I have grown up with relatives and friends that go to Tangi -(Funerals). However I did not understand the significants and the background of such rituals. With week 10s reading it gave me a in-look and also a outlook on rituals of death especially in a New Zealand context. Fascinating background and knowledge in the rituals of death from Sinclair on ‘Tangi funeral Rituals and Construction of Maori Identity‘. I did not no much about the history of New Zealand in context of European and Maori in first contact with each other and how Tangi is a symbolic element to distinguish the Maori from the Europeon. I thought it was just a tradtion from centuries ago.Tangi is a ancestral tradition and it is clear that the rituals that take place have value in Maori Como’s and carefully maintained through rites of passage.
“The modern tangi removes the Maori from a world grounded in European riles and places them in a context entirely Maori.”
In addition with this quote above, I never thought of a Tangi as entirely Maori identity ritual. My family is from the East Coast of the North Island – Ngati Porou . I have always heard of family going to unveiling’s and Tangi’s, but no one expressed the importance of these elements. I have just thought of it as something that we do, have involvement in and for me did do not quiet understand the importance. However you can feel and see the importance of these rituals when they take place. I think I did not understand the major impotance because I have a bit of Maori in me, people think that I did not need the knowledge of this ritual because it is part of everyday knowledge in the Maori community.
…..Some intresting questions are laid out for me and many to be answered.
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