GROUNDED IN AOTEAROA
Honouring our bi-cultural roots

Grounded in Aotearoa
Honouring our bi-cultural roots

Kia whakatōmori te haere whakamua
We walk backwards into the future with our eyes fixed on our past

In recent years, we (Spiritual Growth Minstires Workgroup) have become increasingly aware of the unique opportunities that being planted here in Aotearoa offers us.

If the ministry of SGM is likened to a tree - then our tap root is Christ, and this whenua is the soil in which we are planted. All that we do comes to life and expression in Aotearoa, New Zealand and is enriched by our bi-cultural roots.

What does it mean for the contemplative ministries of SGM to be grounded in Aotearoa, New Zealand?

This is a living question and one we continue to sit with and ponder as kaitiaki (guardians) of Spiritual Growth Ministries.

Two things have become clear commitments to us in our journey so far:

1.     We recognise and value the contemplative gifts offered by the knowledge and worldview of the first peoples of this land, iwi Māori.

2.      We recognise Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a sacred covenant and the basis of our nationhood. We seek to honour this by being active, engaged treaty partners. We pray to grow in the grace and knowledge to live this out in our various ministry offerings.

Our prayer is that as we stay true to being rooted in Christ, planted in this whenua, and honouring the bi-cultural roots of our nationhood, SGM will be a healthy tree whose contemplative ministry flourishes in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

From this rootedness, our branches of welcome extend to all nationalities who wish to perch in the SGM ‘tree’ and find rest in the nest of contemplative spirituality.

How is this understanding of being ‘grounded in Aotearoa’ expressed in our formation of spiritual directors?

  • In recent years we have been intentional about encouraging and welcoming participants who are tangata whenua into our Spiritual Directors Formation Programme. We have noted that many have a natural contemplative stance.

  • We have included the use of ‘Pōwhiri’ (welcome process of iwi Māori) at the first programme workshop. It models in a step-by-step formal way the invitation to move from being an outsider to the programme to now being within the family of the programme. We have noticed the invitations each formal part of the pōwhiri offers do move us from being strangers to each other,  to ‘one together’.

  • Being familiar with Te Tiriti o Waitangi is one of the pre-requisites to joining our programme, as we recognise this sacred covenant as a basis of our nationhood. Engaging with this foundation story of our shared history provides our spiritual directors with knowledge of the context of the time and place in which they may choose to practice.

    This knowledge increases the cultural safety they can then offer to their directees . There is also an implicit invitation to notice and weave into their own practice the many contemplative offerings te ao Māori has to share.

  • Our programme educators increasingly use more Te Reo Māori in their workshops, modelling to trainee spiritual directors that familiarity with phrases such as Kia ora (let there be life to you), Wairua Tapu (Holy Spirit), and ideas contained in whakatauki (proverbs) open spaces to contemplate, to pause, and consider new ways of thinking about familiar ideas.

  • Te ao Māori practices are now embodied within a number of public holidays and events (e.g.Matariki (New Year),  Waitangi Day, Matatini (Kapa haka festival), welcome processes when joining new workplaces, the use of Te Reo in daily life etc., Our spiritual directors are able to keep in step and indeed even lead in their communities by participating in life-giving ways.

  • As we continue to welcome our brothers and sisters who live in Asia into the Spiritual Directors Formation Programme, they too can be enriched by the gifts that come from our ministry being ‘grounded in Aotearoa’.

    Our Asian participants find their rightful place of belonging as Tangata Tiriti - people of the treaty - who are woven in and become ‘one of us’ inside the programme community. The way we model honouring connection to our indigenous peoples in our country can also serve as a reflection point for their spiritual direction ministries in their own context and country of origin.

Our intention in all of this is to be engaged Te Tiriti partners and to give thanks to Io Matua te Kore  (Parentless one – the In the Beginning God) as we seek to humbly follow in the footsteps of Ihu Karaiti (Christ) and continue to offer contemplative offerings of a way, hope, and life within Aotearoa, New Zealand

‘Matariki Harakeke Weaving by Julia Gould (www.instagram.com/flax_innovations)

How is being ‘grounded in Aotearoa’ expressed in our Refresh journal?

Our kaupapa statement includes the phrase ‘attuned to a variety of voices’. Refresh comes together by the grace of God and the work of Wairua Tapu as people within our contemplative community are moved to respond to the theme invitations with articles, poetry, images, reflections, essays etc. As kaitiaki, we are guided by treaty-based multi-culturalism in our desire to welcome new voices as Refresh continues to evolve.

Our desire is to increase the diversity of voices in Refresh, and in particular to welcome iwi Māori writers, themes and perspectives. More broadly, we hope that issue by issue, Refresh will weave a kete of multi-cultural strands as contributions are offered from the many ethnicities of people who call Aotearoa, New Zealand home.

Here are some recent examples of how these desires are coming to life.

Our July 2024 issue Matariki, explored the contemplative dimensions and possibilities of Matariki, the Māori new year. The issue featured contributions from both Pākehā and Māori writers and artists.

Our December 2025 issue Humility, featured an article ‘Death of a King’ by Adrienne Thompson. She reflects on the death of the Maori King and shared her journey as a ‘reluctant activist’ as she honestly wrestles with what it means to be a contemplative, a follower of Christ and a good treaty partner.

How is this understanding of being ‘grounded in Aotearoa’ expressed in contemplative retreats?

As our spiritual directors graduate, some of them go on to offer contemplative retreats and quiet days in their communities and churches. Some retreat facilitators will naturally include aspects of Te Reo Maori, rituals of welcome and perspectives that resonate with the contemplative dimensions of te ao Māori explored in their formation training.

This is not something prescribed or forced. However, we are encouraged when spiritual directors have a meaningful encounter with the contemplative gifts offered by te ao Māori and go on to authentically and naturally embody these gifts in their ministry offerings.