When ‘home’ is away from home, what does it take to stay connected to your culture? How do you do so respectfully with the people of the land?
With 170,000 Māori now calling Australia home, Marae’s Te Rauhiringa Brown crossed the ditch to Melbourne where, for the first time, Māori gathered for a communal hautapu ceremony to find out.
Watch part one of this two-part report on TVNZ+.
Hundreds of people turned out to welcome in the Māori new year at the first public hautapu held in Melbourne. They paid homage to Matariki while remembering loved ones, reflected on the past year, and set intentions for the future.
Participating in cultural rituals and practices is a way for Māori living abroad to stay connected to Aotearoa.
One young woman said it was her first hautapu: “I started crying. Oh man, the feeling is… it’s nothing. You can’t describe it.”
Another woman said it was fortunate the local Aboriginal people allowed for the ceremony to take place on their land, while another noted the turnout included several non-indigenous in the crowd.
Doug Petley has lived in Australia for eight years. He helped to lead the hautapu ceremony and was overwhelmed by the turnout from the local community. He said he got goosebumps and was intimidated by the crowd but reminded himself of the advice given to him by those who taught him the tikanga behind holding a hautapu ceremony.
“Tukuna te mātauranga kia rere, tukuna. Whakatōria te mātauranga ki roto ki te whatumanawa o te tangata e hiakai ana.”
(Release the knowledge, let it go. Instil it in those hungry for it.)
Kaikarakia Gussy Paikea said she could feel the wairua of those attending and that brought her to tears.
“It was something special for our hapori and something we can continue, so we just built a tuāpapa, you know? And someone, anyone, is able to take it onboard now.”
Some of those who led the karakia for the ceremony are second, even third, generation Australian-born, said Petley.
“Ko tēnei tō rātou kāinga, nō reira i toko ake te whakaaro, ‘hei ahea tēnei hunga hoki ai ki te kāinga?’ Well, ko te kāinga tēnei.”
(This is their home, and often people ask, ‘when will they return home?’ Well, this is it.)
Among those is Kaycee Merito, born and raised in Australia but with whakapapa Māori. She said many whānau are too scared to go back to Aotearoa because they’re too “whakamā” (self-conscious).
She said she’s been questioned over why she would do “Māori stuff” when she’s living in Australia.
“Then going back home it’s like, oh well, you finally feel like you’re home. But it doesn’t feel like home because you don’t feel as connected.”
But it’s about getting comfortable in these spaces, she said.
“Come to kapa haka, come to mau rākau, come join reo, do raranga. Whatever it is, like, find your niche here and then that’s like your first step for you to build the confidence to go back home.”
Events, wānanga and workshops have been held in the community for Māori who are interested in learning or reconnecting with different cultural aspects of te ao Māori. For example, cultural advisor Mataia Keepa flew in for wānanga ahead of the Matariki event to guide them through the discussions and learning.
“Kāore anō au i rongo i te patunga mai o te noho tawhiti pērā, me te ngana kia tairanga tonu ai i au taku ao Māori, taku Māoritanga,” Keepa said.
(I haven’t experienced living far from home and having to make the effort to stay connected to my Māoritanga.)
“Nō reira ka mihi ki a rātou i toro mai ki ahau kia whai wāhi ai ahau ki a rātou, e tika ai te panoni whakamua te waka hautapu kohukohu whetū.”
(So, I appreciate them reaching out and including me in what they are doing, to ensure the hautapu ceremony is conducted faithfully.)
For Merito, participating in the ceremony was special and felt “comfortable”.
“Yes, I was born and raised here. Yes, we’re on a different whenua, but also this has been a home for me my whole life, so it only feels right to have my first proper hautapu kei konei (here).
“And having our indigenous brother, Uncle Mark, having him start it off and kind of set the tone.”
Respecting the people of the land
Uncle Mark Brown is a respected Aboriginal elder of the Bunurong people. He welcomed the hautapu on to his land with a traditional smoking ceremony, weaving the two – Aboriginal and Māori – cultures together.
“By cleansing the space and cleansing the people before you guys do your thing, brings us all together, brings our ancestors all together in the Dreaming.
“So when we welcome people to country, when we do our ceremonies, our smokings and things like that, we’re actually inviting people to join us, come join our family.”
Not all non-Indigenous people share the same sentiment. On Anzac Day, a small group of people booed Uncle Mark during the welcome to country ceremony at Melbourne’s dawn service.
“At the time it was a very, very lonely moment. It was one of the loneliest moments in my life,” he said.
“I stood there alone. You know, I was there for Anzac. We had Anzac there, we had our Australian, New Zealand brothers and sisters standing right in front of me, off to the sides and everything like that.”
Despite the disruption, he said he was shown the “biggest show of support you could possibly imagine” from New Zealanders, including parliamentary representatives who reached out to him personally.
“Ko tērā hononga kua roa nei mātou e ngana ana ki te whakarauora, ki te whakakaha, ki te whakatangata,” said Petley.
(That connection is something we’ve long been working to revive, strengthen and normalise.)
The relationship between Māori and the likes of Uncle Mark meant cultural practices including the hautapu could go ahead with permission and mutual respect.
“I hono te Māori o Aotearoa ki te Māori o Te Whenua Moemoeā – inā hoki rā te ātaahuatanga o te anga whakamuatanga o te ao taketake.”
(Indigenous people of Aotearoa connect with the Indigenous people of Te Whenua Moemoeā – indeed, that’s the beauty of an indigenous world moving forward together.)
A home away from home
The traditional Aboriginal name for Melbourne is Naarm, and Māori living there have adopted and transliterated it to Nārama in te reo.
Paikea said there’s a strong desire from the Māori community for anything to do with te ao Māori, so those with the experiences try to share their knowledge.
“Growing up in kōhanga reo, in kura kaupapa, even reo rua (bilingual), we were fortunate enough to be, you know, in ‘wānanga-mode’, in te ao Māori.
“So just feeding that to our hapori as well and building that fire, te ahi ki roto i a rātou (the fire within), so, you know, kia arohatia tō tātou ao Māori (to cherish our Māori world).”
This is their home now, said Petley, so they are bringing te ao Māori to the people.
“Ka mōhio mai ko ngā tamariki, ka mōhio mai ko ngā mātua, ko ngā pakeke, ngā kaumātua, ahakoa kei tawhiti tātou e noho ana, kei konei tātou e mau tonu ana ki nga tikanga.”
(Our children, our parents, the adults and the elderly will know that even though we live afar [from Aotearoa], we still maintain our tikanga.)
For part two of this report following Māori living in Australia, watch Marae on TVNZ1 on Sunday at 10:30am or on TVNZ+.
Glossary
hautapu – a ‘feeding the stars’ ceremony held to welcome the Māori new year,
Matariki – the Pleiades (star cluster)
tikanga – customs and protocols
kaikarakia – person who leads Māori incantations or prayers
hapori – community
tuāpapa – foundation
whakapapa Māori – Māori genealogy
whakamā – self-conscious, embarrassed, ashamed
mau rākau – Māori weaponry
reo – language (classes, in this context)
raranga – weaving, artform
wānanga – forum, seminar; to meet and discuss
te ao Māori – the Māori world, Māori culture as a whole
whenua – land
kei konei – here
Te Whenua Moemoeā – ‘The Land of Dreams/The Dreaming Land’, Australia
Nārama – Naarm, the traditional Aboriginal name for Melbourne
kōhanga reo – Māori-immersion preschool
kura kaupapa (Māori) – Māori-immersion primary school
reo rua – bilingual
