Kia ora, ko Lucy ahau. He uri tēnei nō Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, me Kāi Tahu - nō Awarua ōku tīpuna. I also have whakapapa from Estonia, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall. I was raised in Ōtepoti/Dunedin, but spent nearly a decade in Ōtautahi/Christchurch. This is where my haereka rokoā Māori began, however I returned to the place that raised me in late 2025 and established Te Puna Hā Ora.
ko wai au? / who am I?
When I first received mahi rokoā, I experienced just how much of a shift can occur when the whole of a person is acknowledged and worked with - the tinana/body, hinekaro/mental and emotional, wairua/spiritual, and whānau/family and community. As I learnt the mātauraka tuku iho and then became a practitioner of it, I saw deep healing occur, IO-given miracles happen, and the mātauraka of our tīpuna empower people to release what is no longer needed and move into a state of mauri ora. A desire for others (especially my own communities) to experience this kind of mahi in a safe space and to connect with the power of this mātauraka tīpuna is my ‘why’.
tōku take / my why
nō hea tōku mātauraka / where my knowledge comes from
I have been lucky to learn from some amazing and skilled people. In 2022 I undertook a Certificate in Tikanga - Rongoā at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, and in 2023 I completed the Diploma in Rongoā Māori, taught by tohuka Melani Burchett. At the same time, I began training in the Whare Wānaka o Io under tohuka Billy Tuhua, practicing as part of a collective of kairokoā. I later turned to my own whakapapa, and began learning from Kāi Tahu mātaka mirimiri and kairokoā Symonde Laugesen and Hutika Crofts. Along the way, I have attended wānaka and gained mātauraka from several other mātaka and tohuka.