November 14, 2023
Burial customs to be disinterred and decolonised
A Māori academic is questioning whether modern funeral practices adopted by Māori are tika or correct.
AUT Professor Hinematau McNeill McNeill is part of a Marsden research project about decolonising Māori burials – with her hapū Ngāti Moko of Te Arawa a case study.
She says practices such as embalming, building coffins with materials that don’t easily bio-degrade, and even concrete headstones are not part of pre-European Māori tradition – and are detrimental to tūpapaku and the environment.
“In actuality, most of what we do has been adopted from our colonial past. And a lot of the practises that we are doing are not good for Papatuanuku.
Prof McNeill says her research will look at pre-European practices and how traditional Māori burial customs might be adapted for contemporary use.