WHAKAPAPA FRIDAYS - How much challenge, or, how much #pain can you handle? Today I was reminded of the sacrifice our soldiers, and Allied Forces, made on the #Gallipoli peninsula. After walking the trenches, seeing the terrain and hearing the stories of the fallen, I couldnt help but think about what enables the human body to continue to fight against all odds. You often hear of the #war stories and battle legends that glorify the hero, someone who rises above all the challenges. But how much of this is fact, and how much is legend? In Edward Tregears book The Maori Race (1904) he writes, the native...in his power of sustaining life under wounds, or fearful injuries there could be no comparison. Tregear continues to mention that, ...it was certain that an incomparable vitality allowed the Maori to sustain hurts which would have destroyed a white man from shock if not from loss of blood (Pg 22-23). Supporting this is the origin of the Te Arawa proverb Rangitihi, te upoko i takaia ki te akatea. Rangitihi, he who bound his head with the akatea vine after sustaining a deathly blow to the head. There are many stories like this one, but what is it that perhaps enables Māori to perform beyond measure? Without pin-pointing the cause, Sandeep Deos (2012) study into the pain responses of #Māori, #Pacific and #European participants did identify a uniqueness in the Māori and Pacific Islander participants. Deo found that Maori and Pacific Island participants showed significantly healthier physiological recovery patterns from the pain (experiment) compared to European participants. Therefore, regardless of the numerous differences to our historical environment, today the physical manifestation of the ability to withstand and recover from pain remains. I believe it comes down to a number of things. The expression of whakapapa through long descent of the Māori isolated from external disease, impure thoughts and behaviours in the Southern seas contributed to this stamina and vitality. This theory accepts the development of desirable whakapapa traits through the appropriate presence of particular environmental stimuli. The belief in the will-of-man, described in my previous posts regarding Tūmatauengas revenge on his brothers, plays an important role - the power of the mind. And I cannot exclude the traditional Māori practices of the art of war that perhaps prepared the mind, body and soul in such a way that unspeakable tasks could be performed and experienced. As Māori we have remnants of the traits that enabled our tupuna to perform beyond measure. We might even say that physically, the high pain threshold exists within the Māori, the challenge is to develop the mental and spiritual capacity to unlock that potential further to its greatest potential. So you are the manifestation of whakapapa, how much can you handle? #WhakapapaFridays #Maori #NZ #JustALittlePain #ANZAC #Turkey
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 06:13:02 +0000
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