THE ANCESTRAL MIND #031 - OUR UNIQUE MINDS ARE GIFTS NOT DISORDERS
Real talk about labels
Let us be completely honest about what is happening to our kids here in Taitokerau. Every single week, parents across Taitokerau are completely exhausted and stressed out because their child has been sent home from school again or labeled as a major problem in the classroom. We are told by outside experts and official agencies that conditions like Takiwātanga, what people call Autism, or Aroreretini, known as ADHD, are behavioral disorders that need to be managed with medication or special clinics. But looking closely at our families, I see a much simpler truth. The problem is not with our children, it is with a rigid system that expects every single mind to work exactly the same way.
This post marks the start of a plain-spoken, ten-part series about our ancestral mind. Over the coming weeks, we are going to look at the hard realities of our community, from classrooms that feel like cages to the genuine need for practical skills on our land and in technology. I’m not interested in grand, wishy-washy academic theories. What we need is real, grassroots solutions that make sense to everyday people.
The industrial assembly line
The modern education and work system was built over a century ago to turn people into productive workers for factories. It relies entirely on standardisation, strict clock-time, and forcing children to sit perfectly still for hours on end. When a child with an active, fast-moving mind does not fit that narrow mold, the system protects itself by calling the child broken. It is a very lazy way of explaining human differences, and it is causing real harm to our whānau.
In our daily lives, we already know that people are naturally different. Some are great with people, some are brilliant with machinery, and others notice tiny details that everyone else misses. When these different minds try to work together, there is often some friction. That friction isn’t a medical defect, it’s just a simple mismatch between two completely different ways of looking at a problem. One mind likes to keep things simple by ignoring details, while the other is trying to look at every single piece of information at once.
Built with purpose
As a person of faith, I am guided by the simple teachings of Ihu (Yeshua's name in the Paipera Tapu) and the quiet direction of Wairua Tapu. Scripture shows us that a healthy community requires completely different tools and talents to survive. We were never created to be identical cogs in a corporate machine.
"For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?" (1 Corinthians 12:14-17, Ethiopian Orthodox)
Ge’ez Text: ሥጋሰ አኮ አሐዱ አባል ውእቱ፥ አላ ብዙኅ ውእቱ። ለእመ ትቤ እግር፥ እስመ ኢኮንኩ እደ፥ አልቦቱ አባለ ሥጋ ውእቱ፤ ቦኑ በእንተዝ አልቦቱ አባለ ሥጋ ውእቱ? ለእመ ኵሉ ሥጋ ዐይን ውእቱ፥ አይቴኑ ሰሚዕ? ወለእመ ኵሉ ሰሚዕ ውእቱ፥ አይቴኑ መጽንዕ?
Ahakoa hoki kāore te tinana i hangaia ki te wāhanga kotahi, engari rā, he maha kē. Mehemea ka kī te waewae, 'I te mea kāore ahau i te ringa, kāore ahau nō te tinana,' ka rerekē koia tōna rironga mai nō te tinana? Mehemea ko te tinana katoa he kanohi, kei whea te whakarongo? Mehemea ko te katoa he whakarongo, kei whea te hongi? (1 Korinitia 12:14-17, Paipera Tapu 1868)
This standard is pure common sense. A body made entirely of eyes would be completely useless because it could not walk, eat, or hear. In the exact same way, a community needs a mixture of different minds to look after the land, build homes, grow food, and care for the people.
Navigators and builders
If we look back at our history, we see that our survival always depended on having specialists. We needed the navigators, people with fast-moving, highly vigilant minds who could spot changes in the weather or threats on the horizon. We also needed the builders and carvers, people with deep, quiet focus who could sit for days perfecting a tool, carving a pou, or memorising historical lineages. These are not modern disabilities, they are ancient, practical strengths.
When we force our young people to hide their natural ways of thinking just to look normal to outside authorities, it drains their energy. This constant effort acts as a heavy tax on their well-being, leading to complete exhaustion and burnout. We have to stop trying to fix the child to suit a broken room, and start changing our local spaces to suit the child.
Babylon (The rigid, extractive system)
This represents the outdated industrial mindset that prioritises standardisation over people, treating our whānau like interchangeable parts in a corporate machine.
Rigid industrial system mold: Forcing everyone into a one-size-fits-all classroom or workplace originally built for factory lines.
Metabolic tax of masking: The heavy energy cost and total exhaustion our people pay when they are forced to hide their natural ways of thinking just to satisfy outside authorities.
Clash of processing frequencies: The friction and communication breakdowns that happen when a rigid system demands that every unique mind broadcast on the exact same channel.
Te Ōhanga Mauri (The economy of life force)
This is our traditional, healthy way of organising society, where the environment is fixed to suit the people, and holistic well-being is prioritised.
Gifts instead of disorders: Rejecting clinical deficit labels and realisating that Takiwātanga and Aroreretini are practical, everyday strengths.
Many parts, one body: The down-to-earth scriptural truth that a healthy community requires completely different tools, minds, and talents to function properly.
Navigators and builders: Reclaiming our traditional specialists, from the high-vigilance minds who scan the horizon for opportunities to the deep-focus minds who look after the details.
Fix environment, not child: Shifting our focus to changing our local spaces, schools, and marae to suit the child, rather than trying to fix a healthy mind to suit a broken room.
Grassroots local action: Relying on our own whānau, hapū, and local businesses to take up the wero, instead of waiting around for government departments to solve our problems.
Practical local action
We can’t wait for government departments or big ministries in Wellington to fix this for us. Real progress comes from our own whānau, hapū, marae, local businesses, regional and district councils, and our iwi taking up the wero. Let us create practical pathways in our schools, marae, and workplaces where our young people can use their natural gifts without shame.
If we fix the soil at the grassroots level, our people will thrive. Taitokerau has the heart, the history, and the down-to-earth capability to lead this change and show the rest of the world how to build a truly fair society.
