“MAMATUANUKU Sacred Movement Medicine has evolved through my own journey of healing following a near death experience in Samoa in 2009 following the 8.1 magnitude Earthquake and Tsunami.

I was lucky to survive that day. I stood on the mountain looking across the waters of the pacific. It was in that moment that a deep feeling, a vibration, a voice dropped deep inside my body and a sense of knowing filled me. I had to use my life that I still had; to be of service to the collective. To use the tools and gifts inside me to be a voice for PAPATUANUKU - Earth Mother.
So that I could remind others to return to our ways of knowing and deep listening as guardians/kaitiaki of the Earth.

That day I survived. Not because I waited for the radio that was too late to warn people, but because I knew instinctively that I had to move and as I saw the reef appearing from beneath the ocean in front of me - I knew there was no time. I was very very fortunate to respond to that knowing.

There is not one day that goes by that I don’t think of those who passed that day. That pass everyday from the devastation and disconnection upon our Earth.

I feel strongly that if we could reconnect with our instincts, our values and our ways of being with the earth and each other; that we could all have a place to stand and our world would be a much better place. I believe that we all have a role to uphold as kaitiaki/guardians and care takers of this beautiful planet
we call home.

My dance was what came to me naturally following the event as a way to heal and move through my own ptsd and grief of this experience. It took me two years to sleep deeply again. It was dance that helped ground me back into my body and how I healed and nurtured my relationship back to the ocean…

It was through dancing upon her shores, and in the waves that I discovered the medicine that was always inside me

It is through the power of dance, movement, breath and connection with the earth that I return home to wholeness”

- Charlotte Manawanui Christie, 2023