Dear Editor
It seems that Maori culture trumps all other cultures here in New Zealand as I read this week of a non-Maori grieving widow having her Maori husband’s dead body stolen from her home.
The Maori who stole her husband’s body justified the theft by saying that it was because of their tikanga. However, they did not take into account the deceased man’s or his next of kin’s wishes.
The deceased person had given his wife clear instructions on what to do when he died. His last wishes were to be near his wife and family and be cremated not buried. If that is against Maori customs then isn’t that his choice to make?
How do the wife and family get to visit his last resting place and how uncomfortable would they feel there after what has happened? Apparently, he felt ostracised from his whanau. In my mind, this is an act of racism against his non-Maori wife as well as showing a complete lack of respect for the dead man and his wishes. I can only imagine what would happen if a non-Maori person stole a Maori person’s body. All hell would break loose.
I remember when comedian Billy T James’s body was stolen from his non-Maori wife and buried on Taupiri Mountain in the Waikato. I was on a bus and going past Taupiri Mountain, the bus driver was Maori and he turned the radio off showing respect for Billy T James or so he said. I remember thinking to myself Billy would have loved to hear music as that was how he made his living. I also thought how he had not wanted to be buried there but the Maori who stole his body had no respect for his wife’s or his wishes it was all about Maori tikanga.
When do we stop this behaviour and let the deceased person lie in peace in their final resting place not in a place they didn’t want to be and probably not at peace? It’s all very good for Shane Jones to say this is a complex situation but surely the next of kin should have some sort of say in what happens and Maori should respect the deceased last wishes.
To be lying in state with his wife and family around him when he was taken must have been harrowing for the family.
Don T
