Known to many as 'Pa Ropata', McGowan is this year's University of Waikato Medal recipient.

The award recognises community service at a local or regional level.

"Rob has made a significant and sustained contribution to regenerating degraded land and streams and to educating others in protecting Aotearoa's indigenous ecosystems," said Vice-Chancellor Professor Neil Quigley.

"For his long-standing contributions, I am very pleased to award him the University of Waikato Medal."

McGovern has spent his career "helping regenerate our biodiversity and educating others about our native ecosystems and how to protect them," Professor Alister Jones, representing Quigley, said at the award ceremony.

Learning about healing

McGowan wants all New Zealanders to be more connected to the land - the trees, plants, birds and animals. It's been his mission for decades.

Now more than ever, we need to pay attention to what we're doing to Mother Earth, he says.

"Heal the land, and you heal the people." He's known that since he was a nipper.

His Dalmatian immigrant mother used traditional plants and herbs for wellness and well-being. Watching her sparked his lifetime interest in the New Zealand bush and healing.

It also drew him to treat the whole person, the physical, mental and spiritual (wairua).

McGowan's first vocation as a priest also contributed to his career as a healer.

When the Catholic church sent him to Whanganui to learn te reo, with support from local Maori, McGowan was able to hone his skills in traditional Maori medicine.

While he could identify and name many plants, it took a while to "join the dots", and understand and learn Maori concepts involving mauri (life force) tikanga, wairua and rongoa.

"It's not just about fixing the sick, it's about giving them hope, and they will learn to be well," he says.

Service to others

Serving people and healing the land encapsulates McGovern's life's work to date. He

• is a Maori health strategy consultant for the Bay of Plenty District Health Board
• travels the country training people in rongoa Maori. He struggles to keep up with the hunger for the knowledge, but he is glad as it's "meeting people's needs," he says.
• is a co-founding member of Tane's Tree Trust (1999)
• is a long-standing member of DOCs Nga Whenua Rahui unit, protecting indigenous ecosystems on Maori-owned land
• has spent 30 years teaching rongoa Maori
• teaches people how to find the plants they need in the bush and collect them without damaging the plant
• teaches rongoa Maori tikanga
• planted a rongoa garden at home to help students learn plant identification
• helps run a small nursery for the Waitao Landcare Group.
• has written Rongoa Maori - a Practical Guide to Traditional Maori Medicine
• is a former chair of the Bay of Plenty Conservation Board, the Kaimai-Mamaku Catchments Forum founding chair and a New Zealand Association of Medical Herbalists life member
• championed Tiwaiwaka, six principles which create a philosophy for our approach to life and restoration of our natural world.

Source

• University of Waikato
• University of Waikato
• University of Waikato
• University of Waikato

McGowan is one of the foremost authorities on rongoa Maori (traditional Maori medicine) and is well respected nationally for his work with and for the restoration of rongoa Maori practice in New Zealand.

Last week he and Donna Kerridge presented workshops on Maori Medicine at White's Bay as part of Marlborough's NELMAC Garden Festival.

McGowan currently works for the Department of Conservation (DOC) and is the Amo Aratu for Nga Whenua Rahui (NWR), a contestable Ministerial fund established in 1991 to provide funding for the protection of indigenous ecosystems on Maori land.

He has been involved for more than 20 years in teaching, researching and assisting Maori re-engage in traditional uses of NZ native plants, particularly for medicine (rongoa Maori).

He is author of "Rongoa Maori - a practical guide to traditional Maori Medicine" (2009).

As the current Chair of the Kaimai-Mamaku Catchments Forum he is involved in ensuring the Tauranga Harbour and Waihou catchments are sustainably managed.

He has also provided input into aspects of intellectual property issues relating to the Waitangi Tribunal's Wai 262 report and served as a rongoa Maori advisor to numerous Government committees, Maori tribal authorities and for a number of rongoa Maori related research and education initiatives.

In his current work he is part of DOC's project to build a bridge between Western Science and Matauranga Maori (traditional Maori knowledge) in conservation management.

McGowan is one of the founders of Tane's Tree Trust a non-profit charitable trust that was established more than 10 years ago to encourage New Zealand landowners to successfully plant and sustainably manage indigenous trees for multiple uses.

In at interview on stuff.co.nz McGowan said conditions such as allergies, diabetes, and deep tissue damage as well as menstrual problems were some of the reasons why people went to a rongoa practitioner.

"Sometimes Maori medicine can help. Sometimes all you can do is support them, and encourage them to see a doctor."

Injured sports players often found rongoa practitioners could help them a lot, McGowan said.

He would like more people to think of Maori medicine as "something that's better used at the beginning", a way of staying healthy rather than a way of healing illness.

McGowan said rongoa Maori also celebrated the connection the person had to the natural world.

"One of the things that is really important to Maori is that they see themselves as being part of the family of the bush, descended from Tane Mahuta [god of the forests]," he said.

He also saw the function of Maori medicine as healing the person spiritually, not just physically.

"Health isn't just about the chemistry in your body. Sometimes you can't heal sickness unless you find the reason you're wrecking your health."

"Maori medicine is like any good healthcare practice: you come for the whole person, not just the symptoms."

He practiced but did not operate from a clinic, as his work took him away too often.

People had called him a "witch doctor" before, but he said this was because there was a misunderstanding about Maori medicine.

While the Department of Conservation recognised the role of Maori medicine, McGowan thought herbal medicine was treated with caution in New Zealand.

He said there was not a good understanding of rongoa Maori because practitioners tended to be "very shy people".

Source

• gardenmarlborough.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: gardenmarlborough.co.nz