Kia ora e te whanau. I was just sitting here and thought of something I heard from the last lot of Evidence presented at Kohukohu recently. A woman gave an example of how Tauiui cut right across our Tikanga time and time again.
The example she gave was: Her 6 year old daughter was crossing the road and a car came along, knocked her over and killed her. So that was a traumatic experience in itself. The accident happened on a Friday and when her whanau went to claim her daughter to be brought back to her marae for the tangi, she was told by the authorities that “Sorry, you can’t take your daughter homeright now, but you can have her on the Monday because we want to do a post-mortem to find out the cause of the accident! The mother and the rest of the whanau couldn’t get over that and pointed out in no uncertain terms to the authorities, isn’t it obvious that she was knocked over by a vehicle??? And why do we have to wait until Monday??? – oh, because the Coroner doesn’t work on a weekend!! So, the whanau back home at the marae had to wait those few days until the arrival of their daughter. OK, so the daughter was released and brought back to the marae where they had their tangi and carried out the necessary burial ceremony. A few days after the nehu, the authorities arrived at the parents’ home with a bottle which contained their daughter’s brain (!!!!!!!). They had taken her brain out for the post mortem to ascertain whether or not she may have had a seizure which could have caused her accident!!!
Well, the poor whanau had another tangi and another burial ceremony for the rest of her body. My whole point in this is, where do we draw the line whanau??? You know, It just reminds me of the old, old days, where our tupapaku were hung up in trees to disintegrate, the koiwi were then collected, put into a waka huia, brought to the marae, had the tangi, and then taken to the caves – for eternity. I know Auntie Rangi has told me that Manawaora was such a place at home here, she has pointed out the caves to me.Anyway, that’s my contribution for the day whanau after my 3rd Glass of Pinot Gris!!
Arohanui ki a kotou katoa.