Soul Time

Kō Mataatua te waka

Kō Waiotahe te awa

Kō Puke nui o raho te maunga

Kō Kahikatea te marae

Kō Ngāti Kōura te hapū

Kō Tūhoe te iwi

Kō Joyann Onekawa ahau

Ko wai ahau?

who I am?

I had the privilege of being raised by my grandparents, who taught me how important our whenua is to us. When I was a child my Koro would return from the bush with leaves from different plants and trees. We would sit together in the evenings and he would teach me the names of the plants and what they could be used for. My Nan and Great Nan taught me all about growing kai and plants and feeding your soul with what you love to do.

My grandparents nurtured in me a life long fascination with plants and how they can nourish and heal us. I have always been a maker.

 I need to make things, it is my Soul Time.

I am able to raise my children on my home land, where I have lived all my life. For my husband and I, the most important thing is for us is to teach our children how to live off their whenua (land), to be independent, and to respect and look after the whenua (land) for those yet to come. There is no greater satisfaction than being able to provide for our whānau (family) from the whenua (land) that we whakapapa to.

I use my intuition a lot when I am creating it’s just they way I like do things, but the biggest influence on how I try to live my life has been my Grandparents and my Great Grandmother, I do what I do to honour them.

Look after the whenua, if you've got the whenua, you have everything

It is my Soul Time

  • Harvesting

    Barlow travels about 60km’s return from our home in the Waiotahe valley it can take him up to 4 days away from home on horse back.

    I don’t  like to harvest from the places where there’s a lot of people around, people go to the bush to get rid of the stuff they are carrying on themselves and I don’t want that anywhere near the stuff I’m making. Barlow having the skills he has gets on his horse and he’s gone and he’s deep in the bush where there is no people around where they haven’t been to use the bush to get rid of all the stuff that they don’t want to hold on too.

  • Making

    My studio where I make my products is also made from the land. My space is sacred, no shoes, food or drinking water inside.

    I have Karakia / Rituals that I do, that just set me up for whatever I’m going to be doing, that looks like different things all the time.

    The Karakia could be something verbal, it could be a song, It could be a poem, it could be some music playing, and its about being in the right space and always being grateful for being able to do what I do.

    I use my intuition a lot, I get those little speech bubbles in my head that say to me “oh you should do this”  I say  “Kia ora thank you” do my research behind it, before I start manufacturing for people,  then testing on my whānau and friends, who love being guinea pigs.