Scholarship winner explores New Zealand at Psychological Symposium

Gomeroi woman and psychology student, Kylee Ervine was awarded a scholarship to attend the Australian Psychological Society Symposium in Wellington, New Zealand. She was also invited to attend the Indigenous Gathering of Australian and New Zealand psychologists on the day prior.

The topic of the Symposium was Exploring Trauma and Investigating Neurodiversity from a cross-cultural perspective.

While there, Kylee kept track of her experiences across New Zealand which we have the pleasure to present to you now.

Enjoy.

The Australian Psychological Society Symposium Exploring Trauma and Investigating Neurodiversity was held at Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington Harbour) at the Tākina Conference Centre. Tākina means to invoke, to summon, to connect, to bring forth, in te reo Māori.

In Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui (Wellington), the most powerful force that is summoned is the wind which is changeable and brings both challenges and at other times peace and calm.

I was privileged to be invited by the Te Āti Awa people to participate in the He Paiaka Totara Māori Psychologist's Wānanga on the day prior to the conference and spend the night in a sacred lodging, the Te Rau Karamu Marae. It was a beautiful thing to sit in ceremony and observe how business is done by my Indigenous counterparts, and how their approaches to sharing knowledge and engaging in learning have so many parallels with ours.

That night I also was shown many ancient Taonga pūoro (flutes) - They are central to a practice of healing that I learnt today from a Kaitohu Wairua and learnt about tohu, or objects from our environment that instil balance using physical forms of Hinengaro, Tinana and Wairua. Using our heart, head and gut and the world around us. where fortunately just holding and breathing into them is sufficient to speak to the ancestors because I could not get a note out of them!

The conference reflected the themes of neurodiversity and cross cultural psychology. Culture dominated the agenda, the introductions, and the design of the conference. It was a safe space where Indigenous knowledge was given its rightful place. The conference was also designed to cater for all learning needs and had a mixture of presentation modes, and also even sensory spaces and bean bags to listen to lectures in. I opted to engage in the immersive experiences offered that afforded the opportunity to learn concepts whilst engaging in cultural experiences. One tour gave rare access to parts of Te Aro pā where the foundations of the original ponga (homes) remain from a thriving civilisation before the British arrived.

Another experience was held at Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne, the world’s first fully-fenced urban ecosanctuary, with an extraordinary 500-year vision to restore a Wellington valley’s forest and freshwater ecosystems as closely as possible to their pre-human state. It has reintroduced 18 species of native wildlife back into the area, some of which were previously absent from mainland New Zealand for over 100 years.

My other experience was at the Te Wharewaka o Poneke, where I learnt about the equivalent to land rights and then learnt the technique and chants to paddle the waka.

It was not all play though! The lectures were also immensely interesting. I was given a valuable opportunity to attend the presentations of many Indigenous researchers from Aotearoa, and get valuable insights into how they are studying and using Indigenous healing.

I also attended multiple key note lectures regarding trauma-based therapy by some of our deadly Aboriginal psychologists Yvonne Clarke, Kelleigh Ryan and Graeme Gee; and was also able to meet with them during the evenings and benefit from their advice and experience.

These lectures gave me a breadth of knowledge on cross cultural psychology, which is really a poorly recognised area in psychology due to it only being recognised as an area of priority in more recent times. It does however mean it is an exciting area that affords lots of opportunities for innovation. The focus on trauma and neurodiversity also reflected the changes in how we approach these issues too in current times, with a greater depth of understanding and compassion. This of course is essential for mob who face the impact of intergenerational trauma, and will continue to do so for some time.

I also had the pleasure of attending with three other Aboriginal Indigenous psychologists who I am sure I will form a long connection and solidarity in promoting Indigenous practice.

The Australian Psychological Society (APS) opened the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People and Psychology (ATSIPP) Student Conference attendance award for two students to attend the symposium. The successful applicants were myself and Matthew Craig (University of Newcastle). AIPA (The Australian Indigenous Psychologists Association) also contributed some funding to assist with additional accommodation. The ATSIPP interest group were very fortunate to also receive additional support to financially assist two other students who applied for the award - Dan McDougall (University of Canberra) and Nikia Bailey (University of South Australia).

I was fortunate enough after the conference to spend an additional week on the Te Ika-a-Māui (North Island) and I did the equivalent of following what we would call the songline of Kupe, who discovered Aotearoa while pursuing a giant wheke (octopus) across the Pacific. As he chased the creature around Aotearoa, Kupe explored the new land and named many places. The arrival of Kupe to Aotearoa is an important event for Maori, and he represents the whakapapa or a genealogical anchor and an ongoing relationship to the whenua or land. Kupe therefore is a prominent ancestor in the whakapapa or genealogies of many iwi. I travelled via Kauapakapaka to Waipoua Forest to be introduced at night in song to Tāne Mahuta, a 2500-year-old kauri tree who grew tired of living in darkness, closed in between his sky father (Ranginui) and earth mother (Papa-tū-ā-nuku). He decided to push them apart and, in doing so, created the world of light (Te Ao Mārama).

He was near Te Hokianga-nui-a-Kupe, Hokianga Harbour, meaning 'the place of Kupe's great return’. The Ngapuhi iwi (tribe) settled in the Hokianga in the 14th century AD, making it one of the oldest Māori settlements.

I stayed at what looks like a beautiful place, and it was, but sadly it was the site of the original colonial settlement that marked the advent of farming in the area. I felt this before I was told, but a morning walk thinking of Kupe healed any worries.

The next day I headed to Te Rerenga Wairua, the jumping-off point for souls of the recently deceased to journey to meet their ancestors in the spiritual homeland. According to Maori legend, when a person dies their spirit makes the long journey north to this point, specifically to a gnarled pohutukawa tree that has managed to cling to a cliff while still bearing the brunt of the sea. Here the spirit slides down the roots of the tree into the sea, moving away from the mainland towards Three Kings Island and onto Ohaua, where it looks one last time to see the living left behind. From there, the spirits travel to the land of the ancestors, or Hawaiiki-A-Nui. They are carried by Tāne Mahuta’s earth mother (Papa-tū-ā-nuku).

I then headed back down to Rotokura for a night but woke with the sun and did what I was taught by the Worimi people to do – stand in the water at sunrise and release all worries out to the sea with the tide.

I spent two days in Mahinepua near Ipipiri (Bay of Islands), meaning many places – to fish, swim, settle, enjoy the bounty. And that I did during my time there! I rested a little while snorkelling, hiking and exploring the site of ancient ponga sites and middens. I took the time to absorb my journey, talking to my Māori host about her excitement at learning te reo Māori – language, after years of language being dismissed.

I did however tick off the bucket list with a sunrise 18000 feet tandem skydive…seemed a good way to see the island as quickly as possible.

On my last day I met with Merv and Rangimarie, Ngāti Wai iwi people from Whangārei-te-rerenga-parāoa (Whangārei) and they took me to meet O Te Iwi de Tane Mahuta’s - my old friend’s - family. I also had the privilege of being shown the surrounding trees with long arms that were like an octopus that the ancestors were placed in when they passed, and then left there for a year in a shroud, then the bones washed in a nearby river by an Elder to then be returned to the earth. I was also shown how to weave with harakeke (flax), and to sing a song in Māori as we paid our respects to the kauri. We exchanged gifts – poumani, as is the custom. It was a beautiful end to the trip, I was giving my safe blessing to leave and return to Te Whenua Moemoeā, the land of the Dreaming as they lovingly call Australia.