KEY POINTS:
The waiata in the East Coast library rises to a crescendo and, inside, the woman on the table sits up, looking simultaneously dazed and elated. Her lips and chin are glistening with salve to soothe the freshly applied ebony moko kauae underneath. Her eyes are streaming with tears.
It is Arihia Matahiki's 57th birthday and she has accepted a gift steeped in generations of tradition. Her daughters two years ago took the moko kauae (chin and lip tattoo) and on Friday she joined them.
"It is my way of standing tall beside my daughters, supporting them by taking something so dear to us in Maori tradition," says Matahiki (Ngati Porou, Te Aitanga a Hauiti), a Gisborne-based teacher of te reo Maori.
"The treasures of language and of moko have been left for us. It is our to duty to use them in a responsible manner." Matahiki's daughters were there to witness the moko kauae applied, as were her 10 grandchildren.
But it was a wider whanau affair than that. At the moko kauae wananga, held at Tolaga Bay Area School's library on Friday and Saturday, a dozen women had prepared themselves to accept one of the more potent symbols of Maori womanhood.
On hand to give it to them were ta moko tohunga Derek Lardelli and Mark Kopua. And to support them with prayers and song were friends, family and a travelling Tainui support crew.
With a marae just up the road, the library seems an incongruous location for the revival of an ancient tradition.
But says Wayne Ngata, representative of Tolaga Bay iwi Te Aitanga a Hauiti, it is perfect. "We wanted it to be accessible to the kids," he said. "This is their space and these are their traditions."
Aside from the gravity of the work being done, the support, song and passing parade of children gives the occasion a festive air.
For each individual woman, the taking of moko kauae is a statement etched in the most public of places, their faces. For their whanau, many of the designs will bring to life designs depicting generations of whakapapa. And for Maori, it represents a further reclamation of the art of moko, specifically moko kauae.
Like most occasions, this one has a history - although, as histories go, it is a relatively short one. Just a month ago, 20 Tairawhiti women bearing the moko kauae travelled to Tainui marae Turangawaewae, at Ngaruawahia - the heart of the Kingitanga, the Maori King movement.
There, they set up in support of 16 Tainui women who had opted to take the moko kauae as a living tribute to the late Maori queen, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, and to mark the ascendance of her son, King Tuheitia.
Further cementing the Tairawhiti link, the work was carried out in part by Mr Kopua of Te Aitanga a Hauiti.
"After the Tainui women received their moko kauae, they were invited to come to Tairawhiti, to Hauiti," said spokeswoman Glenis Philip-Barbara. "There they could see where this gift they have received had come from and, in doing so, support the Tairawhiti women who were to receive their moko kauae."
The groundwork had already been done - each woman discussing with the artists and whanau the reasons behind her decision to take the moko kauae and the designs she wished to carry upon her lips and chin.
And last week, the Tainui women arrived, ready to play their roles in the weekend wananga.
"We hadn't seen them since they first received their moko kauae and they are looking stunning," Ms Philip-Barbara said. "They are here to support Tairawhiti women. In te ao Maori, this is how relationships are forged ... through the gifting of taonga."
As a bearer of moko kauae herself, Ms Philip-Barbara (Ngati Rangi) says she has "an obligation to support this kaupapa in its broadest sense".
The Tairawhiti Polytechnic's manager of Maori studies and social sciences had her moko kauae done a year ago by Mr Lardelli. "We hadn't had one in our family for some time and I didn't want my children to have to refer to books to find moko kauae,' she said. "It is a taonga, a living taonga."
Meanwhile, with Mr Kopua having completed Arihia Matahiki's chin moko and his student, Joni Brooking, having finished blackening her lips, it is the turn for another woman. .
At 28, Jojo Rangihaeata (Ngati Konohi/Ngati Ruanui) may be considered young to be taking the moko but the artists believe she has earned it.
She teaches at a kura kaupapa and is acknowledged as an anchoring performer with champion kapa haka team Whangara Mai Tawhiti.
Purple pen marks on her chin illustrate the design she is to receive, based on the Waiomoko River that runs through her home ground at Whangara.
She lies on the table, Lardelli looming above her. Half a dozen women lay their hands upon her in support as she prepares to undergo a process that will take close to three hours.
As the work begins, her breathing deepens but her facial muscles do not flinch. And the song begins once more.
ART FROM THE UNDERWORLD
According to Maori, the origins of ta moko lie in the ancient story of Niwareka and her husband Mataora, who lived at a time when the art of chiselling the skin was not known and designs were painted on the body.
One day, Mataora mistreated Niwareka who fled to her father's people in Rarohenga, the underworld. Mataora pursued his wife, wanting to persuade her to return.
But when he reached Rarohenga, the designs painted on his face were smeared with sweat from his exertion. Seeing his appearance, his wife's people laughed at him - their faces were marked with permanent incisions.
Ashamed, Mataora begged his wife's forgiveness and asked his father-in-law to teach him the art of ta moko. Niwareka forgave her husband and returned with him to the world above, taking with her the art of taniko, an intricate form of weaving. Mataora brought with him the knowledge of moko.
By the early 20th century, the art had almost disappeared but towards the end of the century there was a revitalisation of the practice that continues to this day.
* Source: Te Papa Tongarewa: The Museum of New Zealand and Te Uhi a Mataora, a collective of ta moko artists formed to preserve, enhance, and develop ta moko as a living art form.
- NZPA
