Many people know that ancient Māori studied the lunar cycle and used it to guide their daily gardening and fishing practices.
Less well-known is what the moon's phases taught them about emotional health.
Following on from Aroha (her best-selling collection of Māori proverbs), psychiatrist Dr Hinemoa Elder has written a book of "daily wisdom" inspired by the Māori moon.
She talks to Kathryn Ryan about the life lessons in Wawata: Moon Dreaming.
Photo: supplied
Wawata follows the rhythm of 30 days in the maramataka – a Māori lunar calendar in which each day of the month has its own energy.
In te reo Māori, the word 'wawata' means moon dreaming – a state of mind that Dr Elder describes as "freedom of thinking".
This Māori concept of mental freedom provides an interesting contrast to conventional Pākehā psychology, which is more about controlling the mind, she says.
"I was interested in [how we can let] those constraints go or let them ease off a bit so we can free our minds to engage in this process of wawata.
"It seems to be that Hina [the Māori moon goddess] and Hina's energies across the month are a really natural and easy way to [find mental release]."
Connecting with the moon's cycles can lead us to a different way of experiencing time, she says.
This, in turn, could help us relearn a "really important skill" that many New Zealanders lost during Covid – how to rest.
"We've all been absorbing so much stress in different ways, we've been soaking it up. People are so full of stress and they have to relearn to slow down."
Many people have an adversarial relationship with time, Dr Elder says.
"If there's a time to really reset and learn from what we've all been through in Covid, it's now."
Every month, Whiro – the time of a new moon – represents a period of "washing away" and a "giant reset", Dr Elder says.
"It's a 'let's go to black' in a cinematic sense and then start again."
Just as the Māori wisdom shared in Dr Elder's first book Aroha seemed to touch on a need within New Zealanders, she's hopeful the ideas in Wawata will help people tackle their own stress.
"There's a lot of value in drawing [wisdom] from a whole range of resources … to find a sense of solace, a sense of comfort, a sense of slowing down."
