Matariki was celebrated with a hāngī for 250 people at Garin College and it was a team effort in the cold hours of dawn to prepare the feast in the earth oven, or umu.
Pork, lamb and chicken with a mix of roast vegetables and cabbage was lifted steaming from the pit before being served up with fried Māori bread and accompanied by kapa haka and a waiata.
It is the second year the school has prepared a hāngī around Matariki after its Māori whānau came up with the idea at one of its regular huis.
Māori head girl, Sophie Richardson, was part of the team of students and parents who prepared the food the night before and set the alarm for 3am to light the fire that heated the metal balls that went into the deep pit to cook the feast.
Four large metal baskets, lined with saturated cabbage leaves to protect the food from the heated metal balls, were filled with meat, then veges, before being covered with sacks, tarpaulins and soil. By lunch time, the soil was shovelled off and the steaming baskets were lifted for students to dish out.
“It’s such a different taste when it comes out of the ground,” Sophie says. “It helps bring the school together and Matariki is an important time for Māori as it is the start of the new Māori year.
“As Māori students we’re really proud of who we are and sharing it with the rest of the school, especially those who have never had a hāngī.”
Last year was a trial run with enough food in the hāngī for 100 packs which were sold within the school.
Learning from last year, Sophie says they prepared enough kai for 250 meals this year and posted on Facebook so the wider community could also have an opportunity to enjoy the hāngī. It has been a good fundraiser for the kapa haka group which was kick started last year and Sophie was expecting a “solid profit”.
