Te kōrero o Reggie Collins , Reggie's story (part 2)
Tell me about karakia because that’s a really important part of the process for you, nē rā?
Well, when I get out of bed in the morning I always do my karakia. Sometimes I forget. But my thing is though, if I’m sitting down having my breakfast, my karakia is said. And then when I work, my karakia comes in for the room that I use for the tūroro, then there’s another karakia is for the tūroro themselves and another one for when I’m finished for the day.
I think the karakia, to me, helps me a lot. My family is also into that side of things as well, because we’ve had ministers within the family. I actually hail from Rangiātea. My koroua is one. He and his relation were the ones that started that off. But beside that, I suppose I have always been that way inclined.
But I’m a great believer in helping those who are less privileged than I am. My auntie (Mum’s elder sister) was the same. And I think through that I learnt helping the people, helping the people. She did that a lot and through the Māori Women’s Welfare League too. In those days they had to travel for miles.
But the karakia, for me, was the main important thing of the day. It keeps me going and it’s uplifting also. I always ask the person on the table that I’m going to do a little karakia. If you don’t like it, you know, that’s fine. But most of the time when we have tauiwi in, well we just do it quietly.
The karakia keeps you safe?
It does. The reason why is, that there are a lot of jealous people out there. And I never ever thought in my life anything like that… because; the thing is you’re helping somebody. But I know there are people who want what I’ve got. But how can I give you something when you don’t even know what to do with it. But that’s their take, not mine. The karakia comes in very much.
You’ve got the gift of rongoā. Tell us how you actually collect the different plants from Te Wao-nui-a-Tane?
I’ve got a koroua who’s actually from here and I ring him up and he’s my picker. Because I’m not from this area, I believe it isn’t my place to pick the rongoā, I don’t know what is underneath it. People have let me pick from Waikawa marae. So the place I pick from is this marae. There are three plants down there that I pick. There’s pate (as they call up home), matepo, and the other one is koromiko. I use those three a lot. You have got to use the rongoā within the rohe, where you are. Because the thing is, back home, it’s totally different but does the same thing.
Further down south I use what they have as it’s not the same as what it is here in Blenheim. That’s where the botanical and Latin names all come in. You’ve got to learn all that. If I’m not sure of one I’ll ring up an auntie in Otautahi and send it down in the post. She’ll send it back to me.
If I find something, something I haven’t done before then I will start to write. But otherwise most of it’s up here [points to head].