Mereana Taki's teaching: Maori Familial & Kinship System

Whanaungatanga: Immediate and Extended Familial Kinship System.


One of the Maori fundamental values relates to whakapapa (genealogy). To determine the place of each individual in Maori society, we must understand how he is related to the other members of his whanau (family), hapu (sub tribe) or iwi (tribe). His situatio...n in the family determines his behavior towards the other members of his community and draws the line for transmission of their knowledge. In the philosophical discourse of the Maori, called Whakapapa Korero, everything that exists is related to a family which itself relates to other families whose origins can be traced back to Ranginui and Papatuanuku ...our Sky and Earth Parents.

Maori use the word tipuna to talk about their forebears. The translation of that word to mean “ancestors” leads to a misunderstanding of the Maori world view. While the word “ancestor” is confined to people only, the word tipuna includes all that allows an individual to exist: his ancestors, but also his land, the forests, the mountains, the earth, the sky, the waterways, the oceans and all their contents. In the stories of the forebears, the Whakapapa Korero celebrates the universal sanctity of life and describes how the families are tied to each other by their tipuna. At the heart of the Maori world view is their recognition that all the elements in nature have a sacred value because of their relationship in the spiritual realm. All share the same spiritual essence called wairua, which comes from the union of the sacred waters of Ranginui and Papatuanuku.

-Mereana Taki