Kawe Roes lights the fire at the first Te Kūiti Pā hautapu. PHOTO: AROHA WEHI-KING
A hautapu ceremony was held at Te Kūiti Pā for the first time, on June 23.
Commonly known as whāngai i te hautapu – or hautapu for short, the term means “to feed the stars with a sacred offering”.
Over 150 people attended; and trustee Aroha Wehi-King said some of them travelled from as far as Whangārei.
A huge team of helpers spent the night before at the pā, preparing.
“We turned up after work on the Thursday, which was around 3pm, and we didn’t go home actually.”
As well as sorting out the kai, Aroha had wanted to ensure that the event team – especially those in the front or amorangi space – knew their responsibilities and “were as prepared as they could be.”
Held in the pre-dawn in the pā carpark, where the Te Kūiti railway sheds had once stood, the ceremony’s centrepiece was a steaming pot of offerings.
“In the pot there was watercress, potato, kumara, pumpkin, mussels and chicken,” Aroha said.
“The different foods represented the stars we’re paying tribute to.
“[For example] Waitī was fresh waterways, so that was the watercress. Waitā, being salt waterways, was the mussels.
“And then Tupu-ā-nuku is things that grow from beneath or underground, so that was the potatoes and kumara.
Waipuna-ā-rangi is rain … a funny story is that I actually caught some rainwater. Ururangi represents the wind. That was the steam part of it.”
The wind had also been acknowledged by playing instruments.
When the idea of a hautapu was raised at the pā, Aroha had thought ‘Let’s do it’.
At first, the appeal was because of her passion for events. But once she understood it better, the kaupapa became more important.
First, it had to be “iwi specific; building quality kōrero or quality history.”
“The end goal is … for all different cultures to understand the Maniapoto specific Matariki.
“It’s new for us, this event. It’s fresh. It is important to us as Māori but then you’ve got to come down to a whole other level.
“To think, what does it look like in an iwi capacity? What does it look like in a personal capacity? What does it look like in a hapū capacity?
“I don’t have the answers yet”
Journalist and te reo teacher Kawe Roes supported the process.
Notably, the event was run by the young – who appreciated the chance
to keep kaumātua out of the harsh weather, Kawe said.
“The rangatahi up at Te Kūiti Pā had been given this opportunity to run the hautapu. It was the young ones and the adults doing the whole work [as opposed to kaumātua] this Matariki.
“A lot of our kaumatua had given the blessing for us to do it this way.”
Kawe connected with the younger pā trustees and other helpers.
“We spent a couple of weeks talking about what a hautapu was, what it meant for Maniapoto, and talking about how we could bring in other tribal members, so it didn’t become an exclusive thing just for Te Kuiti Pā.
“As Maniapoto, we come together at these times to celebrate something that is uniquely us.”
And it was really for the whole community.
“This is just another great kaupapa to bring our communities both Māori and Pākehā together.”
Kawe said everyone was welcome to take part in the remembrance aspect of the ceremony, by saying the name of lost family members in front of the communal fire, perhaps writing their names on a slip of paper. It was fine to do so in English.
“If you’re a Pākehā member of our community and you’ve lost some loved ones during the year [you] could come to the Matariki event and … call out the names of the ones who have passed.
“That might be a part of the healing process for them moving forward.”
A hautapu allowed rangatahi to learn about and watch the traditions, for when the time came that they were responsible for them.
“They need to be ready to take up this space … at some point, I’m going to get too old to do this stuff.”
It was also valuable exposure to spoken language.
“Especially in Māoridom, it’s all about whakarongo. If you can listen … you will pick up the tones of the reo [and] the ideas and some of the concepts that are going through the karakia.
“You may not understand it … but as you get older, and then look back, at least you’ve got something in your memory banks.”
Afterwards, organisers decided to create an “operational guide” on how to run a hautapu from a Maniapoto perspective – and explain for future generations the rationale for how things were done in 2023.
“Each generation is going to be different. That’s the beautiful thing about tikanga.
“It allows that space for people to change things up across the generational spaces.”
While the 2023 hautapu was the first at the pā, last year the ceremony was held near Centennial Park school.
