Dear Moko

Ko Pārengarenga te moana, Pārengarenga is my ocean.

Ko Tawhitirahi te maunga, Tawhitirahi is my mountain.

Ko Awapoka te awa, Awapoka is my river.

Ko Kurahaupō te waka, Kurahaupō is my ancestral canoe.

Ko Pōtahi rāua ko Te Reo Mihi ōku marae, Pōtahi and Te Reo Mihi are my traditional meeting places.

Ko Te Aupōuri, ko Ngāti Kurī, ko Te Rarawa, ko Ngāpuhi nui tonu ōku iwi, My tribes are Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Kurī, Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi.

Ko Hinemoa taku ingoa, my name is Hinemoa.

Dr Hinemoa Elder is of Ngāti Kurī, Te Rarawa, Te Aupōuri and Ngāpuhi descent and the mother of two adult children. She has lived on Te Motu Arai Roa, Waiheke Island for more than 20 years, and is the author of New Zealand's best-selling local non-fiction book of 2021, Aroha - Māori Wisdom for a Contented Life Lived in Harmony with Our Planet. She is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who works at Starship Hospital’s Child & Family and Mother & Baby Units and various community clinics. Hinemoa also provides youth forensic court reports and neuropsychiatric assessment and treatment of traumatic brain injury in private practice. She is a deputy psychiatry member of the New Zealand Mental Health Review Tribunal.
In 2019, Hinemoa was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to psychiatry and Māori. You can also find her on Instagram and Tiktok @drhinemoa.