traditional Māori parenting
Tākai is a concept of wrapping around, she says, informed by her research into historical Māori parenting practices
“I'd like to read you something that Samuel Marsden wrote down in his journal in 1814.
‘I saw no quarelling while I was there, they are kind to their women and children I never observed either with a mark of violence upon them, nor did I ever see a child struck.’
“So, suddenly, that opened up a doorway of interest or intrigue for me about, actually, we've always heard the deficit side of Māori, what actually were the positive things that helped us to grow and develop.”
Traditional understanding of parenting in an iwi, hapū and whānau context is optimal for the brain, she says.
“What I began to see was prior to industrialisation, actually, this is pretty much how we lived, we lived in village settings.
Link to article: Deb Rewiri: traditional Māori parenting | RNZ
