Whānau at Haparangi A2: Nga uri o Rakera Ihaia no Tuhourangi-Ngati Wahiao, from left, Leonie Nicholls, Bella Moke, Linda Northcroft, and Mackenzie Moke beside the 5ha reservation which has areas set aside for natural burials. Haparangi maunga is in the background.
Whānau at Haparangi A2: Nga uri o Rakera Ihaia no Tuhourangi-Ngati Wahiao, from left, Leonie Nicholls, Bella Moke, Linda Northcroft, and Mackenzie Moke beside the 5ha reservation which has areas set aside for natural burials. Haparangi maunga is in the background.
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Me uaua e whai kaha ai tātou te hunga ora ki te wānanga i tēnei kaupapa, ka mate rānō te tangata, kua pōraruraru katoa ngā whakaaro ka ara ake te pātai, he aha ināianei ?
Koinā i ngākau whakapuke ai ahau ki tētehi pōhi i puta mai i te whārangi pukamata o Ngapuna Residents' i te tau ko hori e pā ana ki tētehi wānanga i tu ki Hurunga Te Rangi, ko te kaupapa ko te hemonga o te tangata. He pōhi nā Lynette Walmsley.
Ko te wānanga tētehi wāhanga o tana tohu kairangi e aro atu ana ki te hemonga o te tangata. Ka puta ahau ki te hui i te atatū o Mei me te tini tangata i tae atu, ara anō ētehi pīoi, whoi anō nā tēnei kaupapa ake tātou i whakakōtahi mai.
Kātahi te wānanga whakaharahara hoki ko tēnei mō te hemonga o te tangata.
Ehara kau ko te kauhau me ngā kōrero anake, engari i whai take ai ngā mōhiohio hai awhinatanga mō te hunga i tae atu. Kai te takiwā o te whitu tekau o ngā tau ahau, he tamaiti nō Te Whakarewarewa, kai te mōhio ahau ki te whare tapu o aitua. Kua hemo ōku mātua, toku hoa rangatira, taku taina, waihoki te rahi o ōku whānaunga o Te Whakarewarewa, nōku te pōhēhē nui e kore rawa e whai take ai tēnei wānanga ki ahau.
Ka puta mai tētehi rōia nō te Community Law Centre, me āna mōhiohio rangatira, ko te aronga o tana kauhau ki ngā tūmanako me ngā matapoporetanga o te tupapaku.
Kia mau i a tātou ki ōna hiahia whakamutunga. Tētehi atu kaupapa ko te mana nui o tētehi wīra me te whakatu 'whānau trust'. I whai wāhi ai Te Kooti Whenua Māori me te aronga ki te nama o te tangihanga he mea nā tētehi mātanga nama tēnei kaupapa i pīkau, whoi anō ka hia kē te tini o ngā puna mātauranga i taua rangi tonu.
Ko Allen Pukepuke, he mātanga tiaki tupapaku me tona pahi tiaki tupapaku nō Haven Falls tangihanga Funeral Home i Waitakere i Tamaki Mākaurau i tae mai ki te tuku mōhiohio. E whā ō rātou whare tupapaku kai te rori o Taupō tētehi i Rotorua he mea whakapūarengia i te kotahi tekau mā toru o Noema, kai wāhi kē atu ēra atu o ngā whare. I mea mai rātou, nā te mate korona me te mate urutā, kua whakahuri ngā tangihanga ināianei, kua kaha aro kē atu te iwi ki ngā hangarau o te ao hou, pēnei me te, 'live-streaming' e tae atu ai e poroporoaki ai rātou ki ngā mate.
Kai te mātoro hoki ōna poumahi ki ētehi atu momo wai tuku paru, tuku toto i te tupapaku, ko te wai ka mahia inaianei he toenga tāoke, pai kē me he wai Māori ake nei kai reira ō rātou whakaaro i tēnei wā.
Puta hoki mai ngā mema o te Karapu Waka-Pīraku ki te tuku kōrero ki te whakautu hoki i ngā pātai huhua, ka ako i ngā tangata ki te waihanga waka pīraku kia itiiiti ai te nama o te tangihanga.
Tū te ihiiihi o te rangatiratanga o ngā tini kaupapa i whakaritea e Lynette hai awhina hai poipoi i ngā tangata katoa kia kāua anō tātou e wehi ki tēnei kaupapa, ko te hemonga o te tangata.
Mātua ko tana hāpai i te kaupapa urupā tautaiao ki runga ki tōna ake whenua ki Haparangi. Whoi anō, ko te momo o āna pātai hoki e whai take ai taku hinengaro, anei ētehi: ■ Ka pēwhea nā ahau ka hinga ahau? ■ Kāre kau aku ake tamariki, mā wai ahau e manaaki, e tiaki ? ■ Ki whea ahau tanumia ai? Kai Ōhāki tōku matua tāne, kai Kauae tōku Māmā, kai Ngapuna toku hoa rangatira. ■ E pirangi ana ki a Māori tuturu anake taku tangihanga ? ■ E whakamomori tonu nei pea ahau i te matenga o taku tuakana i te Noema o te tau e rua mano kotahi tekau ma iwa me tana tama hoki, e kōrehurehu tonu ai taku ngākau e kore e tika taku mārama ki te nui o tēnei kaupapa?
I mua tonu i taku whakaputanga rangatira ki tēnei kaupapa, nō te rā nui o te Kūini ka ringihia māua ko taku taina a Watu e Roku tō māua tungane, kua mate tō mātou whakapakanga a Mahara. I hinga i tana mahi i Tauranga.
Ka kī mai ngā tangata, ka puta noa ia ki te momi, ka roa e ngaro ana, ka rokohanga atu e takoto ana, kua mate.
I whakaatungia ētehi wāhanga o tana tangihanga-ā-rorohiko i tō tātou tupuna a Wāhiao ki tana tamaiti ki a Rawiri Johnstone, e kore e taea e ia ki te hoki mai nā ngā tikanga o te māuiui nui o te ao.
Death comes to all of us but open discussion on the end of life is often left in the too-hard basket until the inevitable. And then wham, what do we do?
So I was intrigued when a post went out on the Ngapuna Residents' FB page last year for a wananga at Hurunga Te Rangi Marae on end of life. Lynette Walmsley had made the post.
The wananga was part of the research project for her PhD thesis on natural burial. I turned up that morning in May and there were about three dozen of us — and a number of people I had never seen before.
What evolved was the most comprehensive discussion about that taboo subject: Dying. But it was not just korero. It was helpful information and of benefit to everyone.
In my 70th year then and having been raised a pa kid and experienced the loss of parents, a partner, a sibling and a number of my Whaka whanau, I thought there wasn't much I could learn.
There was a lawyer from the Community Law Centre with helpful advice to ensure that once a person had died, their express wishes were carried out.
She spelled out the importance of making a will or setting up a whanau trust. A Maori Land Court officer outlined what services were available from them. They also have an extremely helpful website where application fees are clearly stated.
Funeral insurance was briefly covered by a financial advisor who said there were a variety of services available.
Funeral director Allen PukePuke and a team from Haven Falls Poutama tangihanga Funeral Home in Henderson, Auckland, were in attendance.
They currently have four funeral homes operating in the country including a Rotorua site in Old Taupo Road which opened on November 13. Since the Covid pandemic reached our shores and the rules on the size of gatherings, they have seen a major shift to livestreaming.
Members of their staff were also investigating the use of less toxic agents than current embalming fluids in preserving bodies for a tangihanga. Investigations include looking to te Ao Maori for information.
Coffin Club members were there to answer questions about their volunteer organisation that helps people build their own coffins or provides low-cost numbers.
The whole wananga was an eye-opener and the korero from Lynette about her commitment to natural burial on family whenua at Haparangi gave me some serious kaupapa to consider.
■What would I do when the time came? ■I have no biological children so who would care for me? ■If I am to be buried, where would it be? (My father is at Ohaki, my mother at Kauae and my partner with his whanau at Ngapuna.) ■Did I want a traditional tangihanga? ■Was I still too grief-stricken from the loss of my tuakana in November 2019 and her son 10 months later to consider this objectively?
Before I could begin to make reasoned decisions, at Queen's Birthday Weekend my sister Watu and I received calls from our distraght brother Roku that our potiki, Mahara, had been found dead at her workplace in Tauranga. She had gone for a smoke and her colleagues became worried when she failed to return.
Attempts by medical staff to revive her failed.
Parts of her tangihanga in our tupuna Wahiao were livestreamed so her son, Rawiri Johnstone, could participate. He teachs English in Japan and her ashes will be buried when Rawiri comes home.
I don't want to leave a huge footprint on Papatuanuku so I have told key people about what I want when I die. ■Wash me with water from my favourite bath, the Hirere. ■Wrap me in the fine linen sheets I bought for my shroud. ■Then wrap me in the blanket crocheted by my auntie Mary Royal decades ago. ■Make a kopaki for me from flax planted by our mother at our old place at Whaka. ■Bury me on top of Dad at Ohaki.
I have also told them that I will come back to haunt them if they ignore my wishes.
Concern for land behind drive for natural burial
A commitment to keeping Papatuanuku as free of toxic chemicals as possible, led the whānau of Haparangi A2 to create urupā tautaiao (natural burial areas) on their whenua at Horohoro.
The development of urupā tautaiao facilitates a return to Papatūānuku that is environmentally responsible and contributes positively to the wellness of the earth.
The urupā tautaiao concept involves the interment of tūpāpaku (corpse) in a natural state that allows their bodies to break down, leaving as little an environmental footprint as possible i.e ■ Chemical free body and waka i.e. tūpāpaku are not embalmed, natural wood and materials used i.e. simple coffins, shrouds, harakeke etc. ■ Shallow burial of a metre depth allows for anaerobic life to break down the body faster. Decomposition is cleaner and quicker and natural. ■ Trees are planted to the side of the body which will decompose and contribute to the circle of life truly becoming tangata whenua. ■ Only natural monuments or markers are used, which will blend into the whenua in time – zero pollution, no plastic flowers etc.
Lynette Walmsley (Tuhourangi-Ngati Wahiao, Hurunga Te Rangi, Tuwharetoa) a senior educator at Toi Ohomai, is concentrating on studies for her PhD from the Auckland University of Technology.
Hurunga Te Rangi Marae - Preparation for dying, death and burial wananga
The thesis focuses on preparing both whenua and whānau for natural burial. Wananga have been successfully held at Hurunga Te Rangi and Apumoana Marae with speakers sharing information about wills and powers of attorney, financial preparation for tangihanga and burial, Maori Land Court successions, the options at the Coffin club, weaving kopaki (harakeke) as well as funeral directors sharing information about the embalming, burial and cremation processes.
More intimate whānau wananga have also encompassed whakapapa, tikanga, karakia, waiata and purakau of Haparangi A2. While Lynette's whānau have already designated natural burial areas she says Rotorua is not far behind.
The Rotorua Lakes Council District Plan has one marked down for Tarukenga, behind Lake View Golf Club.
Her mahi has led her to Te Atawhai Aroha: Compassionate Communities Rotorua, who are in the throes of becoming a charitable trust.
Te Atawhai Aroha's vision is for a world where every person, whānau and community has the capacity and knowledge to uphold the mana of people who are losing their independence, dying or grieving.
One of Te Atawhai Aroha's main driving forces is Sarah Dewes who is passionate about progressing the conversations we have about death and dying in Rotorua and Aotearoa, so we can better support each other at the end of life.
But to do that Te Atawhai Aroha needs funding to establish a base and become a legal entity.
Te Atawhai Aroha has many admirable goals which are; To be of service, and to collaborate with others who provide services e.g. community groups, DHB, rest homes and hospice, local NGO's and government agencies To train Ngā Pou Herenga (Funeral Guides) To provide options for choice, information and education by: Facilitating workshops and seminars Running wānanga at marae - making kopaki, harakeke paper Offering a dedicated Helpline
To provide resources and equipment to support whānau before, during and after death and burials: ■ Atamira Matao (cooling platform) ■ Manaaki mats ■ Transportation (gurney) ■ Develop a website to inform and signpost To uphold the mana of whānau and whenua by: ■ Educating about natural burial processes ■ Advocating for natural burial areas ■ Working together with the national network advocating for people's right to choose.
