the Marae

Today I had the privilege of being invite to a morning at the marae.  The marae is a Maori meeting house.  It is a place where the Maori culture can be celebrated, the language spoken, inter tribal obligations met and family occasions such as weddings and funerals can be held.  You can not enter the marae without an invitation.  There are 33 marae in the Wairoa area.  The Maori attend a marae based on family history rather than geography.  A nurse from Chad's office invited me to attend a Sr. citizens meeting with her.  We drove a little out of town and arrived at the marae.  People were arriving and greeting one another with a hongi.  The hongi is the traditional Maori greeting.  Men touch foreheads and noses while women touch cheeks and kiss.  This is only done on one side unlike the french kiss on each cheek.  As we were milling around kissing one another a man called out in Maori  song from inside the fence.  He was answered by a woman outside the gate with another song.  A short time back and forth in song and we were invited into the marae.  We entered under a carved arch.  The center of the carving was a mask representing the original chief of the marae.  The carvings on each side represent different families of importance.  It was painted red and white.  We went in and sat on benches along the outside fence.  The men sat on the front bench with the women seated behind.  The formal part began with a welcome and a song.  Then the Catholic priest from Wairoa spoke.  Another song and then a man got up and spoke.  This man gave the recent birth, death and wedding announcements as well as other happenings going on in the area.  All of this was done in Maori so later the women explained what had been said to me.  This all took about 45 min.  My favorite part was the singing.  Some songs were just sung by the 5 men and women in front and some were joined by everyone else.  The singing was accapella and the blending of voices was beautiful.  There was a festivity to their singing.  The songs were folk songs telling of the history of the Maori people.  So after the welcome, announcements, message and singing we were now allowed to go into the meeting hall.  On the way in we went through a reception line of the leaders and had to do hongi with them.  The meeting hall had another more elaborately carved entrance.  The marae we were at was very unique because of the fact that it was a Christian marae.   The Catholic church started and runs this marae.  The carvings to the hall then told the story of the beginning of this marae.  The eagle at the top is the New Zealand eagle (now extinct)  with its wings spread over the entrance representing God.  The gold paint throughout also is a reference to God.  On the right are a Catholic Priest and Nun who came to evangelize New Zealand.  On the left are traditional Maori carvings with references to Christianity in them.  The rib carvings on the ceiling are representative of the ribs of a whale.  The hall was set up with tables to eat at.  The food was rather continuous throughout the morning.  There were scones with lots of butter on them, grilled cheese and onion sandwiches, more sandwiches, split pea soup and pumpkin soup, cookies and tea to drink.  Being a Sr. citizens meeting, blood pressure was taken, a health talk given and we had a  session of stretching.  Conversation was lively wandering to different topics including health ailments and the electric scooter several women were  considering buying to help with getting around!  We did an interesting small group exercise brainstorming on how to save energy and save on groceries due to the rising cost in each.  As women were saying things like "cook a meal on the wood burning stove"  or "use a hot water bottle in bed instead of using the electric blanket" or "grow, shoot and home make" your food, I was thinking "All I want to do is keep the fire going for one whole day without it going out so I can stay warm!"  I really enjoyed my time with these women as they shared their cultural heritage with me.  They have invited me to come again next month, so I am looking forward to getting to know them better.

No worries - Kris