Death of the Maori Queen

Hi all

What an interesting week!

Queen Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu died last week and the Maori community began a week-long period of mourning.

It doesn't seem like 5 minutes since people were celebrating her 40 years anniversary of being Queen.

Well - I've learned a lot:

Dame Te Ata's eldest son, Tuheitia Paki, was invested as the seventh leader of the Maori King Movement.

The King Movement was established in the late 1850s by Maori in the Waikato region in response to land losses to European settlers and to negotiate with the then colonial government.

The funeral itself was very impressive - from the coffin being rowed up the river in a waka (long wooden boat), to the carrying of the coffin up the hillside (most important members are buried higher up the hill), ending with the hakka as the coffin approached its final resting place.

There were representatives from the Pacific Islands present at the funeral too - Tonga, Hawaaii, Samoa, French Polynesia, Cook Islands - to name but a few. A beautiful tapa cloth was given by either Tonga or Samoa (sorry I forget which).

Tapa is made of the bark of the mulberry tree.

The bark is stripped off and pounded flat in such a way that it spreads into a cloth.

The tapa cloth is died and bleached by the sun and the strips are pasted together with an arrowroot paste.

In the Samoan tapa, the brown dye is made of clay which is dried, powdered and mixed with sap. The black dye is made of the shoots of a coconut tree. A lot of shoots are needed to make the dye...

The cloth is usually made into square or oblong shapes. The designs are created by placing the cloth over a carved wooden block, called 'upeti', the block is carved with the design, and the design is created on the tapa cloth by rubbing the dyes.




I have recently bought some the these lovely cloths from the market in Otara - they're really impressive and it's hard to believe they're made from bark! Daughter is taking some back to the UK for pressies. However, they're not as big as the one above!

There have been some amazing photos taken of the funeral. Here are a few from the BBC:

Her coffin being taken down the Waikato river to the traditional burial site, on the summit of Taupiri mountain.

This is my favourite photo - As the boats approached the mountain, Maori warriors wearing traditional clothing watched from the shoreline.

Well - life is still manic here in our manic little house:

• I've heard from my case officer that our PR has been approved in principal
• daugher goes back to the UK tomorrow via HK (sob - but she'll be back for Christmas)
• Kev has already gone to HK (for a short break to see his family last seen by him 4 years ago) and will be at the airport to meet her when she arrives
• we're still looking for somewhere to live (have to be out of rental by 30th Nov)
• the weather is getting lovely and warm again (whoopdedoo)
• son is headed for his 18th birthday (bought him some lovely shirts today - looks very trendy and grown up)
• we've had family portraits taken (they're fab and the one we finally choose to go on the wall in our new house will be either sepia or black and white)

Well - rather a serious and sombre one this week - but will be back to my old self next week with my various witterings!

Take care.

x Sue