Getting mind, body and spirit in balance

Following in the footsteps of her tupuna, Wikitoria Oman offers traditional rongoa, including the almost forgotten form of massage romiromi.

Romiromi is holistic, dealing with the mind, body and spirit of a person.

Wikitoria Oman (Ngati Whakaue, Te Atiawa), who is the director of the Wikitoria Maori Healing centre and retreat in Ngongotaha, visited an Auckland traditional Maori clinic 12 years ago and discovered romiromi. Ms Oman then learned romiromi through waananga and practice at a community clinic under the teachings of the late Papa Hohepa Delamere, a highly respected Maori elder and healer.

For Ms Oman, rongoa (traditional medicine and healing) is in the whanau. She has an uncle who is also a traditional healer and her great-grandfather was the first Maori bishop, Frederick Bennett.

Although she was born in Gisborne, Ms Oman said Rotorua was the place for her practice. "I shifted back for the second time to Rotorua two years ago specifically to open my practice as I knew I would have the support of my tupuna and extended whanau."

Ms Oman also teaches, holding her first kotiro hauora (women's health) workshop for her Te Atiawa iwi in 2008, then her first romiromi workshop in Hawaii 2009. Since 2011, she has facilitated 12 workshops in Rotorua, Australia and Hawaii.

"My clients are mostly visitors as they are offered a unique cultural healing experience as romiromi is an indigenous healing art. My vision is to have a traditional Maori healing centre in Rotorua for our own people to learn and benefit from our traditional practice so that it can be passed on to future generations and start impacting positively on Maori health statistics.

"I also want to take romiromi to eight countries so that other cultures can also benefit from our ancient knowledge."

Ms Oman says romiromi works on the central nervous system to impact on all the body systems - cardiovascular, lymphatic, endocrine and etheric, connecting the light bodies with the physical.

"It is a combination of body alignment, deep tissue massage and pressure on the haemata (body pressure points) to activate release of blocked energy and anything not serving or belonging to the person.

"People generally feel lighter and more energised as more space, freedom and mobility has been created allowing the spiritual energies to flow through the body invigorating, nourishing and protecting the internal organs and body systems. The mauri [life essence] and wairua [spirit] comes into balance."