E toru nga puawai o taku putiputi.
Ko Te tumaanako, te whakapono, me to aroha.
Te tino puawaitanga o taku putiputi ko aroha.

For my flower to bloom, it must have desire faith and love. The most important bloom is love. 
~ Whakatauki from my Great Great Grandfather ~ Iriapa Aranui

Ko Takitimu me ngā Kurahaupo ōku waka tapu
Ko Moumoukai me ngā Ruahine me nga Tararua te maunga
Ko Nuhaka me ngā Mohaka, ko Manawatu ōku awa
Ko Ngāti Kahungunu, me ngā ko Ngāti Rongomaiwahine, ko Rangitāne, ko Ngāti Pākehā ōku iwi
Ko Raikaipaaka tōku hapū
No Aotearoa ahau
Ko Gabrielle tōku ingoa

Takitimu and Kurahaupo are my sacred waka
Moumoukai, Ruahine and Tararua are my mountains
Nuhaka, Mohaka and Manawatu are my river
Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rongomaiwahine, and Rangitāne is my tribe
Raikaipaaka is my subtribe
I am of Aotearoa, New Zealand
I am Māori and Pākehā (non-Māori)
My Name is Gabrielle
______

My Journey

I feel as if I have lived many lives in one….

Until I was 17, I grew up in Feilding in Aotearoa, New Zealand. I mostly felt confident within my Māori culture and my Māori spiritual lineage wove alongside my parent’s spiritual journey. Mum practised reiki and massage, Dad taught Tai Chi, we grew our own vegetables.  
Yet like many young people, I had a deep yearning to travel and see the world.  At 17 I left New Zealand and moved to Cuenca, Ecuador for my final year of high school and my relationship with the world outside New Zealand began. 
Ecuador was a shock to my middle-class system and upbringing.  Seeing homeless people, learning about different cultures taught me that there was so much more to the world than I knew growing up in New Zealand. My curiosity was sparked and from 17 – 25 I travelled widely, physically, emotionally and spiritually.  I lived in a number of Countries including England, New York State, South Africa and eventually found my way to Perth, Western Australia.   
In my travels, I moved swiftly, danced wildly, and loved deeply.  I was hungry for all things life.  This led me to experience many different things.  
Once in Perth, I found I was yearning normalcy, no longer content to travel or seek the next high, I yearned to do normal things, study, work, have a family one day.  I enrolled in a Sociology and Community Development degree in an attempt to “be normal.” I tried to fit into what I perceived to be regular life, but it never quite worked out…
Somewhere along the way, I lost myself and forgot who I was.  I can’t quite tell you where it happened but I was moving through the motions. I began making other people more important than my unique voice. I made my then-relationship more important than my inner-voice. Other people’s idea of achievement more important than my own desires.  
When my then-relationship ended, I found myself in a state of overwhelming grief. I found I could no longer move in the same way, I stopped seeking, or desiring to achieve more. I wanted to re-learn what was important to me. 
I looked at the life I lived and wanted to know what would happen if I did listen to the subtle voice of my heart. 

Was a different way of life possible?

 Between the realisation that I was way off track, and now… so many synchronicities and guidance came through to teach me a new way and influence my journey. Once I allowed the messages from my tīpuna ~ ancestors to come in, I became a part of something much bigger than myself.

Incrementally, I continue to move towards sovereignty and guiding others through RomiRomi and Co-Reflective Coaching. 
Until I really began delving deep into Māori Healing work. With each step, this work forms a life force of its own, drawing on my experiences, study and stepping out of the way with the knowledge that this sacred knowledge is much bigger than me.