Cultivation of the Kumara
The Māra tautane

The word mara denotes a plantation or cultivation ground; any land under cultivation. Of late years this name has fallen into disuse, being replaced by the term mahinga, derived from the verb mahi = to work. The mara tautane was a special planting of a few tubers of the sweet potato made by each community every year, prior to the planting of the food crop. Each settlement might have its own, or several small adjacent communities might have one in common, but always it was a thing quite apart from the food crops. It pertained solely to the ritual aspect of cultivation. Williams' Maori Dictionary gives:—

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"Mara tautane, a portion of the kumara ground set apart for the atua, to secure their goodwill with regard to the rest of the crop."

When the time came to plant the māra tautāne, a day was set apart for this peculiar function, and each hamlet or family group provided its few seed tubers. These were planted to the recital of certain karakia (charms or invocations) by a presiding priestly adept, and the object of the whole thing was to obtain the goodwill of the gods. Some of the ritual chanted at this ceremony, and during the planting of the food crop, may be placed in the category of invocations; the majority of Maori karakia containing apparently no appeal of any nature. This ceremonial performance is still practised by the Tuhoe folk under the name of huamata, but in connection with the introduced potato, not the sweet potato. A ceremonial feast follows the performance.

During the performance of this ceremony the reciters of the ritual held in their hands green branchlets of mapau, a species of Myrsine, and these were afterwards stuck in earth mounds or toropuke. The tapu was lifted from the proceedings and performers ere the ceremonial feast was held. (Ka mutu, ka ma rawa, kua horoi te ringaringa, i muri ka tohi ko te urupuke mo nga mara katoa.)

On the first of December these tribesmen gather again in order to perform the pure ceremony, by means of which the tapu is lifted from the young crops.

In an account given by Mohi Turei, of the Ngati-Porou tribe, it appears that the planting of the food crop was commenced on the same day that the seed tubers were set in the māra tautāne, shortly after the last mentioned function was over. This custom does not seem to have been a general one, but we really know little of the function. It will be referred to again when we come to describe methods of planting.

In some cases this small special plot was situated in some out of the way spot. The tubers produced therein were employed in the ceremonial pertaining to first fruits.

In Vol. XXII. of the Journal of the Polynesian Society is published a description of the planting of the mara tautane, as given by Mohi Turei and Pita Kapiti of the Waiapu district, and translated by the late Bishop Williams. The description here follows:—"The ko or digging implement was brought from Hawaiki, and was called Penu. When the mara tautane belonging to each man or each hapu (clan or sub-tribe) was being dealt page 118with, it was first cleared of weeds and then thoroughly pulverised. When the pulverising was completed the hapu would understand that the loosening of the soil, or throwing into hillocks, would be proceeded with on the following day…. When the totowahi (a tapu basket) was woven with its appropriate karakia (ritual chant), kumara tubers were brought, two for each person throughout the hapu or the family, and placed in the common totowahi (basket). This was then taken and placed at the margin of the plot, and covered with chickweed. As soon as the throwing of the plot into hillocks was completed, the planting would be begun on the following morning. In the morning the ceremonial umu (steam oven) called unuunu would be lighted, and as the actual cooking was begun, the person whose lot it would be to partake of this would be laid to sleep at the margin of the plot. The ceremonial umu for the people generally, which were called marere, were lit near the water, to cook there.

When these ceremonial umu were all in order in the cooking stage, the men who were about to plant the plot would clothe themselves with goodly garments. Such garments as the pueru (syn. puweru) must not be worn, otherwise the kumara might run to underground stems, or throw small tubers from the trailing branches. On the other hand such garments as the aronui, mahiti, puhoro,^* or patea are suitable garments for planting a māra tautāne. (The pueru is a coarsely woven garment of dressed flax—Phormium. The tarahau is a shaggy cloak made of the fibres of kiekie, Freycinetia Banksii. The mahiti is a cloak covered with the long white hairs of dogs' tails. The aronui, paepaeroa, puhoro and patea are finely woven garments of dressed flax differing from one another in ornamentation.)

When all were in readiness the tohunga would take the totowahi in which the kumara had been placed, and, holding it in his hand, would throw a single kumara on each of the hillocks that had been prepared, reciting at the same time the following karakia:—(The ritual is a full version of the fragment given by Tuta Nihoniho.)

The tohunga carrying the totowahi would go along the furrow separating the special plot, reciting the above karakia as he went, and laying the kumara one by one on each of the hillocks; and if, as he walked reciting the karakia, he found, on nearing the end, that the kumara were more in number than the hillocks, he would put two or three kumara on each hillock, so that the kumara might all be placed on the hillocks; or, on the other hand, if he page 119found that the hillocks were more numerous than the kumara, he would pass by two or three hillocks, placing the kumara on the third or the fourth, so that the last of the kumara should be placed on the last of the hillocks with the concluding words of the karakia … This being done the tohunga would pull to pieces the totowahi which had held the kumara, and bury it at the margin of the plot."

In his little work Kaiapohia Canon Stack describes the māra tautāne of the South Island, and applies the name of taumatua to it. He writes:—"Both the planting and gathering of this crop were attended with peculiar religious rites, and only skilled persons were allowed to take any part in a work, every detail of which was held sacred and conducted under the supervision of officers chosen for their special qualifications at the annual meeting of tohunga, or learned men, held in the whare purakaunui on the rising of the star Puaka (Puanga=Rigel.) It was the duty of these officers to consecrate the kumara plantations each spring to the service of Marihaka and Pani, the two divinities who presided over the welfare of the sacred plant. Starting from the left hand corner of each field, they began this ceremony by placing sprigs of koromiko or Veronica in the ground; after doing this they walked in a straight line to the other side of the field, reciting together as they went the appropriate prayers. At the top of each mara or plot they gathered a handful of leaves or weeds (pitau), which they carried in their hands to the nearest taumatua or shrine. There were two of these shrines at Kaiapoi, one being situated at Wai-tuere, nearly opposite Mr. Charles Young's present residence, and the other near the Maori village of S. Stephens, in the centre of the reserve. They each considered of a small piece of ground a few feet square, enclosed with a fence like a grave plot. Within the enclosure, which was called 'the god's garden,' four mounds were made and planted with kumara.

"After consecrating the left side of the fields, the officials proceeded to consecrate the right side, gathering as before the pitau offering, which was duly placed in one or other of the shrines, and called the whangainga, or feeding of the atua (gods). The last persons who performed these important duties at Kaiapoi were Te Auta, Te Whaketu, Tina, Takatakau and Karara; these were old and venerated chiefs."

The māra tautāne and its ceremonial are now things of the past in most districts, but a survival of this ceremonial performance known as the huamata was still practised among the Tuhoe tribe in 1903, and is possibly still existent.