Our Medicine is Resistance - Rossa Medicine

She Is Not Your Rehab: “Every child should be able to live safely and securely but for some children, this is not the case,” Danette Cole said in Crown openings to the jury today. Cole said the father had frequent bad moods and could be set off by the slightest thing such as the dishes not being done. “When he was in a bad mood, the family suffered abuse. “They were punched as if they were adults, slapped, kicked and stomped on... They would be hit for every year of their life, sometimes twice,” Cole told the jury.

THIS is an invitation to any men whose “mood” dictates the violence you will perpetrate to your innocent children. There are no excuses and we are DONE with this kind of ‘discipline’. There is another way. There are new skills to learn! You can be a loving and kind father who doesn’t need to behave in a way that harms the very people you are meant to protect.

For ANY brother struggling with this kind of violent behaviour, please download our app InnerBoy.nz to support you TODAY (no waitlists or cost) on a journey of healing. You can join a community of other cycle-breakers at InnerBoy NZ and best of all this is a self directed journey you can do at your own pace. 30 minutes for 30 days is all it takes to completely change how you interact with those in your world! 🌎

He allegedly smashed his daughter's head into a wall so many times, it broke - and used a cruel method to determine just how many blows his children would receive 👇
Warning: Distressing content

Read that again…

Honoring the first chapter of Parable of The Sower by Affinity Ancestor Octavia Butler. God is change. Chapter one begins today July 20, 2024. Our Read-A-Long/ Listen-And-Dream book club started today. “All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you.”

Hawaiian name: Maile
Botanical name: Alyxia stellata
Family: Apocynaceae (Dogbane Family)
Status: Indigenous
Where found: Maui, Moloka‘i, Lāna‘i, Hawai'i, O‘ahu & Kaua‘i
Water/Light: Moist, with partial sunlight
Elevation range: up to 6,500 feet
Height: 6 to 8 Feet (vine)

Notes: Maile (in all forms) continue to be highly favored in Hawai‘i for lei. The fragrant leaves are intoxicating when bruised or crushed, and the stripped bark gives a sweet aroma resembling vanilla. Native birds eat the fruits, assisting in the spreading of maile throughout Hawai‘i’s forests. Early Hawaiians recognized various forms of maile based on leaf size, shape and fragrance, such as maile ha‘i wale (brittle maile); lau li‘i (small-leaved); lau nui (big-leaved); kaluhea (sweet maile); and pakaha (blunt-leaved). This was an important plant to Laka, the goddess of hula, and was often offered at her altar in ancient Hawai'i. Maile is drought tolerant, but has a limited tolerance for salt.

‘Ōlelo No‘eau: Ka maile lau li‘i o Ko‘iahi
Translation: The fine-leaved maile of Ko‘iahi
Meaning: Ko‘iahi, O‘ahu, was famed in chants for the finest and most fragrant small-leaved maile in the islands. This habitat has since been destroyed by introduced goats.

Photo by Jupiter Nielsen

Te Ahi Kā

Ahi kā is a reference to the fire that one must keep burning on their whenua, as a symbol or sign of their occupation of that whenua. Ahi kā is a metaphor too for the home people of the pā, who keep the home fires burning. The word 'kā' means to burn, kāinga which means home, derives from the kupu 'kā' - so another rendering of kāinga means 'where the fire burns' - where the ahi kā burns.

Ahi mahana / ahi teretere

This is a 'warm fire', not fully ablaze, but nonetheless burning . This refers to those who live away from the ahi kā, but now and again, return home to hui, gatherings etc, and put some wahie (firewood) on the ahi. You are still a 'kanohi kitea' a seen face, or known face. The saying goes 'he kanohi kitea, he hokinga mahara', 'a seen face, a home-coming of memories'.

Ahi mātao
This fire has been reduced to dyeing embers, it's nearly out, gone, no warmth. It's nearly an 'ahi pirau' - which is a fire that no longer burns. The whakataukī that goes with this is 'he ngaro tangata ora' or 'the living who has been lost', in a sense that the faces of those who have been missing for so long from the whānau or hapū have been forgotten.

Nō reira, the ahi kā of the pā keep the ahi burning so when you come home, you feel the warmth of the ahi, the warmth of our whare, the warmth of the wharekai. Make an effort to go home, more often than 'once and a while' - and not just for tangihanga. And take the tamariki and the mokopuna - if your tamariki do not feel the warmth of the ahi, it is YOUR responsibility to get them closer to that fire. Nō reira, when you do go home, get involved, don't just sit next to the ahi, 'chuck some wood on the fire'.

Which ahi are you - and which one do you wish to be?

California to return historic amount of land to Native tribe The Shasta Indian Nation will be returned 2,820 acres of ancestral land in northwestern California

From our beloved Laulani Teale. A’ole RIMPAC! No Consent!

This morning! Ho’opae Pono Peace Project will be participating along with many other organizations in saying ‘A’ole RIMPAC! Come if you can, or tune in: will be live on his ApecEpic YouTube channel & fb. See you soon!

Stop imagining the Apocalypse. Start imagining the revolution. Collective Care. Redistribution of wealth. Care not cages. Healthcare for all.