“Āio was created because I was having incredible kōrero with healers, behind closed door. To heal this world, we need to hear the voices of our healers”
-Host, Tarikura
MEET THE HOST
Tarikura Kapea
Tarikura is a multidisciplinary artist with emotive storytelling at the heart of her work. She believes that everyone should have access to diverse forms of healing, and is on a mission to demystify the "woo-woo" stigma often attached to alternative healing by highlighting the extensive history, research and knowledge rooted in indigenous wisdom.
She works closely with the mystical feminine arts, supporting women to reclaim their menstrual awareness, re-indigenise their lives, and restore their relationship with the natural world through earth-based spirituality, ceremony, ritual, and somatic practices.
She is particularly interested in lending her voice to the revitalisation of Atua Wāhine (Māori Goddesses) stories and believes these ancestral narratives hold important keys for both personal and collective healing.
Through workshops, wānanga, retreats, speaking engagements, and digital education, she creates spaces that invite people into deeper relationship with themselves, their whakapapa, and the living world around them.
KAI MAHI
Amanda Lorin
Amanda supports the podcast from behind the scenes, helping each episode come together in a way that feels natural and true to the conversation.
Her approach to editing is grounded in listening and care, allowing the voices, stories, and wisdom shared to lead the process. She works quietly alongside Tarikura, holding the flow and rhythm of each episode so it can be received as it was intended.
One of the parts she treasures most is receiving the mātauranga within each episode, noticing how her own perspectives shift and expand as the conversation comes to life. She recognises the living, breathing wisdom carried by each guest, and approaches the weaving of each episode as a gentle process of honouring, connecting, and allowing those threads to sit in right relationship with one another.
With a deep respect for indigenous knowledge, healing practices, and lived experience, her role is simply to support what is already there.
Her presence sits gently in the background, woven into the final shape of each episode.
Editor
Production Support
Esmeralda Tikao
Esmeralda is a sound therapist, Reiki practitioner, and Yin/Yoga Nidra teacher based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her mahi is centered on facilitating intentional offerings that restore balance and peace within, deeply aligned to Tarikura’s mission of empowerment and reclamation of wellbeing through understanding yourself and the world around us.
She sees each episode as an opportunity to deepen connection — to herself, to others, and to the collective — as part of an ongoing journey of decolonising the mind, body, and spirit, and reclaiming māoritanga.
As a Production Assistant for this kaupapa, Esmeralda supports the vision of the episode through manaakitanga, intention and care. Helping to hold the space and curate the experience for each guest, making sure the shoot and conversation flows with ease. Passionate about creating spaces that uplift indigenous wisdom, healing, and connection through kōrero, education about Te Taio and encouraging people to live mindfully with greater presence, it is both an honor and privilege to be involved in the process