Walking With the Tides: Keeping Safe and Connected This Raumati
During Raumati whānau head to the moana and awa to dive for kai, cool off, and reconnect. Heoi, beneath these moments of joy is a challenge that many whānau face and that is preventable drownings, particularly among tāne and tamariki Māori.
From 2015 to 2025, local data shows clear patterns that most incidents occur in Raumati, during high-energy lunar phases like Tangaroa and Rākaunui, and in places of whakapapa. These are not random events, they move in rhythm with the taiao.
It is important to recognise that water safety isn’t just a physical skill, it’s a relationship with the taiao. It is more than observing high or low energy phases or planning when to plant and fish. It’s a living system of awareness through observation that helps us anticipate change, manage risk, and prevent harm. When we understand these rhythms, events like accidents on or near the water become more predictable and preventable.
Mainstream water-safety systems often frame drowning as an individual accident or a lack of skill. In Te Tairāwhiti, the data tells a deeper story. For Māori, wai is not just a physical space it is a living Atua. The maramataka tells us that tides, winds, energy, and human behaviour all flow together. When we read data through this lens, risk becomes visible, predictable, and preventable.
This is where Taurikura is changing the system. Taurikura shifts water-safety thinking from teaching people to swim to survive toward confidence and connection with wai. It reframes prevention as cultural reconnection and a system where timing, taiao, and whakapapa guide behaviour.
Healthy Families East Cape holds space for whānau to share pūrākau and kōrero tuku iho about wai, bridging those lived experiences with evidence.
Through this systems lens, prevention becomes about the collective. Whānau are encouraged to:
use the maramataka to plan when to gather or rest
open every engagement with wai through karakia and intent
practice buddy systems and shared supervision
embed local pūrākau into everyday safety practice so that respect replaces rules.
Rather than focusing on deficit, Taurikura celebrates existing knowledge. Our tīpuna already designed systems that kept people safe through observation, timing, and practicing tikanga by having a reciprocal relationship and connection with the taiao. By reviving these, whānau reclaim both safety and tuakiritanga.
As Raumati approaches and more of us head to the wai, Taurikura reminds us to move with awareness of the marama, tides, and each other. We invite our hapori to think and act differently during high-energy phases like Tangaroa and Rākaunui. Although these are the best times to get out about, it's important to plan together, be vigilant, dive with a buddy, and assign watchers. These are the times when connection is strongest, and awareness must be too. During Tamatea or Ōmutu phases, rest, reflect, and restore.
Our challenge is not only to prevent drownings but to restore the mauri between people and place. By reading the rhythms of wai through a maramataka lens, Te Tairāwhiti is leading a new wave of prevention, one grounded in whakapapa, collective manaakitanga, and aroha.
When we honour the maramataka, listen to tohu, and uphold tikanga, we do more than keep each other safe, we breathe life back into our connection with wai and with one another.