The wāhine will start their 400km walking journey this Saturday from Te Hauke region in Hastings and walk through to Wairoa, Waikaremoana, and across the Mamaku and Kaimai Ranges, staying at marae along the way.
They hope to arrive at Rangiātea Pā site on the banks of the Mangaorongo river just out of Ōtorohanga on Sunday, December 6.
Together they will trace the journey of Māhinaarangi of Ngāti Kahungunu who is renowned for having travelled, while heavily pregnant, more than 500km from her people's lands in Kahungunu (near Te Aute in the East) to those of her husband, Tūrongo, at Rangiātea.
On the way, she laboured and birthed their son, Raukawa, who the women's tribe is named after.
Naomi explains that, as well as enabling descendants to reconnect with the journey of Māhinaarangi, the research investigates how retracing ancestral pathways like these can affirm and celebrate what it means to be a Raukawa woman in contemporary Aotearoa.
"I want to discover what it means for me and for the descendants of Māhinaarangi to walk her journey — not as an act of memorialisation, but as an act of rangatiratanga and of healing and transformation, and to see what we can learn in this process," she says.
"For me it's a process of unlearning – trying to strip away layers I think I need to be a successful mum or a strong woman in this world and going back to our environment, our land, the stories of our ancestors, and building greater strength and resilience as a mother.
"It's finding some piece and calm and ways to navigate what seems to be a chaotic world. It's a process of undoing a whole lot of conditioning and learning that hasn't always served me well as a Māori woman.
"It's also about doing something that is scary and uncomfortable and stretches you to your limits. It's setting an example for my daughters.
"My hope is that my daughters and I can do it together one day – it will be wonderful when they're at an age when they can sustain these distances."
"I've always been in academia, working as a lecturer and senior lecturer since finishing my PHD in 2014.
"This project shifts me to an interesting space. Research is usually done in your head, unless you're a scientist. This project pushes me to the outside – it pushes me into understanding what it means to do research with your body."
For Naomi, and the wāhine joining her on this journey, it is about using the practice of hīkoi to affirm and pay homage to their unique identity and history as Raukawa.
Ngahuia is an early childhood teacher, currently also involved in teaching adults in the Te Reo Māori space, and has been involved in kapa haka for 14 years.
"I'm from Raukawa ki Wharepūhunga which is one of many of the tribes and descendants of Māhinaarangi.
"Pretty much my whole life I have been singing about her, researching about her through waiata and kapa haka," says Ngahuia.
She says she and Naomi know each other through kapa haka, but she has also known her through the mahi that she does.
"She sent an email to invite us along on this journey to actually walk in the footsteps to follow the path that she took to come ... Where Mahinaarangi ended up.
"I live not too far away - about 15 minutes away from the marae that she arrived at.
"We've known a lot about the end of her journey and through our songs and through history we've learned a lot about the journey, but I've never actually been to many the places.
"As soon as I heard Naomi had put this together, I jumped at the chance.
"Our songs detail a lot of about her journey, about the connections, especially in genealogy/whakapapa so I just wanted to experience that and what it was like - and also to support Naomi.
"The research that she's undertaken has been a huge feat," she says.
To prepare Ngahuia has been training – 5-10km a day via Fitbit and lots of yoga and pilates.
"It will be different terrain when we hit the road from being on a treadmill, but, I'm excited."
Over the next three weeks, the wāhine will record their experiences and share these with whānau through social media.
These experiences will contribute to various research publications, and form the basis for a biannual hīkoi event that more of the descendants of Māhinaarangi can participate in.
The research also draws particular attention to the experiences of pregnancy and childbirth that were an important part of the journey for Māhinaarangi.
"The hīkoi of Māhinaarangi offers us a significant conceptual and physical map that speaks to the mātauranga and tikanga relating to childbirth and mothering," says Naomi.
"She teaches us how we can birth, care for, and raise our tamariki in unique and empowering ways, and that we can make place for our children and grandchildren through our relationships with each other and with the lands and waters of our ancestors and of our descendants."
"We hope to make this journey something our iwi members can do in their lifetime, so they can reconnect by walking and visiting the places our tūpuna Māhinaarangi traversed," says Naomi.
"There is real difference between simply going to places we know, versus being physically and spiritually in that place.
"Māhinaarangi is not the only amazing ancestor who did this. So many ancestors did this, it is just one example of many different ways people did this journey.
"Now it's about understanding what's changed in the world around us from when Māhinaarangi did it and learning from this.
"It's not about replicating her journey, but rather expanding our learning as Raukawa women."
Whānau wanting to support and encourage the wāhine on their journey can follow the Facebook page Taku Ara Rā Ko Māhinaarangi: Walking in her footsteps 2020 for updates on the hīkoi.
The wāhine will travel down to the Hawke's Bay from the Raukawa Charitable Trust Office in Tokoroa tomorrow and will be welcomed there by local Ngāti Kahungunu marae.
