Greetings; a moment of acknowledgment.
Two men greeting each other with the hongi. | (Olukai, n.d.)
Dear Patient Reader,
For Glowing Hearts
II
Greetings; a moment of acknowledgment.
A Polynesian greeting from Hawai'i, the honi is symbolic to acknowledging the life force in each of us. That welcomes one another by pressing the forehead, nose to nose, whilst breathing in at the same time, exchanging breath. Eyes closed they steady each other by holding the sides of their arms [1]. Knowing that each of us carry traces of spirituality as we are not solely flesh and bones. We have the capability to think, to love, and to resist. Human nature is a complex manifestation of evolution and of our more recent times.
In so much joy and strife, ritual and belief symbolically become a political voice. Maybe we do take greetings for granted. Establishing a recognition of connection, to greet someone, to welcome them, is to quietly say – I see you.
“When Maori greet one another by pressing noses, the tradition of sharing the breath of life is considered to have come directly from the gods. In Maori mythology, woman was created by the gods moulding her shape out of the earth. The god Tane embraced the figure and breathed into her nostrils. She then sneezed and came to life, creating the first woman in Maori legends, Hineahuone. ”[2]
Like a heart somewhere momentarily thrown of its rhythm to form a woman.
A trilogy of Wahine Tao, a Maori myth
Papatuanuku
“My flesh, muscle, sinew, and cartilage are composed of rock, granite, dirt, mud, stone, sand, and all that is dense and solid.
My bones are fossilised trees, veins of granite, gold, silver, copper, and all precious metals, branching from my core, from the centre of my being.
My blood is molten lava, liquid rock, water, boiling mud, nourishing bone and flesh through a labyrinth of rigid veins.
My breath is sulphur, gas, air, and mist, seeping through countless layers of hardened skin, a skin of regenerating life. Life for my children, my grandchildren, and the countless offspring which derive from them. They are the forests, plants, rivers and creatures which clothe me. They are my wondrous korowai [woven cloak] which sustains us all.”[3]
Our Sea of Islands by Epeli Hau’ofa
“The drive from Kona to Hilo was my “road to Damascus”. I saw such scenes of grandeur as I had not seen before: the eerie blackness of regions covered by recent volcanic eruptions; the remote majesty of Maunaloa, long and smooth, the world’s largest volcano; the awesome craters of Kīlauea threatening to erupt at any moment; and the lava flow on the coast not far away. Under the aegis of Pele, and before my very eyes, the Big Island was growing, rising from the depths of a mighty sea. The world of Oceania is not small; it is huge and growing bigger every day”. [4]
….
“But if we look at the myths, legends, and oral traditions, and the cosmologies of the peoples of Oceania, it becomes evident that they did not conceive of their world in such microscopic proportions. Their universe comprised not only land surfaces, but the surrounding ocean as far as they could traverse and exploit it, the underworld with its fire-controlling and earth-shaking denizens, and the heavens above with their hierarchies of powerful gods and named stars and constellations that people could count on to guide their ways across the seas. Their world was anything but tiny. They thought big and recounted their deeds in epic proportions. One legendary Oceanic athlete was so powerful that during a competition he threw his javelin with such force that it pierced the horizon and disappeared until that night when it was seen streaking across the sky like a meteor”. [5]
We were never microscopic.
We are all made up of the universal tears of hearty laughter or a heart slowly breaking.
We were never small but expansive like our islands, floating on the ocean.
References
[1] Ott, S. (2015, July 6). The Significance of Ha & Power of Breath, Hawaiian Style. Retrieved from We Blog The World: https://weblogtheworld.com/formats/featured/the-significance-of-ha-power-of-breath-hawaiian-style
[2] Wikipedia. (2021, March 31). Hongi. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongi
[3] Te Tahuhu o te Matauranga/Ministry of Education. (n.d.). A trilogy of Wahine Toa. Retrieved from Te Tahuhu o te Matauranga/Ministry of Education: https://eng.mataurangamaori.tki.org.nz/Support-materials/Te-Reo-Maori/Maori-Myths-Legends-and-Contemporary-Stories/A-trilogy-of-Wahine-Toa
[4] Hau'ofa, E. (1994). Our Sea of Islands. The Contemporary Pacific, 6(1), 151-152. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/23701593
[5] “Ibid.”
Image Source
Olukai. (n.d.). Retrieved from Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ch/pin/420101471464254814/?amp_client_id=CLIENT_ID(_)&mweb_unauth_id={{default.session}}&_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.ch%2Famp%2Fpin%2F420101471464254814%2F
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