OMEN
08-16-2006, 09:13 PM
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DEEPLY MISSED: Mourners grieve the passing of Dame Te Atairangikaahu beside her coffin at Turangawaewae marae. Dame Te Ata will be honoured in the biggest tangihanga seen this generation.
Up to 100,000 mourners are expected to pay their last respects to the Maori Queen in the biggest tangi this generation of New Zealanders is likely to see.
Dame Te Atairangikaahu, mother of seven, grandmother of 30 and great-grandmother of one, died on Turangawaewae marae on Tuesday night aged 75 after serving as Maori queen for 40 years.
Yesterday she was lying in state in her glass-topped casket in the front of the meeting house in Ngaruawahia, where she will remain till she is carried along the Waikato River in a waka to her final resting place, Taupiri Mountain, on Monday.
Fifteen black-clad women and grandchildren sat alongside her coffin, which was covered with a revered kiwi feather cloak.
Looking over the sombre scene were pictures of the five Kingitanga monarchs, Princess Te Puea and paramount chief the late Sir Hepi te Heuheu.
In a bitterly cold dawn, men and women in black began to wait outside the marae, waiting for Tainui to prepare it for its biggest day in years.
As Tainui chairman Tukoroirangi Morgan said, no one else of this generation in New Zealand will be witness to a tangihanga on this scale.
"This generation will never see a tangi of this magnitude, a farewell to one of our well known and respected leaders."
Maori wardens directed traffic, and gang members guarded the gates.
When the gates opened the familiar sounds of karanga (welcome calls) mixed with undisguised weeping. Some went to their seats but many of the older people walked on to the marae to pay their respects. They were deeply distressed.
Elder Motu Katita said yesterday the day was set aside solely for the people of Tainui. "After we have said our farewells, she is for the people of the motu (island) and the world," he said.
Mr Morgan said the Waikato River would be central to the ceremony. It was Dame Te Ata's unfulfilled wish that the Crown return it to Tainui.
"Perhaps the most fitting tribute is that we will carry her by the river," he said. "She will be taken aboard three magnificently carved waka taua (war canoes).
"She will travel as it was in the old days by the only road that our people knew," he said.
"The queen and the river are inextricably bound, she is one with the river, our people are one with the river."
Leaders from Maori tribes throughout New Zealand will decide on the next leader, with Tainui taking no part in the decision. Their responsibility is to care for the monarch, not select the monarch.
Mr Morgan said whoever took over faced a huge responsibility.
"Te Arikinui had an array of skills that can only manifest themselves in several people and it has taken 40 years to do what she's done. An iconic figure has gone and God knows how long we will have to wait for a person of that kind of calibre, quality and mana."
http://stuff.co.nz/inl/images/masthead/dominionpost.gif
DEEPLY MISSED: Mourners grieve the passing of Dame Te Atairangikaahu beside her coffin at Turangawaewae marae. Dame Te Ata will be honoured in the biggest tangihanga seen this generation.
Up to 100,000 mourners are expected to pay their last respects to the Maori Queen in the biggest tangi this generation of New Zealanders is likely to see.
Dame Te Atairangikaahu, mother of seven, grandmother of 30 and great-grandmother of one, died on Turangawaewae marae on Tuesday night aged 75 after serving as Maori queen for 40 years.
Yesterday she was lying in state in her glass-topped casket in the front of the meeting house in Ngaruawahia, where she will remain till she is carried along the Waikato River in a waka to her final resting place, Taupiri Mountain, on Monday.
Fifteen black-clad women and grandchildren sat alongside her coffin, which was covered with a revered kiwi feather cloak.
Looking over the sombre scene were pictures of the five Kingitanga monarchs, Princess Te Puea and paramount chief the late Sir Hepi te Heuheu.
In a bitterly cold dawn, men and women in black began to wait outside the marae, waiting for Tainui to prepare it for its biggest day in years.
As Tainui chairman Tukoroirangi Morgan said, no one else of this generation in New Zealand will be witness to a tangihanga on this scale.
"This generation will never see a tangi of this magnitude, a farewell to one of our well known and respected leaders."
Maori wardens directed traffic, and gang members guarded the gates.
When the gates opened the familiar sounds of karanga (welcome calls) mixed with undisguised weeping. Some went to their seats but many of the older people walked on to the marae to pay their respects. They were deeply distressed.
Elder Motu Katita said yesterday the day was set aside solely for the people of Tainui. "After we have said our farewells, she is for the people of the motu (island) and the world," he said.
Mr Morgan said the Waikato River would be central to the ceremony. It was Dame Te Ata's unfulfilled wish that the Crown return it to Tainui.
"Perhaps the most fitting tribute is that we will carry her by the river," he said. "She will be taken aboard three magnificently carved waka taua (war canoes).
"She will travel as it was in the old days by the only road that our people knew," he said.
"The queen and the river are inextricably bound, she is one with the river, our people are one with the river."
Leaders from Maori tribes throughout New Zealand will decide on the next leader, with Tainui taking no part in the decision. Their responsibility is to care for the monarch, not select the monarch.
Mr Morgan said whoever took over faced a huge responsibility.
"Te Arikinui had an array of skills that can only manifest themselves in several people and it has taken 40 years to do what she's done. An iconic figure has gone and God knows how long we will have to wait for a person of that kind of calibre, quality and mana."
http://stuff.co.nz/inl/images/masthead/dominionpost.gif