My Mentor by Urunumia Tahana
My mentor
Urunumia Tahana recently completed the MFYP programme under the mentorship of Jay Beaumont and is grateful to have been guided by someone who could anticipate her needs.
As an 11-year-old, Urunumia (Ngāti Māhanga, Ngāti Pikiao) remembers her sister’s midwife visiting the family home. There was nothing mystical about her journey to midwifery, but a seed had obviously been planted, and she knew it was her path. “It wasn’t anything super spiritual, but something about it just always sat right with me,” she explains.
Urunumia became hapū with her first baby in her final year of midwifery study through Ara Institute of Technology and she birthed her son the day after sitting the national registration exam. Transitioning to motherhood, combined with losing her unofficial mentor Diana (Di) Bates Keepahunuhunu in 2019 nearly saw Urunumia walk away from midwifery before her career had even started.
Urunumia’s middle name is Pam, and up until she met Di, this was what she called herself. “My whole life I’ve always been known as Pam - because it was easier for other people to say it,” she explains. Di would put an end to this, however, permanently altering Urunumia’s life trajectory. “Di wouldn’t let people call me Pam. She’d say ‘No, her name is Urunumia’. She was the first person to give me enough confidence to stop making myself small.”
In 2021, Urunumia not only found the strength, but the right mentor to continue her midwifery journey. “I asked Jay to be my mentor because I really wanted to be with somebody who understood and saw the world from a Māori perspective. That was really important to me. I needed that safety of someone who knew me culturally,” she says.
Jay continued what her friend Di had started, and Urunumia has not only completed the MFYP requirements, but is already strategising to future-proof the Māori workforce. “One of the most valuable things I’ve taken away from the mentor/mentee relationship is the importance of Māori stepping into leadership/tuakana roles, to ensure the sustainability of the Māori midwifery workforce,” Urunumia says.
An internal fire has been stoked, she explains. “Jay has sparked inspiration inside of me and the desire to heed that call to tuakana; to pass the gift of mātauranga whakawhānau and awhi from a kaupapa Māori perspective on to Māori new graduate midwives.”
Reducing the experience of the past year down to bite-size quotes is difficult for Urunumia, but she sums it up perfectly by circling back to a midwifery pillar. “Jay and I were able to form a partnership through exchange of mātauranga Māori and wānanga with each other, leading me on the journey from competent to confident practitioner. We achieved so much together over my graduate year, I couldn’t have asked for anything more in a mentor.”