Waka Oranga

This Matariki time we take time to remember and farewell Toni Shepherd, signified by the Pōhutakawa whetu from the Matariki constellation. Toni was a Ngāi Tahu wahine, a Mama, a life partner, an advocate, a warrior for her people, and an indigenous psychotherapist. She was a founding member of Waka Oranga and with a special roopu of people, became one of the first people to enter the world of psychotherapy in Aotearoa through the He Ara Māori pathway. This was not the only way she led in her chosen field of work.

Wiremu and Toni welcomed triplet girls into the world twenty three years ago and they continued to raise their precious whānau in line with ancestral wisdoms from te ao Māori. Toni continued to feel passion for ensuring Māori whānau were able to receive medical care in Aotearoa in a way that aligned their cultural and spiritual ways and beliefs. She brought this passion to her work at Starship Hospital, advocating and making important changes happen for whānau.

As was mentioned at her tangi repeatedly, her most important role by far was as Mama to her four girls and as partner to Wiremu. She is a greatly loved and esteemed member of our psychotherapy community and a Ngāi Tahu wahine of esteemed mana.

We farewell her with aroha.

E tū Pōuhutukawa Te kaikawe i ngā mate o te tau Haere rā koutou ki te uma o Ranginui Hei whetū i te kete nui a Tāne Koia rā! Kua whetūrangitia koutou kei aku rau kahu rangi!

nā Te Rūnanga o Waka Oranga
1 May 2024

Mana Motuhake

Mo whānau, hapū, iwi

Tēnā koutou katoa.  Kia ora.

Waka Oranga extend a warm welcome to you.

We are a group of Māori practitioners (kaiwhakaruruhau) who are committed to improving health outcomes and quality of life for Māori.  Waka Oranga has been seeded from the ideas and aspirations of tangata whenua to achieve tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) for whānau, hapū and iwi within Aotearoa.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi provides the foundation for the political, economic, spiritual and social context of our life and our work.  Māori psychotherapy practitioners hold that the needs and rights of individuals are indivisible from the needs and rights of whānau, hapū and iwi.  In contrast to the unjust and unsustainable ethos of extreme individualism, we aspire for our clients, and for ourselves, a benign human presence on the planet.  Three fundamental aspects of this tikanga are environmental sustainability, social justice and spiritual fulfilment.  We affirm that our intrapsychic reality is a microcosm and reflection of the wider world in which we live.

Since 2009 Waka Oranga has been engaged in an ongoing treaty relationship with the Association of Psychotherapists Aotearoa New Zealand.

Our  constitution (PDF) details the kaupapa of Waka Oranga further.

He aha te nui? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.

What is the most important thing? It is people, it is people, it is people.