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Māori followed certain practices that relate to traditional concepts like tapu.Certain people and objects contain mana – spiritual power or essence. In earlier times, tribal members of a higher rank would not touch objects which belonged to members of a lower rank – to do so would constitute "pollution"; and persons of a lower rank could not touch the belongings of a highborn person ...
Spirits Bay is considered a sacred place in Māori belief. Spirits Bay, believed to be one of the most haunted spots in New Zealand and a famous spot for supernatural beings, [5] is considered a sacred place in Māori culture because according to legend, spirits of the dead depart to their ancestral home () [6] from a pōhutukawa tree at the tip of Cape Reinga.
Most of the missionaries who did master the language were unsympathetic to Māori beliefs, [4] regarding them as 'puerile beliefs', or even 'works of the devil'. [4] Exceptions to this general rule were Johan Wohlers of the South Island , [ a ] Richard Taylor , who worked in the Taranaki and Wanganui River areas, and William Colenso who lived ...
Haumiatiketike, the god of uncultivated food, particularly bracken fern.; Papatūānuku, the primordial earth mother.; Ranginui, the primordial sky father ...
Prior to colonisation, the “innate belief in the immortality of the soul” [18] held by the Māori was directed into the belief of Rarohenga. [4] Unlike the biblical systems of heaven and hell , the underworld and its key spiritual figures were not characterised as evil and malevolent beings.
Māori cultural history intertwines inextricably with the culture of Polynesia as a whole. The New Zealand archipelago forms the southwestern corner of the Polynesian Triangle, a major part of the Pacific Ocean with three island groups at its corners: the Hawaiian Islands, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and New Zealand (Aotearoa in te reo Māori). [10]
Mana is a foundation of Polynesian theology, a spiritual quality with a supernatural origin and a sacred, impersonal force. To have mana implies influence, authority , and efficacy : the ability to perform in a given situation.
[128] [129] At the 2018 New Zealand census, 7.7 per cent of Māori were affiliated with Māori religions, beliefs, and philosophies; 29.9 per cent with Christian denominations and 53.5 per cent of Māori claimed no religion. Proportions of Christian and irreligious Māori are comparable with European New Zealanders. [126]