Atarangi Muru: Maori Healer

Atarangi Muru (Ngati Kuri, Ngati Pakahi and Te Rarawa) is a member of a small group of healers who travel the globe sharing and teaching the healing arts of New Zealand. Since 2000 and for the global purposes, they have called themselves the Maori Healers of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

ABOUT Atarangi Muru

She comes from Kaitaia, in Northland where her mother Wiki’s marae (tribal home) is Roma and her father Ted’s is Te Reo Mihi in Te Hapua on the shores of the Parengarenga Harbour in Northland.

Atarangi is the fourth eldest child in a family of 8, married to Bill. They have 6 children. Growing up, Atarangi was always challenging her elders, parents, teachers and brothers & sisters. Her behaviour meant she got to spend a lot of time with her Aunty Pearl who was greatly respected by everyone who knew her and who had both a knowing and a patience that could calm any of Atarangi’s stormy seas.

Mirimiri
Atarangi’s specialty is mirimiri, traditional Maori massage. She is a practitioner of five unique bodywork movements needing skill and care that she inherited from an elderly tohunga (healing expert), physical and spiritual aspects of her work are interwoven. Manipulating the body into its proper alignment releases the emotional pain stored inside, “the body tells its own story”

Atarangi says, “while I don’t know the body anatomically the way it is taught in schools of massage I know the body the way we are taught. How energy runs, how to vibrate the bones, loosen the muscles, open the airways, enliven the internal waters, calm the mind and the one thing I know we have that is not taught anywhere else, is our fearlessness in the work we do.

Her Name
Traditionally-speaking, it’s believed one’s name greatly impacts one’s life. A name travels ahead of you, like a portent of things to come — Atarangi, her name opens like dawn (ata) and light (rangi). She was “about 5 or 6 years old when her Uncle Jerry used to pick her up and take her with him to her Aunty Bella Nathan’s place. Her Aunty Bella would show her how to walk on his back to bring it back into realignment again.” Her name translates as ‘the realisation of one’s visions.

5 KURIOUS KIWI QUESTIONS

Do you have interesting friends? I do. I’m a kurious kiwi, so in this LifeStyle section I ask them 5 Questions. I ask each of them a common question, when it’s all said and done, what matters? Their responses are sometimes startling yet always thought evoking.

Why this mahi and not another?

This mahi sparks my joy, my laughter and my willingness to support, love, help, teach, educate people and more. I am more fulfilled, happier, deeper, conscious in who I am and what I do. In the end no matter what I do, mahi is mahi and as along as I feel like I am contributing to a greater whole then I feel satisfied.

Describe the purpose and importance of aroha in your mahi.

Aroha is not a purpose or an importance to me, for it is ever present like my breath. If I have no breath I have no aroha, they are one and the same, yet not of each other.

In life, what matters?

Whanau, aroha, peace, laughter, joy deep in the bones, food, good friends and great families, people who inspire me, what I aspire to be and do.

Your mahi is sustained by the spiritual aspects of te ao Maori, tell us about the Maori healing modality practices you use and how they stimulate physical healing in a person.

In the teachings that I have, it’s not about me being the healer, it’s about reminding the person we are working on that the greatest healer in their lives is THEMSELVES.

We have knowing and technique and these we use to the best of our ability to awaken and remind the ‘self’ of these things. There was a time when healing was done in the home, in fact it was still in my life as a youngster and I’ve been blessed having these tools to re-educate, using simple techniques and tools.

What life principle(s) are you seeking to pass on to women in your Kawa Ariki (The Goddess Returns) Workshops?

That a juicy women is a creative women who is fully engaged, alive to the enth degree and all is possible. That’s not a life principle those are dreams/possibilities/actions, I’ve seen attained time and time again in the workshops we do.

In saying the above, the life principles I was taught by my Nannies, my whanau were: commonsense, compassion and aroha. What I have since learned is; that its an everyday-thing, it changes to the moods and attitudes we have at that time.

PLUS ONE

An Atarangi wisdom for todays rangatahi (young people) — what would that be?

Look for someone who is passionate about their life and copy them until you have your formula sourced and then go out and do it.

This is not about money making or successful engineering of the self, it’s about passion, attitude and a willingness to go for it.