Mamia: A marae-based ‘home away from home’
10 April 2024
Dr Aria Graham (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou, Tufuiopa Samoa) is the founder of Mamia in Hawke’s Bay. The kaupapa offers a safe and warm kāinga for māmā based on her PhD research, nursing practice, and what she knows about whānau, tikanga and kawa.
Mamia: A marae-based 'home away from home' (transcript)
Speaker 1:
Mamia is a place that you can wrap around people and support them in many ways. It's like you're coming home to Nan's house. They welcome you with open arms as soon as you walk into the door.
Calais Paku:
You get a whānau within a whānau, which is beautiful. You have your own community here where you feel safe to be, just you.
Speaker 2:
It's such a neat place, lots of connection and I just feel so uplifted when I go home as well.
[Music]
[Text on screen: Waipatu Marae, Hastings]
[Text on screen: Dr Aria Graham, Founder, Mamia]
Dr Aria Graham:
Mamia is a kaupapa. It's a home, away from home for wāhine who are hapū, their partners, their whānau, and really anyone who wants to be part of Mamia and utilise the kaupapa that we have here around connection, around valuing and loving others around aroha, just believing in others, nurturing them. That's what Mamia is about and it's about looking after our little babies, our pēpi and our tamariki who are our future and doing that through their parents, especially our new parents who may be young and may be a little disconnected or have a lack of social or whānau support. So that's what Mamia provides.
We'd converted on the marae what was a tractor shed into a home away from home, a kāinga, based on the findings of the PhD, based on my nursing practice and experience, based on what I knew about whānau and tikanga and kawa and mātauranga Māori.
Speaker 3:
She says we're looking for a place in town, I says bring it on the marae and let's just do it from the back of the marae and build ourselves up. So we did. The name came from our grandparents, how they used to address each other, mamia and papia. So we thought it was appropriate to use some of our own metaphors for what we're trying to do today and here we are.
Speaker 4:
I found out about Mamia through my aunty Moana. So she's been quite involved in my life for a really, really long time. And when I found out I was pregnant, it was really scary. I didn't plan on having any more children. She helped me quite a lot with that and told me about Mamia and I made the choice to come to a yoga session one day. That was my first time coming and it ended up becoming like a safe place for me throughout my pregnancy.
Speaker 3:
It gives them a cultural base. It gives them a touch earth, planet earth, through a marae, Māori lens. It allows them to relax amongst the other hurly burly of the world because as everything else is sort of in turmoil, it gives a quiet place to reflect, to dream and to nurture.
[Text on screen: Mona Walford, Learning Facilitator, Mamia]
Moana Walford:
Māmā can expect that we've got time, that we are authentic in our care and our love, that the whare is always warm and welcoming, that there's always a hot kai, there's always refreshments, there's always resources and supplies and also there is, you know, if people need referrals or information, education, then that's all here too. And it might even just be a couch to sink into or a bed to sleep in. So there's always arms. And what's beautiful is that it's always māmā led. So we don't come into their space, we don't assume. We are there, we unfold and they just step into us if they like. And yeah, they lead the way.
Speaker 3:
Mamia has probably made me a bit more social. A bit more willing to put myself out there. So because Dayton is with me 24-7, I've noticed that he gets to socialise with other babies. He loves it here. He knows that this is his space because whenever we come, he's just vibrant and happy and he just tries to, it's like he owns the place really.
[Text on screen: Calais Paku, Kaiwhakahaere Papamahi]
[Text on screen: Courtney Diehl, Kaimahi, Mamia]
Courtney Diehl:
The biggest thing that I see is that mums are able to just be themselves. They don't have to come in and pretend that they're okay. They don't have to come in and show that everything's going along how it should be. It's not textbook and they come in, they're exhausted, they're hungry, they want to shower, but they're not judged for that.They're just welcomed in and helped.
Speaker 1:
Because I'm not from here, meeting a lot of people from this marae and learning these stories, it's cool and connects me to this place a little bit more, just feels home.
Speaker 2:
It doesn't matter if you're feeling upset, you need to be uplifted you need to talk about something. It's just that whole wraparound care that mums need and they get. It's somewhere where I didn't think I belonged and I just fit right in. It's so nice.
Speaker 3:
Most of all, it's, "Aroha, aroha ki te pēpi, aroha ki te māmā, aroha ki te ana."
Moana Walford:
They are learning their mothering voice, their intuition, they're learning to trust themselves and they also build each other up. So that's a beautiful thing. It's that there's tuakana-teina that we see happening where a new mum may come very afraid, but then another older mum who's been here a while will come and support her. It's beautiful that it's like we're building capacity within the māmā. And it only comes from relationship. And our babies are seeing the mums socialise, babies are seeing other babies. So it really is like being in a Māori environment that a lot of us have grown up with. And I guess those who are Māori who didn't have that experience, when you come here you feel it. And even when you're non-Māori, you feel it. So it's just a win-win for everyone.
Speaker 3:
We need to say that this is a model that other marae shouldn't be frightened of adopting.
Dr Aria Graham:
If someone in another community, on another marae, in another rohe, in another area, can see value in the model where they might say, "Hey, we want something that's tikanga-based, utilises mātauranga Māori, is centred around aroha, manaaki. I think if we can provide those things and just love, you know we can make a real difference at the end of the day. When we see whānau having a positive experience for their wellbeing through Mamia, yeah, that just makes it all worthwhile.
[Music]
[Graphic: Tākai logo]
[Text on screen: This community initiative is funded by Tākai]
Tucked away on the outskirts of Heretaunga (Hastings), Waipatu Marae is a place where the community live and rest. The perfect space for Mamia – a ‘home away from home’ for māmā and pēpi, where wairua and aroha are abundant.
Mamia is the only marae-based kaupapa Māori child and maternal wellbeing model in Aotearoa. The kaupapa provides a safe, tikanga Māori space for māmā and pēpi to drop-in. Since the kāinga opened its doors, more than 200 māmā in the region have been supported.
“It’s about believing in others and nurturing them,” Dr Aria Graham says.
“That’s what Mamia is about. It’s about looking after our little babies, our pēpi, and our tamariki who are our future.”
From in-depth research to everyday practice
Dr Graham’s PhD research explored the experiences of wellbeing of young Māori māmā following the birth of their first tamaiti .
“From this I formulated a conceptual framework based on origins of creation and Māori models of wellbeing to help make sense of and assemble the findings,” Dr Graham says.
Her research identified the significant power of having trusted relationships with other māmā and wāhine .
“Mothers and women bring stability, guidance and empowerment for young Māori women that can positively transform adverse situations and promote positive trajectories,” she says in her thesis.
Mamia draws on this research and brings it to life.
Dr Aria Graham and Calais Puku
The impact of a hot kai and kōrero
In the Mamia kāinga, māmā can meet other young māmā and can enjoy a hot kai or rest while one of the ama (volunteers) takes their baby for rest or play.
Kaiwhakahaere Papamahi, Calais Puku, says Mamia is a village of wāhine toa who embrace connection.
“You have a whānau within a whānau, which is beautiful, and you have a community here where you feel safe to be.”
Learning facilitator Moana Walford says that while the team is there with support when needed, it’s māmā who lead the way.
“Everything is māmā-led. We don’t come into their space and just assume. We are there, we unfold, and we are just there for them to step into.”
“There’s tuakana teina that we see happening where a new mum may come in and be very afraid, but then another older mum who’s been here a while will come and support her. It’s like we’re building capacity within the māmā.”
A local māmā says Mamia provides wraparound care that mums need, which they get.
It’s like you’re coming home to Nan’s house. They welcome you with open arms as soon as you walk into the door.
Spreading the kaupapa across Aotearoa
Dr Aria Graham believes that other marae across Aotearoa could create a kāinga like Mamia.
“We can make a real difference at the end of the day. When we see whānau having a positive experience for their wellbeing through Mamia, that just makes it all worthwhile.”
Former chair of Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngahiwi Tomoana, says Mamia is a model other marae shouldn’t be afraid of adopting.
“While everything else may be in turmoil, Mamia gives a quiet place to reflect, to dream, and to nurture,” Ngahiwi says.