Rotorura - Mitai Tribe

In Rotorura, we got to visit a Maori tribal village and have a traditional Maori meal. First, we had to greet the chief of their tribe and experience a little of the ritual involved with dining with them.

We took a bus to the tribal grounds, and our driver was a very humorous fellow named Williamu, which is Maori for William (I liked that part). He explained the 'hongi' (the traditional nose pressing - NOT nose rubbing!) and some of the other expected behavior while we were there. It is very important to the tribe not to disrespect the village area or their tradions.

Once we were all seated in the dining hall our hostess, Tui, asked for a volunteer to represent the group as the chief. After a bit of silence, I decided to raise my hand and nominate myself. As some of you may know, I am not afraid when it comes to situations like this. However, it was a bit weird to be the 'chief' of 150 or so other tourists in this village.

Next, we walked down a creek to where the war canoe loaded with warriors came ashore. They were chanting and making war faces (the pics, as usual, do not do justice to the experience). We were then led to a part of the village where we could sit and watch the Maori singing and dancing and practicing their war rituals.

The first part of the rite was to have one of their warriors offer a peace offering to me (the chief) and I had to accept the offering by using some Maori words of acceptance. 'Tane Katu' is used as a greeting, and then I had to give my name and where I was from and that I represented the global tribe who were visiting the Maori. Afterwards, their chief greeted me with a hongi.


I have to be honest: when the warrior approached, I was ready to run. I can't imagine being one of the early explorers facing one of these warriors. Even knowing that this was part of a show and that they were coming to bring a peace offering, it was terrifying. As an example, check out the video below shows a couple of the warriors practicing a fighting technique.


After they showed us some of their traditions and sang some songs, we were led back to the dining hall where we had an excellent meal. They had used a traditional method of cooking lamb and chicken and a sweet potato (called kumara). Basically, they heated rocks in an underground oven and burried the food until it was cooked through.

To see more info about the Mitai, check out http://www.mitai.co.nz/