Rongoā practitioner connecting with ancestry at Te Matatini
Rongoā practitioner Nalini Cook is part of ACC’s largest ever offering of traditional Māori healing this week at the Te Matatini festival. She’s relishing the opportunity to connect with her ancestry and provide rongoā services to whānau.
Traditional Māori healing has been a constant in Nalini Cook’s life.
From a young age, her parents looked at alternative natural health and healing options.
She began offering rongoā Māori services to her friends and whānau 20 years ago. Around five years later, she opened up her services to the public. She now has her own company, Tohu Indigenous Ltd, which provides traditional rongoā Māori services, alongside her healing modality, Te Aka Whāriki framework.
Her work includes physical healing treatments, native plant extract products, and spiritual and mental wellbeing therapies.
This week Nalini is in Ngāmotu (New Plymouth) for the Te Matatini festival to deliver rongoā Māori services to attending whānau.
As a rongoā practitioner with links to the Taranaki region through both her maternal and paternal grandparents, Nalini says she’s been really looking forward to the event.
“The opportunity to offer my services for this international showcase of te ao Māori is already a highlight of 2025 for me,” she says.
“It’s a privilege to offer my services and to respect my ancestors through our Taranaki connection.”
Te Matatini brings together kapa haka groups from all over the motu.
Passed on through generations
Nalini’s knowledge of rongoā goes back several generations through her tūpuna (ancestors).
Her father passed on his knowledge of rongoā, which he learned from his grandmother – who had learned it from her own grandmother.
“I have a sense of utmost respect for my ancestors,” Nalini says.
“It’s because of them I work within this space knowing their specialist work is carried on through me. I have a unique sense of pride I carry out constantly as a rongoā Māori provider.”
Nalini battled with chronic health issues growing up, has beaten three different types of cancers and overcome other major health issues.
“My interest in health and wellbeing has been one of continuous learning,” she says.
“Through my journey, I can share common denominators of health and wellbeing with clients who feel comfortable with me providing them services.”
Nalini Cook's journey in rongoā Māori began with her father's teaching.
A deeper cultural understanding
For many of Nalini’s kiritaki (clients), she introduces rongoā Māori as an extension to their current health regimes.
“Many I’ve interacted with have a deeper appreciation of their own whakapapa and te ao Māori once they experience a deeper cultural understanding of their personal journey of healing,” she says.
“To be part of this reconnection journey and to help educate people within this environment is amazing. Not only are you working with physical healing but individual strengthening of a cultural identity.
“This allows individuals to look at cultural wellbeing as a tool of strength for all situations in life.”
Over the past 20 years, Nalini has noticed a huge uptake in rongoā Māori services.
She says social media has had a huge impact.
“A real need for exclusive rongoā Māori services has developed, not just in te ao Māori but throughout the motu (country).”
Traditional healing offers different option
Nalini was one of the first to enrol in the Heke Rongoā diploma when it became available at Te Wānanga o Raukawa in 2013.
She became a sole trader working part-time in communities around Tāmaki Makaurau, and then began to network with different national bodies who valued rongoā Māori like herself.
Now there are hundreds of collectives and NCEA courses available and rongoā is yet another thriving Māori offering, Nalini says.
She believes traditional healing offers something completely different from modern medical practices.
“Rongoā Māori is a felt movement, where you learn of yourself intimately and enhance your being, not only through physical management but a spiritual form of identifying levels of understanding.
“As it’s a cultural-enhancing modality, you learn of yourself, those who’ve carried on practices and its cultural integrity – whakapapa.
“It’s an exclusive space for one to identify generational teachings and actively work with current health issues, alongside a deeper understanding of te ao Māori processes and procedures.”
Celebrating rongoā at Te Matatini
Rongoā has been available through ACC as a rehabilitation service since 2020 and has now helped over 13,500 clients across the country.
During Te Matatini, ACC will be offering whānau the chance to experience rongoā at the ACC tent.
ACC Deputy Chief Executive Māori Rēnata Blair says we’re proud to join Te Matatini again as sponsors for the 2025 event.
“Te Matatini provides us with a unique opportunity to connect with whānau from across the motu and share how we’re working to support the hauora (health) and oranga (wellbeing) of hapori Māori (Māori communities).
“We’re proud to partner with Te Matatini to celebrate Māori excellence and tautoko our kaihaka (performers) from within ACC and across Aotearoa and Ahitereiria (Australia).”
Te Matatini o Te Kāhui Maunga 2025
25 February to 1 March
Pukekura/Bowl of Brooklands, New Plymouth
A total of 55 kapa haka groups will perform on stage to an audience of approximately 70,000 spectators and whānau, and an expected 2.5 million television viewers from all around the motu (country).
For performance schedules, how to view the event and all other information please visit the Te Matatini website.
