“I’ve made a stance, and it’s loud, proud and bright!”
Nestled in Paeroa is a place that lives and breathes Te Ao Māori, and a man who is the living embodiment of kotahitanga – unity, togetherness, solidarity.
Darby Tuhaka is an artist, advocate, activist, cultural preservationist and healer. His business, Healing Ink Studio, is a multi-faceted venture, home to tā moko (traditional tattoo), whakairo (carving) and rongoā (traditional medicine). It’s also what he calls “a destination for discarded taonga (treasures)”.
When I ask his whakapapa, he surprises me with his response, “I whakapapa to all the tribes, because we’re all related. I use whakapapa really as a foothold, to stabilise myself in an area.” For the next hour, I am completely captivated by his story and philosophy on life.
He starts by sharing his travels to northern Europe in his mid-twenties, “I was on a divine mission thought of by my old people a long time before I was born, so this was just another chapter of that journey … my destiny over there was already set, I know that sounds wishy-washy airy-fairy … but they said, go as far north as you can. How far north? I asked. As far north as you can, Darby … you just need to trust yourself, and look, my journey was unbelievable!”
Arriving in Denmark in the middle of a blizzard, his possessions on his back, and about $16 bucks in his pocket, he took a train to a town called Groningen and stopped at a blues bar for a beer. “I was a musician at that stage, so I had my gear with me, and this guy asked would you like to play tonight, and so I had a job.” From there Darby joined the support team for Native American activist Leonard Peltier (a story for another time).
“Then I just ventured out into tattooing – tattooing all over northern Europe, into Scandinavia, trying to learn about their style of old traditional tattoos, and I found it with the Norwegians. Once I found that, I was away, there was no looking back.”
The next 25 years were spent tattooing, travelling and learning. His dream was to revive traditional tā moko in New Zealand. “It had actually gone to sleep, there was no one tattooing in that style”. Traditional tā moko is a method of tattooing skin with uhi, ‘broad notched combs of varying widths (traditionally made from bird bones) dipped in dark pigment and struck into the skin with small mallets known as tā. The teeth of the comb pierce the skin and deposit the pigment.’
Upon his return to New Zealand in 2014, he and his whānau stopped in Paeroa for fish and chips. “I had absolutely no motivation to live in this town. But a series of events happened within about 10 minutes, and I realised I was being shown a vision here. I need to pay attention.” Across the street was a shop for lease for $150 a week. The landlord was happy for Darby to lease it for however long he needed, “So I paid for a month, crossed my fingers and said here we go, we’re throwing the anchor out.”
Since then Healing Ink Studio has grown into a successful business, but for Darby it’s more than that. “I wanted to create a business that could make a difference, not just sell greenstone and tattoos.” He feels a sense of urgency to uphold traditional Māori arts, “I’m dedicated to the arts, as a vehicle to lift us, not just Māori, all people. The arts have been put in place not only to build the spirit of people, but to heal them.” You can find Darby regularly working on carvings outside the shop, greeting people with a hearty Kia ora!
Alongside his whakairo and tā moko, he also practices rongoā, traditional Māori healing through ‘native plant-based remedies (rongoā rākau), massage (mirimiri) and spiritual healing through prayer (karakia)’. Darby doesn’t pick and choose who he treats, “People are suffering from trauma, globally, in different forms. I don’t see colour (as in race). I see the colour of a person’s spirit and heart. I look at the hā of the tangata, the breath, the life force of that person, and then I work from there.” He proudly displays a copy of the Tohunga Suppression Act of 1908 (legislation intended to oppress traditional Māori wisdom and medicines) in his shop, to help people understand where we came from, and where we are now.
This inclusive philosophy drives his cultural preservation work as well. “One of the things I noticed in this District (Hauraki), people are not only beginning to lose the language, but they are beginning to lose their own reflection. They look in the mirror and they see something that society and conditioning has turned them into … there’s two generations that don’t hold onto traditions of their old people, and that includes their treasures.” He’s not just talking about Māori treasures; his shop has become home to taonga of all cultures, with museums like Te Papa coming to purchase what he has. Some taonga are donated to the shop, others are found by Darby, some have even been found at the rubbish tip! The positive side is the countless taonga that Darby has returned to their rightful owners.
From there our kōrero naturally progresses to the current political environment, and he reminds me of kotahitanga, “The direction that we’re moving in is volatile, but it doesn’t have to be … Kotahitanga is about oneness, and one is all, not that section over there that’s white or this section that’s Indian, or that section that’s Samoan; no, it’s all, kotahitanga, as one, move forward as one.” He says there is a lot of movement to divide us, but Te Tiriti o Waitangi was intended to unify, not divide.
Darby’s parting whakaaro (thoughts) are of his community. “We’ve done a lot of work to bring people together, so I want to thank the people of Paeroa for helping change the narrative.”
1 https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/703621
2 https://www.canopy.govt.nz/ngahere-maori/species/rongoa/
Words by Anusha Bhana
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