Māori martial and healing arts expert Umutakarangi Timoti Pahi is reviving Rongomamau, a traditional Māori martial art once practised by healers, warning that misuse of the Mamau name risks eroding its whakapapa and tikanga.
Pahi, who trained under the late tohunga and renowned healing practitioner Hōhepa Delamere, is urging those adopting the Mamau name to respect its origins and teachings.
“I understand why Māori want to reach out to tupuna names, but there is a tikanga to it. If you want to learn Mamau, learn Mamau. Don’t use the name Mamau for Jiu-Jitsu. Because what will happen is you will change the whakapapa, and there will be a day where there will be no more Mamau.”
He says martial arts can play a vital role in supporting Māori wellbeing when taught with cultural integrity.
“I highly commend anyone that teaches martial arts. I think it’s one of the best ways that we can help our people, because if you don’t channel the stuff that we have, it goes out all of the wrong directions, and it comes back and hurts the people that we care about.”
Learning the art
Pahi was trained under Delamere, who was widely known for his role in the revival of rongoā and romiromi. Training, he says, involved deep observation of the natural world and maintaining mental clarity.
Rongomamau was among the traditional arts Delamere specialised in, and Pahi says that knowledge was passed on for the benefit of all people.
“These arts were passed down to able to be used by all of us and be able to lift ourselves out of our everyday drudgy problems and just turn a light on.”
For the past two years, Pahi has been working with wahine, teaching Mamaia, the wahine-specific school of the art. He says plans are underway to introduce the male school, Mamau, in the near future.
Teaching, he says, has been a learning experience in itself.
“My goal was to build up the wahine school first, the Mamaia and let the Mamau or the male school, come later. I’m really happy with that; we’ve gone all around the country. We got some funding from Sports New Zealand to hold some wānanga down in Te Puia and around areas down there, and we’ve been to places like Ōmāhu and all around.”
He says participants form an āhuru, or safe, collective that supports each other through shared practice.
“We have this āhuru group, and I learn from it. What we do it we all come together, and we just talk about how we break bread. Someone might say, I had a ratchet day, so I did this, or I pulled over in the car and did my breathing, I did my māorooro, and then I felt 100%.”
Rongomamau
Historically, Rongomamau was studied by tribal healers who used their understanding of the body, movement and pressure points to defend against war parties.
Pahi says the art traces its origins to the atua, following the battle that came after the separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, with each movement grounded in the natural world.
The environment, he says, played a central role in his training.
“The akaaka, the vines, they were used for the armlocks, the piritau, which are the leg locks. That would embody that movement. So, when I was learning, I wasn’t always just shown the movement, I had to sit under the tree and look at the vines, and then Papa would come back and say show me what you learnt. He would not correct, he’d guide me.”
Pahi says the teachings of Rongomamau are particularly relevant in today’s uncertain global climate.
“Papa always said that Rongomamau could change the world. He said, you’ll know when it’s ready, when the world’s ready. It hasn’t been ready yet, but now, it’s unstable. Everyone looks around, what’s going on around the world, and no one knows what’s going to happen from day to day, and young kids are being brought up in that.”
