A Day in the Life - November 14

One of the things OAT is known for is their “Day in the Life” programming. On every trip there will be a chance to take a “shallow dive” into a local culture. I said “shallow dive” because it would be extremely presumptuous to call this a deep dive, but I think it’s fair to call it a dive rather than a scratch on the surface.

Today’s program is A Day in the Life of a Ngati Manawa Community. We will visit the Ngati Manawa, a Maori tribe. They are a landlocked tribe, which is unusual in New Zealand. 

As we reached the border of the Maori community, we were met by our local guide, Kelly. Kelly has the traditional Maori full facial tattoos. The tattoos show his genealogy. Kelly shared with us why he got the tattoos and the process of visiting with a tattoo artist who specializes in researching the genealogy and using the appropriate symbols in the design. It made Kelly look dangerous and intimidating, and that may have been part of the purpose of the custom, but after spending a little time with Kelly, I began to see that he was a gentle and welcoming person. 

This leads to two initial observations about Maori culture. As I said, genealogy is very important. Where do you come from? Who is your family? Who is your iwi (tribe)? Second, the idea of welcoming strangers is very important and has become ritualized in Maori culture. But the hospitality is real, it is warm, and very wonderful.

Kelly greeted us with a pepeha, a formal introduction of himself, which is chanted. He also said a karakia, a welcoming prayer.

Here I am going to interject that most of the Maori are Christian (the missionaries!), but they seem to have woven their traditional beliefs into Christian beliefs so they have something that is more or less compatible with both. Just my opinion.

With Kelly onboard our bus, we drove around Murupara a bit. It appears to be a small town, not very much going on, not thriving. Mostly very modest homes, many of them needing work. Not much to do here, not much in the way of a grocery store. The town is surrounded by farms (dairy and beef) and forests (logging). Many jobs in the logging industry have disappeared, due to mechanization. The church here is Jehovah’s Witnesses. 

In addition to the mainstream school, there was a Maori immersion school.

Maori immersion school

Typical street in Murupara

A nearly empty strip mall

We continued, driving to a marae in the town of Murupara. The marae is similar to a community center in function. It is also similar to the fale we have seen in other parts of Polynesia. Have you figured out yet that I was an anthropology major? 

At the marae we were greeted by a female elder first, as is traditional, and then some male elders also greeted us, in a formulaic greeting ceremony similar to the welcome that Kelly had given us, with chanting and singing. 

We waited outside the gate until we had been invited in.
You can see the elder waiting for us on the left side of the photo.

The beautiful ceiling

While we were on the bus earlier, Gavin and Kelly taught us a song to sing in Maori to the elders to thank them for welcoming us into their community. We sang the song at this point. Here is a YouTube version of the song: Te Aroha. The words are:

Te Aroha

Te Whakapono

Me te rangimarie

Ta tou, ta tou e

Note: WH is pronounced like PH or F

The words mean: Love, Hope, Peace, For us all.

At the end, we were all asked to participate in a nose touching ceremony - just two light taps, per person. It’s hard to be an enemy after that!

After the greeting, we took our shoes off and went inside the marae. One of the male elders told a story about the creation of the world. Much of it sounded like it came from Genesis, but it also included the Maori gods who were there at the beginning of the world. Then, as the final step in this tradition, we went next door to the dining hall for tea and “biscuits” (cookies to us).

Once you have been welcomed to a marae by participating in this ceremony, you can come back any time. You don’t need to be invited and you don’t need to repeat the ceremony. Maori hospitality!

Our next stop was Kohutapu Lodge, where we would share a hangi meal with a Maori family.

The view from the hangi pit

In this type of cuisine, food is cooked underground for several hours while buried with red hot stones.We watched the end of the process, as the food was dug up. Then we were served a hearty lunch of chicken, pork, cooked pumpkin, salads, and fried bread.

There are three tiers of baskets in the pit

After lunch we learned about the haka (war dance). Here are the words to the “Ka Mate,” a famous haka, but only one of many. 

Here is a literal translation and an alternate interpretation.

Watch this YouTube of the All Blacks performing the haka if you never seen it before. It is very impressive. You can probably find better versions than this if you look on Google. Ka Mate Haka

Back in Rotorua, we had a lot to think about. For dinner, we went to an area called Eat Street where there are a number of restaurants. It was busy and we would have had more choices if had made a reservation in advance - a tip for anyone who might go to Rotorua.

Today’s fabric is Poraka Stripe, from New Zealand Fabric and Yarn.