By RNZ

Parihaka matriarch Maata Wharehoka has died at 74.

Wharehoka (Ngāti Tahinga, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Kuia) an expert in marae arts, raranga (weaving) and karanga, was the caretaker of the marae at Parihaka for nearly 30 years and a driving force behind Parihaka’s focus to be a self-sufficient community.

In 2015, she won the Creative New Zealand Ngā Tohu ā Tā Kingi Ihaka Award recognising her lifetime contribution to the arts.

Her whānau announced her death in a Facebook post on Friday:

“It is with great honour and love that we announce the passing of our Mum, Nana, Kui, Ganny Maata Hurita Carol Wharehoka (Nee Moanaroa). Maata is loved and adored by so many. She passed peacefully surrounded by her children and mokopuna.”

A trained nurse, Wharehoka was a champion of Kahu Whakatere Tupapaku, the tikanga Māori practices surrounding death and burial, and an advocate of voluntary euthanasia for many years.

In 2021 she told RNZ’s Saturday Morning that Māori had a process to prepare their dying, those people who were at the point of death.

“What I’ve tried to create and what I believe I’ve created is the opportunity to create ritual around so many things that are tikanga Māori. That’s what’s important that Māori are now able to say ‘Oh this is our culture, this is our traditions so let’s maintain it’.”

Rather than a coffin the body is embellished in a waka tūpāpaku and wrapped in woven harakeke, she said.

“I don’t think we should fear death, I think we should invite death and we should celebrate death and we should be able to feel good about dying,” she said.

Maata Wharehoka will be taken to TeNiho o Te Atiawa whare at the Parihaka papakāinga on Friday evening. She will lie there until Sunday when she will be buried at the urupā o TeMōrehu.

- RNZ