KOE KOE Ā
Maihi Barber (Ngāpuhi) welcomes manuhiri at a pōwhiri at Te Āwhina marae.
F
rancis Tīpene, one of the funeral directors on the New Zealand television series ‘The Casketeers’ was in a recent interview on
Radio New Zealand to discuss his new book, Life as a Casketeer. He said that most Māori families in Aotearoa, in fact perhaps as many as 99 per cent, prefer an open casket for the tangihanga of their loved ones. This came as a surprise to interviewer Kim Hill, who had led into this conversation by sharing her own fact, that perhaps as few as 5 per cent of
Stepping into te ao Māori KER EN SA JOHN STON
families choose an open casket when organising the funeral of a family member. That statistic was given,
At Waitangi this year, there was an acknowledgement
as so many statistics are in the New Zealand media,
of this, with politicians and commentators saying
as though it holds true for all New Zealanders – as if
that for too long Māori have had to step into the
the majority sets the bar for the rest of us.
Pākehā world. We’ve had no choice about this
As I listened to the interview and nodded in agreement at what Francis and his wife Kaiora
on every aspect of our lives. We understand the
talked about – everything from the importance of
rules of engagement, the values and principles that
tikanga in the tangihanga process to the value of
underpin te ao Pākehā because it has been part of
including children in our rituals and the grieving
us for so long. The call at Waitangi this year was
process – it struck me that those of us who live and
that it is time for Pākehā to learn about te ao Māori,
work in the Māori world tend to take this knowledge
the Māori world.
for granted. Yet, many Pākehā in our country have
16
because of the pervasive impact of colonisation
When I was growing up in the 1980s and
little, if any, knowledge about our tikanga, our
1990s, most of the Pākehā I came across, outside
beliefs and practices; in essence, they have no idea
of my immediate family, had no interest in or
who we are or why we do the things we do.
understanding of te ao Māori. If something was
