Answering the call of karanga

Woodville Māori women are answering the call to help preserve a crucial part of marae culture.

Over a dozen women, from their late 20s to their mid-70s, are learning karanga at an ongoing series of workshops at Te Ahu a Turanga marae.

The karanga is the formal call and welcomes inviting visitors onto a marae, and the role of kaikaranga (the women who make the call) carries a lot of mana (respect and responsibility) and is usually performed by a marae elder.

Rangitāne kuia Ateneta Paewai, who teaches the course, said the workshops grew out of discussions in the community, as a new generation of women reached an appropriate age to be kaikaranga, but had never had the opportunity to learn how to properly fulfil the responsibility.

The workshops focus on the process of karanga, but include lessons on te reo, and the marae’s protocols and history – to ensure the women felt confident in that role, Paewai said.

‘‘Women are the first voice of the marae... and how can you properly represent the marae, if you don’t know it.’’

Paewai said women are the gatekeepers of the marae, and no karanga meant no pōwhiri – the silence was a clear message to visitors they weren’t welcome.

Skilled kaikaranga use a strong knowledge of te reo to weave eloquent phrases and metaphors that share their people’s history, pay tribute to the dead and explain the purpose of the visit or pōwhiri.

‘‘[But] over the past 20 years, I’ve seen the number of [suitable] kuia go from where we were wellsupported to a critically low level.’’

There haven’t been the kuia around to ensure enough future kaikaranga could learn.

Paewai said the workshops were meant to help bridge the gap, until enough students of kura kaupapa Māori language immersion schools, which first appeared in 1985, reached an appropriate age to step up as kaikaranga.

Traditionally, women learnt karanga from a relative after they spent years honing their te reo and supporting the marae with cooking, cleaning and organising to learn how it runs and fully understand its protocols.

But work, family responsibilities, and the pace of modern life has made it harder for women to spend that amount of time at their marae.

Paewai said the workshops gave them an opportunity to learn, that strict traditionalists might not.

‘‘A wonderful example of that is a woman in her late 60s who grew up without reo who decided she wanted to learn karanga. So she went to one of her nannies and asked her.

‘‘Her nanny said ‘hmmm, can you cook rewena?’ She couldn’t, so her nanny wouldn’t teach her.’’

Making the Māori sourdough bread touches on almost every aspect of marae life, and was short-hand for having the base of knowledge needed to properly learn karanga.

Paewai said it was a wise response, but Māori women had to find a way to adapt without sacrificing the heart of their traditions.

‘‘If we want the skill to survive, we have to make the path [to learn it] easier.’’

‘‘Women are the first voice of the marae... and how can you properly represent the marae, if you don’t know it.’’ Rangita¯ne kuia Ateneta Paewai