Abstract:
Karanga: The connection to te ao wairua (The spiritual realm) is a qualitative master’s research
project positioned within a Kaupapa Māori framework underpinned by a Mana Wahine
theoretical perspective. This thesis discusses knowledge and aspects about karanga (formal
call of welcome) and tikanga (Māori customary practices) as related to me in narratives by my
Kui (grandmother) Bessie Teuranga Pai (nee Nepia), an honourable māreikura (matriarch)
from the iwi or tribe of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, and hapū, her subtribe of Ngāti Hinemihi. The
thesis analyses the pūrākau (story) of my Kui with a focus on her engagement with the karanga
and how the karanga called her home to her papakāinga (home base).
My Kui and her maternal tūpuna (ancestors from her female lineage) and descendants honour
the karanga as a whānau (extended family) legacy, and as a life source that comes from deep
within their souls. The karanga connects the wairua (spirituality) and whakapapa (genealogy)
of these wāhine (women) to both Papatūānuku (Earth Mother) and those resting in te ao
wairua, the spiritual realm. The karanga is a taonga (treasure or gift) handed down from
generation to generation in the form of mātauranga (knowledge) and Māori oral tradition.
My intention is to replicate this process of intergenerational transmission by sharing
mātauranga in this research and then gifting it as a taonga to the next generation of
kaikaranga, the women who karanga in my whānau or extended family.
