Aikido pioneer reaches 6th Dan status

Passport? Check. Pesos? Check. A basic knowledge of martial arts?  Check.
For a young Cornelia Baumgartner, learning aikido was one more tool under her belt before travelling through South America in the late 1970s.

“I thought, ‘well, I’d better have some point of self-defence, being female and short and daring’,” she laughs. That basic knowledge has flourished over a lifetime of training and, almost five decades later, the Mahana woman has been awarded the status of 6th Dan in New Zealand Aikido Shinryukan. She is one of only three women in the country to actively hold this achievement.

Cornelia, 69, was born in Switzerland, with New Zealand becoming home to her and her husband Martin Hartman about 40 years ago. Back in Europe, she had initially tried her hand at judo and karate, but, being just shy of 160cm, she decided that it was prudent to choose a martial art that did not rely on her opponents being the same weight class.

She studied at a dojo in California and in the traditional countryside in Japan, training under first-generation sensei.

The latter was a life-changing but challenging experience, and Cornelia chooses her words carefully to explain why.

She was 31 at the time, the only woman in the dojo, and “proud as of my achievements”.

“This definitely clashed with the Japanese ideas of a young woman. They pitied me that I wasn’t already married and with at least two children.”

To save face for everyone involved, the master declared her to be in her early 20s, even throwing her a 23rd birthday party. “I was furious,” Cornelia remembers with a laugh.

Aikido is like dancing, she says.  “You learn how to blend and move with someone.” It does not depend on size or strength, and in fact, the component parts of “aikido” translate to “the path of harmony”.

“Target denial,” explains Cornelia. Aikidoka are trained with swords, sticks and wooden knives, but the main form is with body movement. The purpose is not to hurt people, although if an attacker has bad intentions, “you just put a little bit more swing into it”.

She cheerfully explains that within the dojo setting, she loves multiple attacks, where she can use one opponent as a shield against the other.

She and Martin founded the Aikido Nelson and Motueka dojo in the 1980s, with Cornelia taking more of a leadership role since Martin pulled back due to injury. Many hundreds of aikidoka – including their two sons – have trained within these facilities, and both dojo are still running today.

In Nelson, the Little Samurai classes, for children aged five to seven, are on Wednesdays from 4.15pm-5pm.

Juniors up to 14 train Wednesdays and Fridays from 5pm-6pm, and adults train on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 6pm-7.30pm.

In Motueka, adults 14 and over train Tuesdays and Thursdays 6.30pm-8pm.
For further information, visit www.aikidonewzealand.com.