I quickly resorted to to kūkuru (google) and did a search to see if anything was online that could guide me (knowing very well the un-likelihood of there being much info online.) I found an interesting read published online by Ngāhuia Murphy called "Potent not pollunant: Exploring menstruation in the Māori world".
A couple of quotes stood out for me. The first being from Elsdon Best: "Blood is considered very tapu (sacred, restricted, unsafe) in Māori law and must be treated with care. According to Hirini Moko Mead (2003: 49), a woman was especially tapu when menstruation because of the flow of blood and so there were restrictions placed on her at this time and dangers to be observed."
Another account on the restrictions during mate mārama was... on the first day the woman would apply a tohi whakatapu (the principle of restriction) to herself, meaning she would abstain from working in the food gardens or gathering seafood at the beach. She would instead use the time to have a rest from what was a physically demanding lifestyle and go off to quiet spaces or only do light duties around the home (Murphy 2013: 100-101). The key point was the restrictions were self-imposed in order to claim space for themselves and provide a welcome reprieve from the daily demands of community living (102).
This is Ngāhuia's summary of her article: "This research set out to outline the reasons for the restrictions upon menstruating women in pre-colonial Māori society and the connection with the Māori concept of tapu. It was an attempt to address some of the misconceptions of uncleanness and female inferiority that mostly resulted from the colonial literature and patriarchal lens of the white male ethnographers and a call for Māori to start telling our own stories. It is also a call for the need to reclaim our traditional rites and rituals. To shift the dialogue away from mate mārama being seen as a polluting experience and instead be viewed again as a powerful and potent “awa atua” that acknowledges women as not only the bearers of future generations for their people but as a vessel that connects the living and spiritual realms."
This article and other readings online were not necessarily related to whakairo BUT they are all written from a Te Ao Māori perspective. My instinct told me that it wasn't right to be working on my whakairo mahi, firstly because it was my first day and secondly because it was so heavy. I thought about what has happened during my course up until now and I realised that this is the first time I have been 'carving' with whao and rakau since I started the course so having my awa atua never affected me in the past because I was either sketching, reading, thinking about ideas etc.
So, my whakaaro around tikanga whakairo and awa atua... Always go with your instincts because ultimately if your own mahi comes from a place of tika, pono and aroha and not from unease, uncertainty and ill feeling, then you can't go wrong. Tekoteko... our journey will continue together, just not today.
UPDATE: 11:21am I talked to my bro and asked if he'd heard any korero about the topic. He said not particularly for whakairo but for kai gardens and ranranga etc... but his advice was, "Up to you sis as you're not under a tapu... Some days your whakairo will drain you so rest up as your wairua is important, it sucks the life from you (so to speak) Part of you becomes part of your mahi, some days you just
need a pick me up or more inspiration. You set your kaupapa and you'll be fine." I am always grateful for the korero I have with my bro...Ngā mihi ano bro xx
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