Fields Were Tapu

Te Ao Hou, December 1962, Page 37

Fields Were Tapu The field where the kumaras were to grow had to be made tapu; as part of this ceremony, and usually before the kumaras were planted, long poles were brought and placed upright around the field. These poles represented the gods connected with the cultivation of the kumara—gods such as Rongo, Maui, Kahukura and Marihaka. Sometimes the people put the dried heads of famous ancestors upon the tops of these poles, and sometimes they brought other bones of their ancestors also, painted with red ochre and ornamented with feathers. These were put to watch over the fields so that their mana might ensure food for their descendants. Sometimes stone statues, such as the one which we illustrate, were also brought to guard the fields. These seem usually to have represented Rongo, the chief of the gods associated with agriculture, but some statues had other names. Mokoia Island in Lake Rotorua, for instance, was a very tapu island, largely because of the presence of the ancient statue called Matuatonga, which is still there today. Kumaras grew very well on Mokoia, and this was attributed to the great powers of Matuatonga. Because of this, each year before the planting began the tohungas from the surrounding districts would bring their seed-kumara to the island so that they could touch the figure of Matuatonga, thereby gaining its mana.