Stars of aroha
Nette Scurr and Dr Tess Huia Moeke-Maxwell are on a mission to help people find peace, with their guided meditation tool, Stars of Aroha.
For Nette Scurr, being diagnosed with grade 3 breast cancer was a pivotal moment, as well as an upheaval of her life as she knew it. As a registered nurse who had worked in palliative care and on a breast cancer study that involved interviewing women with cancer, she already had a wealth of knowledge surrounding the disease. But what was new to Scurr was not medical details of the illness, but the psychological fear that accompanied it. Scurr describes the fear as being a mental block to her source of happiness and peace.
In order to push through the six-week wait period from diagnosis to treatment, Scurr’s partner Dr Tess Huia MoekeMaxwell suggested to focus on part of the human body they could control and treat over time: the mind. They began scouring second-hand bookshops for wellbeing and mindfulness books that could help to uplift Scurr’s mood and both started to practise daily meditation. “What was beneficial to me was practising overriding the negative thinking and replacing fearful thoughts with positive ones and honestly, it worked. I felt the happiest I had ever been,” says Scurr.
From observing the positive psychological change in Scurr, Moeke-Maxwell, who has a clinical background in psychology, and who has also worked with dying, death and bereavement for the past 10 years, recognised an opportunity to devise a tool to support the wellbeing of others who are suffering. This led to the creation of Stars of Aroha, a guided meditative tool designed for individuals both new and accustomed to meditation as a support system to help people release problems and layers of peaceblockers developed during life, in order to find peace.
A sky full of stars
With a name inspired by Moeke-Maxwell’s Māori ancestry, Stars of Aroha is designed with New Zealand’s landscape and indigenous culture in mind. The name holds significant importance in Māori culture; stars are used for surveillance on sea voyages, as a guidance to the seasons and also have links to Māori creation stories.
The word ‘aroha’ translates to love, empathy and compassion. For the founders, it was important to demonstrate how the steps to achieving a clear mind can be found through appreciation of the nature and landscape of Aotearoa.
Stars of Aroha is available in the form of a book boxed with the option of a Rolling Star; a dice covered in 20 symbols of New Zealand’s indigenous plants, birdlife, landscape and oceans. Once the Star is rolled, a symbol will be chosen which has its own meaning, a spiritual peace theme and corresponding meditation. Each reading also has its own Māori creation story which anchors the meditation and places oneself within a specific landscape. Moeke-Maxwell explains, “We believe the land holds its own vibration, that everything has its own energy frequency. The land and everything situated on the land is healing.”
At your fingertips
To ensure daily meditation is more accessible for those who are travelling or commuting, Stars of Aroha has been developed into an app. As with the physical product, each meditation involves a Māori creation story and symbolic readings. The app also enables travellers to visit key sites across New Zealand where they can access tourist information and meditate in locations against a beautiful backdrop. Moeke-Maxwell and Scurr have also included audio soundtracks to enhance the users overall experience.
“There are three original audio soundtracks. My granddaughter Luna used to listen to them when she was upset, so we wrote Luna’s lullaby. You hear the Māori call, horses running, bees, sheep, cicadas. It’s so valuable for people with children,” Moeke-Maxwell explains.
For many, flying is a source of fear and anxiety which can block the path to achieving peace. The audio component of Stars of Aroha and the association with New Zealand’s environment meant that it wasn’t long before Air New Zealand were interested in the app as an addition to their inflight entertainment package on international flights, with the belief it would assist the nervous passenger in providing anxiety relief. They also requested to include Luna’s lullaby to help to settle young children but it can be enjoyed by people of all ages.
Path to peace
Stars of Aroha daily meditations can help those in day-to-day life and not just when undergoing cancer treatment, encouraging people to take a step back from busy lifestyles and look after the most detailed and often fragmented landscape out there – our mind.