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Feel Good Feature: KawaKawa – The Pharmacy of The Forest’
KAWAKAWA – While attending Prana Retreat’s Easter Event last weekend we got the rare and amazing opportunity to learn about the medicinal properties of our native New Zealand plants from a beautiful Maori medicine woman by the name of Linda Sayer from Thames (Raukura)
She taught us about a variety of NZ plants, but one stands out above the rest through its many healing properties – the ‘KAWAKAWA’ has been known to Maori for generations as ‘the pharmacy of the forest’.
The Kawakawa is a small tree that grows throughout New Zealand. It is usually found on the edge of the bush, in partial shade. It grows up to six meters high and is a densely branched, aromatic tree with large, heart shaped, emerald green, fleshy leaves. The leaves are often eaten by the native looper moth, which makes it even more powerful due to the plant having to work that little bit harder to increase it’s immunity.
The Kawakawa tree is significant and sacred to Maori. It is significant for its many and varied traditional herbal curing properties and is sacred for its use from conception, then through one’s life, through to one passing on into the spiritual realm.
Externally:
acts as a mild insect repellent insect bites, sand-flies, mosquitoes & bug bites eczema, skin rashes and skin infections & eruptions poor circulation, varicose veins, chilblains & Raynauds bruises, swellings, boils, ringworm,
scalds and sun burn cuts, sores, abscesses, wounds, abrasions aches & pains, rheumatism, neuralgia, arthritis
Internally:
a tonic to stay healthy a blood purifier memory chest complaints, coughs, colds, bronchitis kidney and bladder complaints digestive system, worm infestation stomach ache, bloating toothache
R.I.A 