Māori Tangihanga: How New Zealand Māori Mourn the Dead

Among the Māori, the Indigenous people of New Zealand, the tangihanga is the most significant of all gatherings. It is a time when the dead are honored, the grieving are held, and a community comes together. This article describes the public outline of the tangihanga, based on New Zealand’s national encyclopedia. Practices differ between tribes (iwi) and sub-tribes (hapū), and families make their own decisions.

What is a tangihanga?

The enduring Māori ceremony for mourning someone who has died. Te Ara, New Zealand’s government encyclopedia, says it is commonly called a tangi, a word that also means to weep and to sing a dirge, or lament for the dead. The dead play an important role in Māori life: they are acknowledged at all gatherings, whatever their purpose, through karanga (calls), whaikōrero (speeches), song, and tears. Te Ara notes that Māori discourage people from hiding their emotions, and describes tangihanga as an important healing process.

What happens during a tangi?

A tangi often takes three days and is held on a marae, the communal meeting ground. According to Te Ara, the body (the tūpāpaku) is usually prepared by an undertaker and displayed in an open coffin. The body is welcomed onto the marae with the whānau pani, the bereaved family, who play a particular role. Over the course of the tangi, visitors are welcomed on, and traditional speeches, songs, and chants are exchanged. Family, friends, and colleagues speak directly to the tūpāpaku, and the dirges and speeches are addressed to the dead as if the person were present and receiving the farewell. The Wikipedia-derived summary adds that from the moment of death the body is rarely left alone, and that the bereaved family may dress in black and wear wreaths of kawakawa leaves.

What happens at the burial?

Mourners accompany the body to the cemetery, called the urupā, and Christian ritual is usually followed before the body is placed in the grave, Te Ara reports. Cemeteries are very tapu, meaning sacred, and Te Ara notes that people wash their hands when leaving the urupā to remove the tapu. After the burial, there is a shared meal, known as te hākari. The tapu of the deceased person’s home may also be removed in a ritual called takahi whare, in which a minister or tohunga walks through the house chanting karakia (prayers).

What happens a year later?

The unveiling of the gravestone. Te Ara says that the traditional process of exhuming and reburying bones has been replaced by the ceremony of hura kōhatu, the unveiling of the gravestone, usually a year after the tangi.

Where does the spirit go?

Te Ara’s account of Māori customs says that in Māori tradition, when someone dies, their spirit leaves the body and travels to a sacred place at the northern tip of New Zealand.

How is the tradition changing?

Many Māori have moved to cities, far from their ancestral marae. Te Ara notes that when ties to an ancestral marae are not strong, the tangi can be held in a hall, a church, or a private home. Te Ara also says that technology and contact with Pākehā (European) culture have affected tangihanga, and that new generations separated from their cultural roots have had to find new ways to mourn. A Māori elder is quoted as warning that if the practices around the dead are forgotten, something essential about being Māori will be lost.

How can a visitor show respect?

Ask. If you are invited to a tangi, ask a family member or an elder what is expected, and follow the lead of your hosts. Te Ara notes that visitors are welcomed and fed, and that the ritual of welcome has a long history. For comparison with other customs, see Death Around the World and Ancestor Veneration Around the World.