s a very grounding experience for me and just being weightless in the water is quite special,” Gareth says. “You feel a little bit free of all the limitations of gravity that are ever present in daily life.”

A spinal cord injury has made independently accessing the ocean more difficult, but he is more than happy to be “chucked” in the ocean at the beach to go for a swim, or go surfing with friends by sitting on the front of their boards.

In recent years, the Auckland water resources engineer goes out sailing once or twice a week. “I love the challenge of trying to read the wind and adjust the sails to travel across the water in the most efficient way. You need to be very present and focused.”

When he first heard that sailing was possible for wheelchair users, he was “pretty skeptical”.

But through Sailability Auckland, he was able to sail independently a couple of sessions later. “I got lowered into a boat through their awesome hoist system and someone [...] showed me how it all works.” With a winch system to operate the main sail with, he’s able to adjust the ropes with limited hand function.

“And being so close to the water, when the boat’s tilted on its side, you can reach out and skim your hand along the water. It’s a pretty special feeling.”

Peter Dolamore

Peter lives in Te Anau, a place known for its lakeside marvels. As a 68-year-old wheelchair user, he’s kept himself fit and active with the help of a Batec: an electric hand cycle that attaches to his wheelchair. He’s used a wheelchair for 32 years now and has used it with the Batec for about six, and it’s enabled him to access more parts of Parawhenuamea, his backyard of rivers and lakes.

“It’s given me a whole new level of fitness and mobility,” Peter says. He uses the Batec almost every day, and some days he’ll go out for a ride around the cycle tracks that go around the lake shore “for fitness, but also for the soul”.

Peter describes to me some of the tracks he’s able to enjoy, including one that goes through a forest of ancient beech trees out to lake Te Anau. He says the mobility device has transformed his life: “the freedom to just go for a bike ride is really neat.”

Peter has always had an affinity to the outdoors. As a child, he would always go off exploring the bush, and growing up, he made pocket money from trapping and skinning possums. As an adult he’s worked with national parks on track maintenance, hut maintenance, and weed spraying. Since using a wheelchair, he’s contributed to a few initiatives around Fiordland to improve accessibility. And when he looks across the lake to the maunga, he remembers: “they’re exactly the same as they’ve been for 100 years. It’s never actually changed.”

Matariki signals a new season that is intrinsically connected to the rhythms of nature in Aotearoa. These tāngata whaikaha speak of the natural environment as a source of grounding, wisdom, humility, lightness and peace. How do you connect to te taiao, and what does it mean to you?