By the light of the moon: Healthy Families Far North using Maori lunar calendar in workplace

The maramataka, or lunar calendar, is being used as a foundation across Healthy Families Far North's work. Photo / File

Māori lore and traditional wellness concepts are being applied in Far North workplaces.

Te Ahikaaroa Trust founder Rueben Taipari has joined with Healthy Families Far North to introduce the lunar calendar to work environments.

The concept holds that working in synchronisation with the phases of the moon can optimise workplace wellbeing, harmony and productivity.

Māori traditionally planted, fished, harvested and held hui according to the lunar calendar. Applying maramataka in the workplace could mean, for example, the traditional planting time is considered to be good for starting new projects.

Taipari said the maramataka, or Māori lunar calendar, provided a traditional system of understanding natural cycles and energy patterns.

Using the concept, Erena Hodgkinson, from Healthy Homes, said days when the moon was highest were good strategising and planning, while the low moon was a time for assessment rather than high productivity.

Hodgkinson said the lunar calendar and its cycles could be applied to work by Department of Conservation, the fisheries industry, farming, health workers and other organisations.

"The potential to assist modern society is still very relevant, perhaps more so in these unnatural times when society is no longer in touch with the natural environment," Taipari said.

Healthy Families Far North, which encourages health-promoting environments where people live, learn, work and play, adopted maramataka concepts last year.

Maramataka was part of a national movement to curb the prevalence of chronic diseases and improve health equity for Māori, Taipari said.

Introducing it as an organisational approach in Kaitaia in December, he has worked with Kaitāia Hospital, Sport Northland, Department of Conservation, Te Hiku Hauora and Te Rarawa Anga Mua workers.

Preliminary feedback had been overwhelmingly positive, Taipari said.

Participants said the workshops highlighted the impossibility of performing at a constant, high pace when the natural environment itself had a different timetable and forced people to take into account the different energies of daily life.

Healthy Families Far North chief executive Shirleyanne Brown said taking Māori-led approaches to organisations involved in health, social services and environmental work was a deliberate strategy.

"These organisations are typically reactionary in nature and have a consequentially high toll and burnout rate on staff health,'' Brown said.

''Engaging in maramataka as an organisational resource allows for workplaces to plan and manage appropriately while investing in preventative health and wellness using ancestral funds of knowledge."

Taipari will continue to work one-on-one with workplaces. He will also facilitate an evening workshop with people working in public health, nutrition and physical activity at the upcoming annual Activity and Nutrition Aotearoa (ANA) Forum set for Tamatea Kai Ariki, May 23, in Whangārei.