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Whāngai te Hautapu - Whāngai te Hautapu

"Feed the stars, fill your cup." Hautapu is a traditional ceremony about making an offering to the Matariki star cluster.

People gathered around a fire outside

Resources

Learn more by watching Dr Rangi Matamua's (Matariki tangata rongonui / Advisory Committee) video about Whāngai te Hautapu:

Dr Rangi Matamua talks about Whāngai te Hautapu

Some key takeaways from the video:

  • This is a ceremony where a "food source is fed to a god" — through an offering up to stars you connect back into the environment
  • Nowadays for a simple whānau ceremony, food may be cooked inside
  • Traditionally the food would be gathered from the environment within the kaupapa of four stars, cooked and then opened to allow the steam to rise up to feed the stars. This is known as Umu Kohukohu Whetū The four stars are:
    • Waitī
    • Waitā
    • Tupuanuku
    • Tupuarangi

Watch this video from TVNZ's Re: News about a whānau holding a Hautapu ceremony for Matariki for the first time:

Have a listen as well to Episode 150 of Taringa, "Matariki 2020 - Revitalisation and Hautapu at home".

The first part of this talks about Matariki revitalisation, and the second half (partway through) looks at how the umu kohukohu whetū used to be conducted in a traditional way, and Paraone Gloyne gives examples of how anyone can do their own hautapu ceremony using what you have at home.

Make sure to also check out the downloadable Matariki handbook with karakia you can use for your own ceremony.

Simon Day from The Spinoff attended Dr Rangi Mātāmua's talk at Te Tākinga marae in Rotorua this June where he spoke as part of the Kupu Māori Writers Festival, and wrote this excellent article about how to celebrate Matariki, that features a section on Hautapu:

Simon Day on The Spinoff — Mānawatia a Matariki! Tips for how to celebrate

And here's the talk he attended by Dr Rangi Mātāmua:

Some takeaway messages:

Te whāngai I te hautapu has three Kaupapa:

  • Te Tirohanga: Where tohunga (cultural and spiritual leaders observe the stars to understand the forecast for the following year's harvests
  • Te Whakamahara I ngā mate: The names of those who died in the last year are called out to the stars. Taramainuku, captain of Te Waka o Rangi drops his net each evening and trawls for souls of those who died that day.