As the sun disappeared to the west of Ruapehu on Thursday evening, scores of Ngāti Rangi whānau gathered at the edge of the mountain to call out the names of loved ones who had died over the past year.
The emotional ceremony at Tūroa skifield marked the revival of Hautuku as the central North Island iwi reinstated the traditional ceremony Te Maru o te Tau.
The ancient seasonal ritual had not been formally observed for some time.
Thursday’s ceremony unfolded beneath cloudy skies as the light faded across the maunga, with karakia, remembrance and ritual combining to mark both an ending and a beginning, farewelling those who had passed while preparing the living for the new year ahead.
The sunset gathering was part of a wider effort by Ngāti Rangi to restore five ancestral ritenga (seasonal rituals) connected to the Māori lunar calendar, the environment and the changing seasons.
“This is a kaupapa that’s just been revived – this will be the first time that we’ve done Te Maru o te Tau,” kaikarakia (prayer leader) Neha Kaire said.
“The Hautuku is the fifth ritenga (ritual) of five seasonal ritenga throughout the year.
“It acknowledges our mate that have passed over the last year.”
Kaire said the revival aimed to help whānau reconnect with te taiao and the natural rhythms of the environment.
Held during the full moon phase of the final lunar month of the year, Te Maru o te Tau signals the beginning of Pō Roa o Takurua – the long nights of winter – and the start of winter wānanga.
According to Ngāti Rangi narratives, Hautuku helps guide the spirits of the recently deceased on their journey to Te Whata nā Maru, a platform in the western sky, and into te pō, where they later become stars during Te Tahi o te Tau, a pre-dawn Hautapu ceremony associated with the Māori new year.
As flames flickered against the darkening mountain, participants were invited to release unwanted energy by placing a rau (frond) into the fire, symbolically clearing themselves to enter the new year afresh.
The ritenga began with karakia acknowledging Ruapehu before whānau stepped forward one by one to take part in the ritual.
Kaire said the revival represented an important cultural reconnection for Ngāti Rangi.
“Now that we’ve identified the five ritenga, we’re putting them back in order. For us, that’s big. It’s really big in terms of remembering to remember the ceremonies our tūpuna used to observe.
“And it’s awesome that we’re getting to do this in the afternoon, at the time when our tūpuna would have done it,” Kaire said.
For many years, Ngāti Rangi has held maunga karakia at dawn at the summit of Ruapehu to mark the opening of the mountain’s winter season.
But this year’s Hautuku ceremony represented a return to older practices that had gradually fallen out of formal observance.
Helen Leahy, pou ārahi/chief executive of Ngā Waihua o Paerangi, said the iwi’s five traditional seasonal rituals had, in recent years, been amalgamated and observed together.
However, following last year’s national Matariki mā Puanga broadcast from Tirorangi Marae at Karioi, Ngāti Rangi began restoring all five ceremonies to their traditional sequence.
“Some of these ritenga will be revived over time and we will take slow, deliberate steps,” Leahy said.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
