Whenua to whenua

After the birth of a baby it is customary Māori practice to bury the whenua (afterbirth) in the land, most often in a place with ancestral connections. This act has deep cultural significance. Underpinning it is the belief that human beings were first made from earth, from the body of Papatūānuku (the earth mother).

The afterbirth and pito (umbilical cord) of the first human created from earth were ritually buried in the earth. This is the origin of the proverb ‘He taonga nō te whenua, me hoki anō ki te whenua’ (What is given by the land should return to the land).

Afterbirths were sometimes placed in hollowed out hue (gourds) then buried. Certain gourds were also cut lengthways to form an open oval bowl. These are thought to have received the afterbirth of a high-ranking baby.(1)

The wood ipu whenua (afterbirth container) pictured here is a copy of a gourd-like container. It was made by Te Āti Awa carver Jacob William Heberley or Hakopa Heperi (1849–1906). His ipu whenua features a band of kōwhaiwhai (a scroll-like pattern usually found on the rafters of meeting houses) around the upper edge. The outer surface of the ipu whenua is embellished with the whakarare pattern. This distinctive pattern is made up of haehae (carved grooves) with elements that cross over at intervals.

At each side of the ipu whenua is a typical Heberley-style kōruru (face motif) and it has a deeply carved wheku (owl-like mask).

The use of kōwhaiwhai on vessels owned by chiefs and important people symbolised inherited mana (authority). Gourd vessels belonging to commoners were often left plain.
In 1984, a group calling themselves Te Whānau o Maungārongo first promoted the idea of recreating ipu whenua. The group was made up of Paparangi Reid (Te Rārawa), now Head of the Medical School in Auckland; the late Heraina Marsden (Ngāi Takato, Te Aupōuri, Patukoraha), daughter of the renowned tohunga (expert) the late Reverend Māori Marsden; and kaihanga uku (clay worker) Manos Nathan.

These three championed the idea of ipu whenua, especially when Manos and his wife were having children. ‘It seemed the most logical thing to do to start creating ipu whenua and reinvestigate the rituals or practices within Māoridom … The concept of these vessels for whenua (the placenta) is the binding of a person to place, affirming whakapapa (genealogy) and links to tūrangawaewae.’(2)

Their initiative encouraged whānau (families) to make ipu whenua in uku (clay) in order to hold the whenua (afterbirth) until it was safely buried. This practice is now very commonplace with Māori midwifery and for the whānau.

References
(1) Neich, R. (1993). Painted Histories: Early Māori Figurative Painting. Auckland: Auckland University Press. p 38

(2) Smith, H. ed. 2006. ‘Manos Nathan in conversation with Huhana Smith’, in Taiāwhio: More Conversations with Contemporary Māori Artists. Wellington: Te Papa Press.

Text originally published in Tai Awatea, Te Papa's onfloor multimedia database (2006)