Rangiwewehi
The Other side
Rangiwewehi wairua rises through the wharenui carvings to speak through the paepae on great occasions.
Our protocols and customs steem back in time to Te Arawa settlements inland from Maketu.
A vow
If you are not Rangiwewehi you will never find us.
An echoing chant from the other side by the women stolen from Mokoia Island after the seige during the early 1800s.
Women captured were taken to the north by an infamous warring tribe.
Afterlife
Those taken lamented to the earth of Mokoia Island they would one day return and take their place with the families left behind.
My grandfather and his father were amongst many from Rangiwewehi who came from arranged marriages with specific tribal wives from the north to help bring that vow to fruition.
Past Present and Future exist at one time
Overlooking Mokoia Island Rangiwewehi sleep their eternal sleep. They are awakened from the spirit world by our incatations customs and rituals.
Beneath our lands the old whenua of our Pa stirs.
Death awakens the urupa with the karanga of old chants passed forward by those on the other side.
Death is part of life
Rangiwewehi wairua and mana open for their hapu and iwi during the time of death the most sacred of rituals.
It brings the old past into the present with whakapapa and waiata to karanga the final journey of those who return to Hawaiikinui.
The sound of familiar bloodlines and memories weave humble passage through Hawaiikinui to open the eye of Rangiwewehi.
Opening the door
A gate of truth opens from spirit doorways on the other side entering carved totems and family photos present. They awaken to watch and influence proceedings.
The wharenui photos of the dead are displayed in whakapapa order alongside carved ancestors setting out boundaries for spirits awakened by the occasion.
The old practises of tangihana make way for new. Families distanced from the whenua commemorate by returning a photo back to the land of birth.
The four winds
The karanga of great women call up the winds of Tawhirimatea to witness the tangihana.
The god of weather sends sorrow in the form of rain and lightening at the loss of great spirits to the tribe.
Returning home like the wind allows us to reconnect our wairua with the land and awa of our birth.
Bathing in the Rangiwewehi awa is a natural step for our families today as we celebrate life away from the pakeha world.
