Aokimi

01/09/2026

Whaea Daphne & her stunning mahi 🔥🌿🌊

01/09/2026

🧶 WoolOn Awards 2026 🥂

I was invited to share an opening karakia alongside our beautiful Whaea Frances 💚 Such an honour and a privilege. I commend the kōmiti for making space for something so special & paying homage to the whenua, to those who came before us, those here now, and those still to come. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou 🤎

What a stunning display of creativity, passion and genuine love for wool 🐑🤍🧶
I’m a 4th generation wool industry worker. Wool is woven right through my whakapapa..
Our country was built in so many ways on the backs of sheep & ironically the generations of shearers and woolhandlers right through my Ngāti Porou heritage, right back to the first Merino arriving in Aotearoa .. wool has followed me throughout my whole life.. still now lol. As a child I’d finger knit whole yarns of wool, then Mum taught me to crochet, then knit… and now it’s taki tahi, over 1 under 1 instead of knit 1 pearl 1😂 Funny how the hands remember 🫶🏾
Maybe that’s why mahi rāranga is my happy place.. the repetition, rhythm, working with my hands, creating something tangible while your mind works through what it needs to. Looking back, those crafts held me through some massive waves of loss & grief as a young girl. Our hands can carry things our mouths don’t yet have words for 🌬🌀🦋

Honestly though, Wool itself is bloody incredible! Its Natural, renewable, biodegradable, insulating, breathable & durable. A fibre our tūpuna knew the value of long before polyester & plastics filled our lives. So please… STOP buying plastic, fake, fast, cheap clothing 😂😭 Choose natural fibres when you can.. Choose pieces made with intention, craftsmanship and longevity. Your great grandchildren & Papatūānuku will thank you 💚

Whaea Daphne Randall 😍 One of the most talented knitters I ever did see.. She had several collections and went home with a stack of awards, rightfully so 🏆
For 80 years young, her mahi is MASTER level!
I loved the way she wove Scottish and Māori heritage together 🌊🌿 Her Land and Sea collection had whakairo woven through it 🥹 pātiki, poutama and more.. Shes another mother, grandmother and creative wahine proudly weaving together all that she comes from.. Just WOW 😍 The cherry on top for me was watching my niece model her and her friends piupiu 🩷🩹🖤 made from Woolen Plasters like how amazing 🔥👏🏽🔥

Wool isn’t just a fibre to me.. It’s whakapapa.. It’s mahi.. It’s memory.. It’s whenua.. Its Natural & somehow it keeps weaving its way back through my life 🐑🧶❤️🪡 Can't wait to see what unfolds now my foot is back in the wonderful creative world of wool 🪄

🌿 Mauri Ora, Mauri Aroha, Mauri Tau ✨️

29/08/2026

🐑 WoolOns 2026 young designers of Central Otago 🧶💃🏼🌻

Super proud of my niece Jahleigha & Marley with their stunning rendition of piupiu made from Woolen Plasters 🩷🖤 The amount of young creatives entering was phenomenal 🔥 Shout out to all the creative adults around them, supporting and encouraging them to give it a go!

27/08/2026

Tuakana Teina Tingz 🌀🌿
Thankyou for doing the hauhake 4 me today my Bro 💚 & im Loving my nails from Angie at Polish'd 💅 Ngaa mihi gf x

26/08/2026

Yesterday we reopened Te Whare Whakaruruhau aaaand it was quite emotional..
I was a 14 year old tauira at Dunstan, when this whare was built 20 years ago 🤯

Growing up Māori down here was different, especially being a kohanga kid from Taupō. There wasn't much around us that reflected who we were..Sometimes it felt like the only things we could identufy with or saw was the names of the whenua around us... names that people couldn't or wouldn't even pronounce properly... And whether anyone meant it that way or not, as a young Māori you deffinatly felt it. Like maybe our stuff wasn't as important..
Like maybe we weren't as important.
Then Te Whare Whakaruruhau was built right before our eyes.. & inside those walls, we didn't have to question whether we belonged.
We could just be unapolgeticly Māori 🖤🤍❤️

Over the last 20 years, this whare has held so much.. Generations of rangatahi trying to figure out who they are and where they belong. This is also the whare where I was asked to teach a cohort of workers the importance and whakapapa of harakeke (before aokimi was born) & its where i attended my 1st mirimiri wānanga 🫶🏾 both of which are now such a huge part of my life and my mahi.. something I now carry and share with others started right here! This whare has watched so many of us grow. She's not technically a marae… but she dam sure acts like one!!

She has been our safe place. Our gathering place. Somewhere to mourn, somewhere to learn, somewhere to celebrate, somewhere to reconnect and somewhere Māori could walk into and feel at home.

Yesterday, seeing her full with people, with her flash new wharekai, pou & entranceway & hearing the kōrero of the wāhine and whānau who dreamed her into existence, standing beside my whaea to reopen it again…
I couldn't help but think about that 14-year-old girl & 20 years later, I've somehow found my way right back - the ara, my ara iykyk 🌿🌀
Except this time I'm not only walking through those doors as the tauira. I get to come back and teach taonga tuku iho within them 🌿
I get to contribute to the same whare that contributed so much to me 🤎

And THAT is why spaces like this matter.
Cultural identity isn't something our rangatahi should have to search for alone. They need to see it, hear it, feel it, practise it and live it. They need spaces where being Māori isn't the different thing about them.. it's simply normal.
Where their whakapapa has a place, where their mātauranga has a place, Most importantly where they have a place!

For so many of us growing up Māori in Central Otago, Te Whare Whakaruruhau was that place.
& now shes had the glow up she deserves.. she will hold many more generations, My kids & probably my moko even 😭

Massive mihi aroha to Mel and the crew of Uruuruwhenua Hauora for your continuous support of me, my kaupapa & our whānau here in Alex. The manaakitanga, Awhi, Mahi and Kai whakanoa is always appreciated & sooo yummy!!

I'm so proud & excited But mostly, I'm just so incredibly grateful 🌸
Grateful for the wāhine and whānau who had the dream.. Grateful for those who fought to make space for us... Grateful for the whaea who held us when we were young & still now🥹
Grateful for every kaupapa these walls have carried & will carry on.. And grateful that 20 years later, the dream is still alive and pumping & now we get to add to it 🌬🤎☀️🌊🌿

17/08/2026

Todays Hauhake - Harvesting ✂️ Harakeke Prep for Te Hurihanga in Tāhuna āpopo 🌿
Look at all the kūkā - Dried/dead 🍂 lower leaves that im pulling out.
I have enough fresh Rau 🍃 for our class tommorow so i honed in and tidied it right up. This is just 1 bush theres so many up here that need some manaaki 🫶🏾
Hei aha.. ill get there 1 day at a time 🤣

13/08/2026

Bout it 🌬✨️🪄🤌🏾💚

🌑 Whiro Hina pouri the dark nights

Whiro 🌑 The Dark Moon of Great Potential. A time to realign and redefine your path forward.

“We can aim to have a healthy and balanced relationship with ego, by staying open to change and sacrificing one's own need for the benefit of others.” If necessary.

🗝 Keywords: New Moon, Whiro, Belief, Attraction, Great Potential,Manifestation, Beginning, Purpose, Reset.

⚖️Energy levels: Ata Haere - Go slow…Tau yet alert logical thought.
Br kind to yourself as It is best to use your mental capacities during the hours of night. Pace yourself today 🪶🧠.. Tuhituhi ✍🏻 Meditation 🧘🏾 Manifest ✨Karakia 🤲🏽

🧘🏽‍♀️Hau ora: Through Hina pouri l suggest doing light exercise stretching and elongating our spines to begin a new Moon cycle. Working our reproductive organs and Kidneys. A gentle release of toxins.

Focus on your inner organs especially your lymphatic system, lungs and and most importantly breath work,. As our tinana has a grounding sensation due to the synchronicity of our water release which comes every New Moon Phase, we are to replenish our fluid intake and work with a grounding release of mauri to Papatūānuku.

So not a good time to utilise romiromi and mirimiri. But a great time to exercise our wairoro and skeletal structure. So working on your bodies meridians is perfect 🧠👣👁️🤲🏽 You want your haa centres fully pumped to access your greatest potential.

It is definitely not the best time to get a hair cut as you will stunt the growth of your hair.

🌱Kai rongoā kōrero: Whiro is the time of the Dark Moon - Hina pouri. Where all that is Kino may thrive, māuiui aurongo, - disease 🦠, illness, resentment and anger. If you permit negativity!!!

To create balance, a time of positive manifestation. Where we bring productive flow to our being and what we pursue this Moon cycle.

The positive here is to channel out all that no longer serves purpose…Sit with knowing you are ready to do away with lower vibration emotions and activate positive change.

🪶Tuturu kōrero- All Kai rongoā cease physical healing mahi until the rise of Tirea. And perform mahi wairua from Sunrise to Sunset.

Whiro was the time of Tōhunga performing Makutu, and mahi kino. Or doing specific acts of balance for the environment we allowed them to be custodian of. Why most tōhunga lived in solidarity. Stand in your conviction of cause and effect the real strategy of an individual’s super power.

👩🏽‍🌾 Mahinga Kai - It is the best time to sow or transplant our high potassium brassica leafy greens🥬 cabbage, lettuce 🥬 spinach and celery.
🎣 It is also a good time to set your hīnaki. It is also the best time to mow your lawns as all living organisms within Te Taiao are holding themselves in reserve.