HE KARAKIA MŌ TE WHENUA
There are many ways you can acknowledge the whenua and set your intentions before you head out and gather pigments - karakia is one of those.
In June 2021, we commissioned Te Kahureremoa Taumata (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) to compose a karakia for Kauae Raro field trips.
She worked with her Timotimo collaborator Khali Phillips-Barbara (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Uepohatu) to develop a clear, open incantation that acknowledges ngā atua and our mahi on the whenua.
The two composers developed the following karakia for us to use:
Timotimo: Te Kahureremoa Taumata + Khali Phillips-Barbara
Manawa mai tēnei i Ahuone mai
Manawa mai tēnei i whenuatia
Manawa mai tēnei he kapunga oneone
Tēnei te mauri o Papatūānuku
o Tūparimaunga
o Parawhenuamea
o Ukurangi
E whakaata mai nei e…
Kokiri!
A loose translation:
I evoke, this, made of earth
I evoke, this, made into earth
I evoke, this, a handful of earth
This is the life force
Of Papatūānuku (Earth Mother)
Of Tūparimaunga (Mountains)
Of Parawhenuamea (Earthly Water)
Of Ukurangi (Clay)
Reflected unto me,
Go forth!.
We are so grateful to the composition skills of Te Kahureremoa and Khali, this karakia is exactly what we dreamed of, but we don’t quite have the skills to conjure ourselves. Te Kahureremoa and Khali have a great Spinoff article about them here, they feature on this episode of He Kakano ahau - check out their facebook page.
This commission was made possible with the support of Creative NZ through the Toi Ake Mātauranga Te Awe Kōtuku funding.
Listen to the karakia here.
This video was produced with support of Toi Ake Mātauranga Te Awe Kōtuku funding (2021-22). The music is used with permission from Samara Alofa.