Kia ora!
We have been overwhelmed by some negative feedback to an Instagram post (see below), so we took a little time to reflect and send a clarification to apologize and explain our intention as men´s worker for the project www.meninthewoods.at which is about sharing each others greatness and wisdom instead of competing who is the better man / tribe / nation / religion / etc.
First of all we deeply feel sorry for the bad feelings we have aroused in the hearts of the maori people where the haka comes from. We do not intent to do harm any person or culture here.
Secondly, we don’t do Haka workshops, nor do we teach or sell the Haka to anybody. The same goes along for other traditions like sweat lodges, which are only done by people with permission. We always let teachings to be done by other authentic teachers such as Grandmother Arapata or Tikireau Ata and others who we love to host to share indigenous teachings with our people.
And if you see us playing around with some experiences, please don´t judge our style, but see also the fun we have and how we enjoy our brotherhood and the connections to each other.
Namaste :)
We have a huge respect for tribes of all nations and we distance ourselves from using cultural content in a disrespectful or insulting way. But we are open for discussions if someone feels harmed and want to learn more about respecting each other. We work with people from native American tribes as well as Indian tantricas or nordic wisdom. For us all cultures carry a wisdom and we want to go to the essence of it, which in our opinion is a deep love to life in its many forms. So we would also love to get respect for our interest and curiousity in such traditions.
The Maori culture from the Tuhoe was shared with our founder Nico Tonisch in New Zealand and also in Europe as one elder has also roots in Germany which he wanted to reconnect. As explained in the video below share that experience to explain more about the Maori culture and raise the interest in native cultures to be able to respect and protect these cultures.
We are a group of man in Austria. We go out into the wilderness to connect deeper aspects of our selves and work to become better men for the sake of ourselves and all people around us.
We keep on doing this work and want to develop more compassion for our own diversity and learn to live in peace with all tribes and all differences that try to seperate us.
There is no stronger force than compassion & love shared in a peaceful way.
So please join us in the intention to bring out all of the potential inside and share the essence of it to help others to grow without judging, complaining, competing or harming any good intention.
May all beings be happy and free!
Tashi Delek
PS: What is NOT ACCEPTABLE is aggressive and bad communication in disrespect and dishonor.
We are clear about our intention and our mistake. So please everyone who is part of that conflict please also look at yourself and your own culture. Without bringing up other conflict it is part of most cultures to cross borders with other cultures. Even in Maori history when people came on their Waka to New Zealand they crossed a border with the people living in New Zealand before.
So everyone please be clear in your intention if you enter someone's space. Maybe it's a home, maybe a new land, maybe a spiritual or cultural practice, maybe as a man you enter into a women or any other physical way or maybe by your physical, verbal and emotional presence you enter someone elses mind / thoughts, hearts / feelings.
It is true what many Maori accuse us not to have done properly: We always need to ask for consent and in this case we missed to ask the right people to show and we are very sorry for that. We will correct this mistake by getting officially in touch with people we appreciate and will communicate and learn in a respectful way more about Haka and these traditions and keep on establishing a strong connection to indigenous people and cultures.
WE WILL ADD ANOTHER VIDEO ABOUT THE NEED FOR PROPER COMMUNICATION
WE WILL ALSO FOLLOW UP WITH MAORI WHO HAVE PROPOSED US TO TEACH HAKA AND OTHER HEALING CEREMONYS IN A PROPER WAY TO BE ABLE TO KNOW & SHARE IT PROPERLY.
MAYBE IN 1, 2 or 3 YEARS we will post another video or maybe some others along the way to show how this path evolves and we may look back on the 'mistake' that started all this. We all do mistakes but the main question is always if we are able to learn from it and forgive the mistakes.
These are a few memories from my beautiful 2017 Hikoi Wairua (Spritual Walk) in New Zealand