Making kawakawa balm

This is the card we made for the wonderful Arihia:

Dear Arihia,

Nga mihinui ki a koe mo to ako ki te Rongoa Maori.

We very much enjoyed you coming here because it was interesting how you taught us to make kawakawa balm. I’m sure that balm will come in useful when we have cuts, burns, bruises and stings.

Thank you for teaching us; we loved all the wonderful things you entwined into our brains. You taught us that kawakawa has a lot more medicinal properties than some other Rongoa Maori. We learned that we need to say a traditional karakia to the kawakawa plant before we harvest the leaves. Thank you for teaching us the legend about Papatuanuku, Ranginui and Rongomatane. This helped us to understand why and how te ao Maori was created.

It was cool how you taught us to use the ratios to add up the litres and grams we needed when we made the balm today. You taught us how important it is to use the correct amount of oil so it’s not too hard or runny, just in the middle: just right!

You taught us to say, Nga mihinui ki a koe, to the plant when we returned the used kawakawa leaves to its roots.

Thanks for teaching us to sing while we cooked the beeswax and oil together so that we could help the balm to be full of goodness.

It was tricky to pour the balm into the small jars but it felt really rewarding when we got it right!

Thank you so much; we think you’re amazing.

Nga mihinui,

Amy and M13