Kia Ora!
I've lived in the beautiful country of New Zealand for over 3 months now and thought I should write a post about the people of this land and the Maori culture that we are surrounded by in Tauranga.
One thing I've noticed about New Zealand is that the people really value the land. Amongst the Maori people, land is seen as something sacred, something that is honoured and has great value. In this post I will talk about two examples where this can be seen and how land plays a massive role in understand New Zealand's history and Maori culture.
1. Pōwhiri
> side note: the 'wh' in Maori is pronounced like an 'f' in 'far'. So Pōwhiri = Po-far-ree.
Within the first week of arriving in Tauranga we took part in a Pōwhiri. This is a ceremony that welcomes people into the land. It removes the tapu (restrictions) of the manuhiri (visitors) to make them one with the tangata whenua (hosts). The land we live on has a Maori cheif who was present at the ceremony. All the people who were welcoming us to the land sat on the right hand side. All of 'us' who were being welcomed entered the field where we were greeted by a warrior who was performing a battle dance. This included the classic sticking out of the tongue and displaying 'scary eyes'.
The warriors wife was calling us in Maori from behind. We were lead by mama who is from Fiji, she was calling out for us in her native tongue. Then the warrior left a fern leaf at our feet, the leader of our group walked forward to pick it up, making sure they didn't break eye contact from the warrior or turn his back to him. Then we were lead to the left side. The guys sat in front of the girls for 'protection'. Then the ceremony continued with speeches being made and gifts being given. After each speech we sang a song. These songs included the national anthem which is a prayer and a Maori worship song which we learnt in ten minutes. The lyrics to this song are: Kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui
Be strong, be steadfast, be willing
After the ceremony we all got up to do the hongi which is a traditional Maori greeting where people press their noses together. It's actually such a beautiful intimate greeting. The idea behind it is that you share the same breath as the person your greeting, so you become close like whānau ('far-no'=family). The Haka was also performed as a symbol of protection over us.
2. Waitangi Day
On the 6th of February every year, New Zealanders celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi with a national public holiday. This is a day where everyone gets a day off work (yay!), it is also a time of reflection for the controversy that surrounded the document and how this has affected the society New Zealand lives in today. Waitangi Day gets its name from the name of the treaty document.
But what is the treaty document?
Often described as New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi outlines the principles to which Maori chiefs and British officials made a political agreement to form a nation-state and establish a government. It was made and signed to deal with the quickly changing circumstances in New Zealand: Europeans were acquiring land from the Maori to establish commercial operations and the settling population was rapidly growing, bringing along uncontrolled crime and violence. The Treaty of Waitangi was first signed 6-February-1840 by representatives of the British Crown and more than 40 Maori chiefs. By September 1840, a further 500 Maori chiefs had signed copies of the treaty, which were sent around New Zealand.
Why is there controversy?
Because of the different understandings of the treaty, which was inaccurately translated from English to Maori, there has been much conflict over the treaty in terms of land possession. A lot of Maori people feel that the Treaty was used unfairly by British authorities to take sacred Maori land without the Maori fully understanding due to inaccurate translation. The pain and sorrow felt by the Maori people back then is still felt today generations later. Family lines are very important in Maori culture, the majority of Maori people can recall their ancestry many generations back.
Because of this, Waitangi Day among the Maori is full of emotions. The community where I live has very close and positive links with the Maori people which is a privilege as it means we play a part in healing relations between New Zealanders and the Maori. We spent the day reflecting on what the land means to the people who live on it and celebrating unity and healing which is slowly but surely happening.