Mati Faeteete's Flava radio competition win means Rarotonga trip to bury baby's placenta

Reporter, NZ Herald·NZ Herald·

28 May, 2021 01:17 AM2 mins to read

Rarotonga, Cook Islands. Photo: Getty Images

Mati Faaeteete's wish to follow Pasifika tradition and bury her baby's placenta in her hometown in Rarotonga will come true - thanks to a competition run by hip hop radio station Flava.

Faaeteete and her husband Junya, who are expecting a baby in the next couple of weeks, were today announced the winners of the station's first Air Flava completion. It drew almost 3000 entries, but it was the couple's poignant submission that stood out and won the hearts of Flava hosts Sol3 Mio.

In her submission, Faaeteete wrote: "My Dad who I haven't seen for two years now."

"I also have this urge to ground myself in the soil of my roots. I haven't been able to return home since 2019 and I can feel it taking a toll on my spirit."

Faaeteete has just started maternity leave and said when the time was right she would venture to the islands to centre herself within her roots.

The pair are expecting their second child and told Flava they buried their first child's placenta in Rarotonga as well.

"We know how important it is in our culture to have that grounding in the roots of where you come from," Flava host Moses Mackay said.

"We read [the submission] and it was really touching for us."

Burying the placenta is commonly an indigenous practice for people of Moana-nui-a-Kiwa (Pacific) including Māori.

The Māori kupu (word) for placenta is whenua, which is also the same kupu for land.

It reinforces the relationship between a newborn child and the land of their birth, or their home in which they can always be connected to.

For many, the placenta is buried in ancestral lands, where a person descends from. It has a deep cultural significance for those who practise it, like Mati.

The pair have won an all-expenses-paid trip sponsored by Air New Zealand's Grabaseat and The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium.