Karakia

Karakia are prayers, chants or incantations. They can be said for many purposes and to different spiritual beings, although in modern times, they may have a Christian form.

Karakia are prayers or chants used in many formal and informal daily rituals.

There are karakia for all occasions, such as birth, death, sickness, warfare, waka building or the growing and harvesting of kai, and daily karakia that give thanks or ask for protection. Whether you pray to a specific god or just out to somewhere in the world, is up to you.

Karakia can help with settling emotions when you’re upset or to set a positive tone for the day.

Learning simple karakia and using them regularly can be a way to strengthen connections as a whānau and use te reo more often.

Karakia may be part of daily ritual to bless whatever the new day brings or to give thanks for blessings received at the close of each day.

Traditional use of karakia

In ancient times, all people used some form of karakia in their daily lives and on special occasions. No matter your ranking in a traditional Māori society, whether you were mokopuna or kaumātua, layman or tohunga, you would have known a number of karakia to use in different situations.

Some karakia were used for particular purposes, perhaps in rituals involved in cleansing, protecting or ordaining. In pre-Christian times, karakia were more often sung or chanted using poetic language. They were recited to the spirit world and the many atua Māori.

A Māori worldview sees no separation between the physical and spiritual dimensions of a person. Ngā iwi Māori are just another part of the natural world governed by the atua. The power of karakia comes from the atua, and through karakia, the sacredness of the person and their links to atua are confirmed.

There are karakia for all occasions – birth, death, sickness, warfare, waka building or the growing and harvesting of kai. Through karakia, a bond is made between the person reciting the karakia and the spiritual dimension they are identifying with.

In more modern times, many karakia have taken on a Christian style and are offered to the Christian God. Christian theology speaks of a time known as the resurrection, where at a time after death, the body and soul will reunite. Many karakia, especially those shared during tangihanga , refer to an afterlife when the wairua will return to the atua from which it came.

Karakia are often followed by the singing of waiata or hīmene.

 

NOTE: This article has been reproduced from takai.nz and is available in its entirety at https://www.takai.nz/find-resources/articles/karakia. For a historical review of traditional Maori karakia from an early Pakeha perspective, visit  Te ika a maui = or, New Zealand and its inhabitants by Richard Taylor at the Internet Archive [original article link from Wikipedia]