For more than five decades (1973 - 2026) I have pursued a lifelong search into the foundations of IO, traditional Tohungatanga, and different Traditional Whare Wānanga.

My journey did not begin in academia. It began in 1975 through childhood experiences of Te Ao Wairua at three years old that awakened questions within me which would guide the course of my life.

Who were the ancient Tohunga?

How did they acquire their knowledge?

What is the source of the spiritual mana they possessed?

How do we restore this again?

What was taught within the Traditional Whare Wānanga?

And why have these ancient systems largely disappeared from the world around us?

Those questions became a fifty-year search and continue today.

Over the course of that search I travelled throughout Aotearoa, Te Moana Nui a Hiva, Tahiti, Hawaii, Rapanui, Chile, America, Japan, Italy, Africa, and Canada.

I sought out Tohunga from many traditions, studied manuscripts, researched whakapapa, and explored both traditional and contemporary pathways of knowledge.

My journey also intentionally led me through all three Māori academic Wānanga institutions of Aotearoa. I worked within Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, completed a Bachelor of Arts in Mātauranga Māori, 2011, and an unpublished PhD, Towards a New Vision Of The Traditional Whare Wānanga in a Contemporary Context, 2015, through Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, and completed Master's studies, Te Ahurewatanga Ō Te Tohunga Ahurewa - The Restoration Of Tohunga Ahurewa 2011, through Te Wānanga o Raukawa.

These experiences allowed me to examine deeply both modern indigenous academic education, and the foundations of the Traditional Whare Wānanga.

One of the conclusions arising from this work was that modern wānanga academic institutions and Traditional Whare Wānanga are not the same thing. A Ahorangi, Amorangi, Amokura, Ariki, Ruanuku, Amokapua, and a Dr or Professor are not the same thing. 

Qualifications from the Traditional Whare Wānanga are not transferable to modern academic institutions and vice-versa.

A doctorate was not my final destination.

It was one stage of a much larger journey to discover whether the true knowledge of the Traditional Whare Wānanga lay within academic places. It didn't.

During my academic studies, in 2013 I returned home to Hokianga for fifteen years and intensified my search. Even though I had been exposed to Tohungatanga through all my whakapapa lines from Rotorua, Tauranga, Whakatāne, Rotoiti, Te Teko, I returned to Waihou, Hokianga to embody my great-grandfather's Te Ngaropo Tāwio Pouroto's Tohunga lines through Te Wānanga Ō Hokianga, 1900s.

Over those years I travelled extensively throughout Te Tai Tokerau, working alongside approximately thirty Tohunga from Ngāpuhi, Hokianga, and Te Tai Tokerau. The remaining fifteen Tohunga were nationally and internationally based.

At the same time I worked with many manuscripts. The main one being the fifteen manuscript ledger books known as the Kaamira Manuscripts, late 1800s to 1958, kindly shared with me by Pita Kāmira in 2020, which preserved knowledge extending across many generations from Hawaiki to Hokianga, 900AD to 2026.

Together, these sources contributed to the restoration of the Traditional Whare Wānanga model based upon the foundations handed down through Tohunga, manuscripts, whakapapa, direct transmission, lived experience, responsibility, and service.

In 2018, Te Whatupungapunga Whare Wānanga a Nukutāwhiti was reopened in Waihou, Hokianga and sat on the shoulders of thirty Ngāpuhi, Taitokerau and Hokianga Tohunga with the Te Toki O Kupe: Tauira Ata a toki Nukutāwhiti brought on Ngātokimatawhaorua was present at the opening with the permission from Rangatira Wallace Wihongi.

This restoration was aligned with the traditional model and remains one of the most significant achievements in Taitokerau of this time. There hasn't been any reopening of a Traditional Whare Wānanga similar to it in these modern times. It is only academic institutions of learning now that are opened today.

Central to this restoration was the re-establishment of IO as the spiritual foundation of the Traditional Whare Wānanga, and the reopening of the Rangitūhaha in Taputapuātea in 2025. The thirteen dimensions of IO.

After Te Whatupungapunga in 2018, came Te Whare Atua Ō IO in 2025, Te Whare Kokorangi in 2024, Te Whare Ariki in 2024, and Ngā Manukura Ō Te Wakaminenga, 2022.

This continues today.

The passing of respected academic and cultural leaders such as Tā Hirini Moko Mead, Professor Whatarangi Winiata, Tā Tāmati Reedy, Dr Rongo Wetere, and Amokura Porohau Ruka Te Korakora, being a traditional Tohunga himself, has prompted reflection on why these indigenous academic scholars didn't focus on, or restore the Traditional model of the Whare Wānanga.

Hence, the different pathways through which knowledge is carried and transmitted. Each contributed significantly to the academic and cultural development of our people.

My path has been about and is dedicated to the restoration of IO, Traditional Tohungatanga, the Traditional Whare Wānanga, Te Whare Ariki, and the foundations from which these traditions emerged.

This website exists to preserve that journey, share those reflections, and continue the transmission of knowledge for future generations.

There is an invitation for anyone interested to participate in real time in these Traditional Whare Wānanga through this website, and organised explorative live-in Wānanga.

Nau mai! - Welcome

There are no fees, only koha contributions when attending to help cover travel, food, and associated koha.

Our latest project is to write a trilogy of books sharing the pathway, experiences, and insights gained through the journey of restoring IO, the restoration of Traditional Whare Wānanga, and Traditional Tohungatanga.

In closing, this is only the beginning.

Some would say that after seven hundred generations have passed, from IO to Kupe-Ariki it is not possible to restore the Traditional Whare Wānanga or Traditional Tohungatanga as it was. That momo (type) of Tohunga, or that type of mana (spiritual authority) of the Traditional Whare Wānanga, is gone. We could never match it. I feel differently.

The reopening of Te Whatupungapunga Whare Wānanga, the restoration of IO as the spiritual foundation of the Traditional Whare Wānanga, the reopening of Rangitūhaha, and the re-establishment of Traditional Tohungatanga are not the end of the journey. They are the foundations for what comes next.

Te Whakatinanatanga - The Embodiment

The next stage is embodiment. It is the living expression of the knowledge, wisdom, responsibility, healing, discipline, and service carried within these traditions.

For more than fifty years I have searched for these foundations. Today that search continues with a new purpose and a new vision without limitations, in order that we realise our greatest potential. Not simply to preserve the knowledge. Not simply to teach the knowledge.

But to embody it 

So our job then, is to go from philosopher, to initiate, to master. From knowledge, to experience, to wisdom. From mind, to body, to soul. From thinking, to doing, to being.

From learning it with your head, to applying it with your hands, to knowing it in your heart. To being and embodying it in your soul.

Stillness.
Believing.
Behaving.
Becoming.
Embodying.

Ko Te Pōhewa Te Whatu O Te Awe. Vision Is The Eye Of The Soul.

Te Whatukura Ō Tangaroa:
Kupe-Ariki, Te Waka Ō Ngā Atua
4 Hune 2026, 2:20pm.

              Te Aho Ō Te Rangi