MALI'S  STORY

by Walter Last

Mali was a beautiful baby with black hair and only a few weeks old when I first met her. Her mother, Robina, hoped that I could help her, because she was a spina bifida baby. The spinal cord had not properly formed, and in the middle of the back it bulged out as a fluid-filled sac. Commonly there is paralysis below the problem area and that was also a problem for Mali.

Baby Mali

I did not really know what to do, and we experimented with many different forms of energy healing. One such device was a cardboard cone about 50 cm high covered with aluminium foil. It channels energy like a pyramid. Once we directed the closed base against her back for 20 minutes, and that caused a red patch like a sunburn to appear. We also used packs of pulped fresh comfrey and wheatgrass and rubbed the area with cod liver oil and vitamin E. Soon the fluid-filled sac started to shrink and drained without infection; eventually it disappeared leaving a well healed, smooth firm skin, which never broke down. But our hopes of Mali becoming a dancer were not coming true.

She could not walk or properly talk. Mali used a combination of signs, body language and sometimes clear words and I believe always telepathy. She also had epilepsy and brittle bones but seemed to be intelligent, very sensitive and perceptive.

Mali had a great appreciation for music. Even as a little girl she would become offended if she was offered nursery rhyme music when she wanted to hear Chopin or Beethoven or some other classical music. She would 'dance' in perfect time to the music with her hands, arms, and upper body. Her fingers would move as if she was playing an instrument in the air. Sometimes, she moved her arms as if she was the conductor of an orchestra, bringing them down powerfully on a beat.

Once Mali broke her leg, and that became a life-threatening event for her. One night Robina prayed for help in her Garden in Auckland. Mysteriously the scenery changed to the N.Z. bush, and the spirit of an old Maori appeared to her. In the illustrated book The Gift of MAMAKU, seewww.giftofmamaku.com, Robina tells the story of how Manawatere helped Mali to heal.

Mamaku is the Maori name for a giant tree-fern. Manawatere taught Robina, with permission of the tree, to cut and apply a piece high in life force to Mali's solar plexus which then re-energised her so that she was able to heal.

Gradually it transpired that this involvement of the old Maori with Robina and Mali was no coincidence. He was one of the most important Ancestors in Maori history. As a young man Manawatere guided the first canoe to arrive at a specific pohutukawa tree at a beach near Auckland. This tree still exists today 500 years later. He had come back to help his people at this critical time in the race relations between Maori and Pakehas. The meeting house of the Ngai Tai tribe in Auckland had been burned down by vandals, and white activists tried to stop it being rebuild. Even worse for the tribe, it was without a chief, a recognised leader.

Robina was guided by Manawatere to reveal her experience to the Kaitiaki or Keeper of the Treasures of the Past and Maori culture in general. The Kaitiaki instantly recognised Manawatere from his facial tattoo on a painting by Robina. This eventually led to a new chief being installed as selected by Manawatere and transmitted by Robina. Despite having no Maori blood, Mali was honoured in a ceremony as a Taonga – a Living Treasure of Maori culture for her part in bringing Manawatere back to his people. This ceremony took place under The Tree.

The Mamaku book is being widely read in NZ schools, and also in some indigenous schools in the US and Australia, and has been translated into several Pacific languages as taught in N.Z. schools. On her visit to an Aboriginal school and library in Alice Springs Robina carried a symbolic Maori gift, a carved bone lizard from Ngai Tai for the Australian Aborigine children as a sign of forgiveness and reconciliation for an incidence in the past. Several Aboriginal trackers had been brought to N.Z. to hunt down a Maori chief and his followers. This tribe were descendants of Manawatere and his people, the Ngai Tai, and most of them were massacred.

Last year (July 2010) Mali died rather suddenly after a short lung infection. Manawatere was present and indicated to Robina that this was as it was meant to be. Though sad in a way, it was also a very beautiful experience.

Mali, now a free spirit, consoled Robina, and in great detail arranged her 'Life Party'. There were to be several ceremonies, the first and perhaps most important one, was to be a Maori ceremony at the beach under the old pohutukawa tree. In his speech the leader of the Ngai Tai tribe referred to Mali as a "Rangatira" - which means a chief. He said she was tiny but 10 feet tall because her spirit is so great.  

During the ceremony Mali's spirit was flying around and dancing with the children, while her body lay in an open "waka" (canoe/coffin). Everyone saw a strong white light radiating out of the waka. It was so bright that one could hardly see the children's faces as they leaned over her.

In the following days Mali prodded Robina to start writing a children's book about her life story and the events surrounding her life. It is to be called The Flying Princess. When not with Robina, Mali is often away together with Manawatere or on special healing missions.

If you like to read this story in greater detail and with photos then go to Mali and Manawatere (www.health-science-spirit.com/mana.pdf). You may also want to see some beautifully illustrated Poems by Robina. Finally, the events surrounding Mali's life have inspired me to write down some of my thoughts about The Meaning of Life.