Newsletter February 2024 Māori Cosmic

Motivation can mean many things. In this case it's about putting things to rights.

Intro: Māori Cosmic has been caught in the complaints processes against retail, banking and service providers. It’s for that reason this newsletter is very late.

Kia ora Koutou Katoa, if your following the CosWah on the Podcast the Cosmic Wāhine Guide to Living in (Cultural Hell) Tāmaki Makaurau CBD. Good-on-you and know it's appreciated. The kōrero is not lifestyle oriented, it’s more of a review of experiences. And how to navigate the obvious.

February 2024 Newsletter for Māori Cosmic will go something like this….Feet, Brands, Consumption. Keeping it simple yet complicated, complex and deserving. Yet filled with mystery and hidden knowledge revealed.

• Best highlight of February was finishing the Art video gallery that’s now up on YouTube for your inspiration.

• Music entered the scene on Waimātou. I created and produced the instrumental tracks now available for all to listen free to.

• Obsiva Tate is well on her way to manifesting into the public psyche.

But let's get back to Feet first: Our feet are very important to many of us, and extremely so for those of us who need foot arch support. Disclaimer, this piece doesn’t cover disability. It could be for a variety of reasons. In advance, apologies if this piece is somewhat vague and not essential to readers.

What's the gig with feet when in maturity? Note: Maturity can mean CosWah, silver fox, senior, gray band, gray power, rocket-gray. Support, comfort and in the case of Māori Cosmic it’ll be about care for longevity to sustain wellbeing. Because our Mokopuna come first, pono?

Going on the trail for good health promoting footwear can be anything from a dynamic output to a diminishment in hope. Excellent care for feet footwear is costly and expensive. That’s one thing.

Next, is the need to know the needs of our feet and how they’re impacting the rest of our body’s fabulous to not so fab, health. If you’re anything like me, it’ll include posture and the wrong kinda footcare. Headline: I gave up public gyms, showers and swimming pools several years ago. 

One of the most annoying kaupapa caught from public gym showers has to be the dreaded athlete's foot, tinea come toenail fungus. All of which are very expensive to heal, remedy and deal-to with absolute determination. 

Māori Cosmic will tell you the Podiatrists initial appointment can set us back dollars further than a dentist examination. Comparing Auckland Family Dentist $69.00 full 45 minute exam with x rays, photos and an estimated cost schedule.

To the Foot Foundations $85.00 half hour consult that included some tampering with toes and nails. A test and a letter forwarded to my doctor with a recommendation for medical treatment. There was a discussion about other methods to deal with the issues.

Surgery sounded painful and the last time a toenail was lost in a foot stubbing on a concrete edge poking up from the footpath? Was more than 50 years ago. I still physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally cringe at the memory of it.

The visit ended with a $200.00 price tag attached to it. Yikes! And that’s just the start. This process goes on for at least a good six to 12 months. So CosMāo don’t dally with toes and feet. 

Māori Cosmic has no recommendations to offer where Podiatrists are concerned . There’s nothing to compare with because it’s not a cultural thing to inhabit, till now. Often it's better to simply go to the experts for orthotics and then the Pods for the Barbie feet. Again cost and price in this heated cost of living crisis, drives the decisions at present.

CosMāo found doing the research into the care about what we choose before we lose, helped towards making the pros and cons list. This is for the ease from complexities to keeping things simple and close to home.

But the whole foot care extended beyond to the shoes that would protect and comfort the feet. Enter Sketchers. This is not for the faint hearted who like to stay with modern looks. To get the full effect of a Podiatrist visit I had to go the full hog and attend to my flat instep. A week on and I haven’t regretted the spend.

My new Sketches make my feet, ankles, knees and legs feel wonderful, comfortable, cared for, special and everything that’s right for the mature CosMāo. Thank you.

Just that the retail lady who served me? She profiled me on my third visit. So the brand went from Hero to Zero for that service.

Which leads nicely into the kōrero of. “Breaking up with our Brands.”

A Cosmic Wahine, a trio of European female touristy backpackers and a male student walk into Farmers Store Queen Street Auckland CBD. 

Who do you think gets the obvious monitoring? Read on if you dare.

There is negligence from big brands that have had longevity either surviving or thriving in our country’s economic environments. Especially over the period of the pandemic.

What the CosWah addressed and revealed in Season two CiChi one about the Warehouse is a good example of that negligence bordering on ignorance. This is from retail staff who aren’t aware of the life long relationships Māori and Pasifika have with this brand. If they are? I’ve experienced a very familial attitude.

Racial profiling based on the need and drive to protect the stock and product from being stolen is true. However, protecting the Brand is just as essential and the relational context with whanau, hapu and iwi. If that really matters anymore.

Over the past three years of living CBD side, and having the opportunity to settle into the area. The nature of the profiling of the Cosmic Wahine in retail, health and dental service providers has gleaned a significant body of evidence.

That evidence has led directly to the breaking up with big brands and losing access to the products they sell without any regrets. This has a follow on effect into our community and the subsequent businesses though. Yet I’m just one person, so it’ll be an adjustment for me. Especially from ease of routine and knowing where everything is. For the Brand it’ll be business as usual.

Brands like the Warehouse and Farmers, where the retail staff don’t have that depth to understand. That is the support Māori contributed to this brand when it first arrived in our country was significant and recognisable.

As shared in previous podcasts, the Farmers brand has had an inter-generational connection with my whanau.

It’s been years long for us and even life long for so many other of my extended whanau and hapu. The relationships are being broken unfortunately, by retail staff who don’t as yet have that longevity yet. And or are employed to also profile as well as serve customers.

Brand breaking is like ending a relationship with an old friend and in some cases even a family member. We have all been touched by The Warehouse and Farmers, Westpac and the ASB, Woolworths and New World. All the great brand products we either buy from them or are provided for our financial needs. Are also lost.

I didn’t just start shopping with these brands yesterday. Yet I get treated by retail staff as though I just came out of the egg and sperm in the last 24 hours. The looks I receive are seething with suspicion, stress, fear and loathing.

Big brands have to protect their livelihoods and stock from theft. This is a known important fact. The brands are so big that any means possible to do that isn’t going to hurt their images.

Especially as that protection is promoted well and not so to somewhat professionally. With aggressive private security guard teams, high scaled CCTV, photo recognition and retail staff trained to profile.

That’s where it bites for me. At 60 years of age, having given so much support to these big brands whom I’ve grown up with in our country. To now face profiling truly sucks at the life of the years long relationship and connections that whanau, hapu and iwi have, and still do.

So we know what good big brand customer service looks, smells and feels like historically compared to the present time and day. Yet the profiling is Splenic and at the level of the immune system, which is hard to shift and! Which they deny.

So what happens when we break up with a brand? Their darkness can become your mental illness if you don’t initiate selfcare. Stay safe.

Well it can as stated above about me making complaints and withdrawing consumption. Telling our friends and whanau about our in store experiences. Doing reviews that highlight the profiling and most of all, we can stop shopping at the store completely. Is all true and active.

I did that for Farmers for many years till recently. I’ve had to make complaints again. What I find disturbing is this big brand’s employees, and their shop and or private security guards, think I’m a bloody moron. Give nothing to racism! It's an unfortunate occupation that Farmers are again racially profiling Māori. 

But as I say, times have changed. I know what good Farmers customer service is like. In 1985 I worked for Farmers in the Otara Store. My late mum had an account with this brand from 1977, at their Panmure Auckland Store till she died in 1992. This store knew my mum personally and they even sent flowers when she passed in 1992.

When shopping at the now gone Panmure store mum would walk in and the retail staff who worked there till they retired. Would call out her name and wave to her. Not that I expect that treatment for me. No, because we’ve not done such a great job growing and supporting amazing future societies. We’re wrecking the climate of our planet faster than we can repair the damage.

With Māori Cosmic, I quit big brands because I wanted to move away from fast fashion and fast plastic product turnaround. Yet I buy shoes from Sketchers that are expensive and I hope for them to last for ages. My clothing is from Dangerfield as I love the cotton linen. With a couple of H&M tops and a trouser, I believe it’ll do me.

Is Consumption February about chance or definition? I’d say the biggest consumption made was a pair of new prescription glasses and sunnies to match. I received the best all round $185.00 eye test that I’ve literally ever done in ages. Well since the Med school at UoA in the early 2000s, 

Not that I think of the payout as setting me back. It isn’t.

Eyecare like foot care and dental care, are all cost challenging for Māori Cosmic. The admission of error for misjudging these vitals in the days of my youth and  till my maturity? It was foolhardy.

Why does it matter now? Because things ache and creek.

Aging is the natural order of all things right? Unless an individual decides otherwise. Then there’s the 6 foot and bullet proof attitude. Living for the moment and letting the whole, “Caring about the future has positive consequences.” To those living in it? Has changed alot for me.

Living to regret inaction or nonaction? Probably. It can have a far worse outcome for Māori Cosmic and I take that to heart in a good way. The power however lies in the strength of direction to get the best health, wellbeing and wealth for the Cosmic Wahine in the CBD.

The CosWah wants to have nice things too and has the power of consumption. But it doesn’t guarantee that it’ll be the best and easiest  access to that wonderful. And the CBD retailers want nice things too, so they’ve gotta keep out the pesky Māoris. 

What I’ve done is compensate for my personality of being self-conscious about the pesky Māori syndrome. Because you know I get the vibes in just about every shop in town. 

To make sure I get what body, mind and soul requires to stay anchored in this world I shove down deep the shame I feel about being Māori. Because, well it doesn’t sound like the best race to be right now in this country. Still that’s just colonisation screaming at me over the noisy tools of assimilation.

Still what we have to give in the bargain. Now that's a real issue. In my travels around the consumption of power structures. I came across personal bio and info metrics being collected and harvested at the very simple and basic phase of, consultation

One example is the skincare consultation. Caci clinic in High Street CBD wanted a two pager on the prospect. They required the medical information at the consult. When asked what they’ll do with the information afterwards and what if the prospect doesn’t sign up for the membership? The clinician couldn’t give an answer to either.

That is seriously scary. And in this day and age of A:I with its ease to manipulate us. The need to remain safe and vigilant with my consumption must remain at the top of the light house.

Next month I’ll tell you about the outcomes for the complaints I’ve been going back and forth with. Stay me, stay you, stay it for always. Māori Cosmic, cause it’s gotta be repeated to offset the bottom of the heap profile.