Whenua ki te whenua. Indigenous naming of the land and its people

Abstract

This article reports the findings of the second stage of a three-year Marsden-funded research project entitled “Languaculture within Te Ao Māori: Learning from Infants, Whānau and Communities” and undertaken with Māori hapū in Aotearoa New Zealand. In the title of this article, we have used the phrase “whenua ki te whenua”, which refers to a Māori precolonial practice following childbirth of returning the whenua (here meaning “placenta”) to the whenua (here meaning “land”) through burial (Berryman et al., 2022). In this research project, we have found that the resurgence of this tikanga—making direct connections, whenua ki te whenua—is becoming increasingly common with the new generation of Māori babies. Both metaphorically and in practical terms, the whakapapa of the child to the land is also being honoured and maintained through the process of naming. The article begins with a brief overview of the first arrivals in Aotearoa and how settlement in these new lands established a process of reclaiming or developing new localised narratives and namings.