Ngā Rauropi Whakaoranga

An account of the ceremonies associated with planting kūmara to ensure good crops, including the circumstances under which iit was subject to tapu. Associated karakia.

The men who were about to plant the ceremonial plot (māra tautāne) had to wear suitable garments. Coarsely woven garments such as the pueru (made of shredded harakeke strips) or the tarahau (made of strips of kiekie) were not worn, "otherwise the kūmara might run to underground stems, or throw small tubers from the trailing branches". Ornamental cloaks of dressed harakeke fibre (muka) such as the aronui, paepaeroa, puhoro, patea or mahiti (cape covered with white dog hair), were deemed suitable for planting a māra tautāne.

A sacred pole made of māpou (mapo sic. Myrsine australis ) was planted near to the first hillock of kūmara.

"When the star Whanui appeared the lifting of the crop would be begun. The matapaheru tohunga would go to the first hillock of the field, where the sacred pole had been fixed, having as his implement a piece of kokomuku [sic.,Hebe saliciifolia] not shaped with a tool, but simply broken off, and having also a string, not of flax, but of ‘toetoe mātā [ Carex spp.]." He used the string to bind the trailing shoots and harvested the kūmara from the hillocks with the kokomuka. Special karakia were recited during the process.

Written by Mohi Turei. Dictated by Pita Kapiti. Translated by Rev Bishop W. L. Williams.