Karakia are

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

incantation An incantation, a spell, a charm, an enchantment or a bewitchery, is a magical formula intended to trigger a magical effect on a person or objects. The formula can be spoken, sung or chanted. An incantation can also be performed during ceremo ...

s and

prayer Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deifie ...

s, used to invoke spiritual guidance and protection.Karakia
, Otago University website. Retrieved 23 July 2019. They are generally used to increase the spiritual goodwill of a gathering, so as to increase the likelihood of a favourable outcome. They are also considered a formal greeting when beginning a

ceremony A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secula ...

. According to legend, there was a curse on the

Waiapu River The Waiapu River is a river in the Gisborne District of the North Island of New Zealand, with a total length of approximately . Found in the north-east of the Waiapu Valley, it flows north-east from the joining of the Mata River and the Tapuaer ...

which was lifted when George Gage (Hori Keeti) performed karakia. In

Māori religion Māori religion encompasses the various religious beliefs and practices of the Māori, the Polynesian indigenous people of New Zealand. Traditional Māori religion Traditional Māori religion, that is, the pre-European belief-system of the M ...

, karakia are used to ritually cleanse the homes of the deceased after a burial. The missionary Richard Taylor gives a 19th-century view of the traditional role and scope of karakia:

The word ''karakia'', which we use for prayer, formerly meant a spell, charm, or incantation .. aorihave spells suited for all circumstances – to conquer enemies, catch fish, trap rats, and snare birds, to make their kumara grow, and even to bind the obstinate will of woman; to find anything lost; to discover a stray dog; a concealed enemy; in fact, for all their wants. These karakias are extremely numerous ..ref>

With the nineteenth-century introduction of Christianity to New Zealand, Māori adopted (or wrote new) karakia to acknowledge the new faith. Modern karakia tend to contain a blend of Christian and traditional influence, and their poetic language may make literal translations into English not always possible.Karakia
, Otago University website. Retrieved 23 July 2019. In modern Māori society, performances of ''karakia'' frequently open important meetings and ceremonies, both within a Māori context (such as tribal

hui The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...

, tangi, or the inauguration of new

marae A ' (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan), ' (in Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term a ...

), and in a wider New Zealand setting in which both Māori and

Pākehā Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non-Māori New Z ...

participate (such as the beginning of public meetings or at the departure of official delegations for overseas).

References

Māori culture Māori words and phrases Prayer {{Maori-stub

See also

References