Te Umurangi's graduation ceremony

It seems that the special cloak recognising Te Umu-rangi as a qualifed tohunga was placed on him during a ceremony at Kairakau Beach, with Okaiure on a ridge to his left, Marokotia in front of him, and the kai-moana rocks on his right. We can guess the details of the ceremony: it probably involved a dawn fire-lighting ritual using an ancient set of fire-sticks, harvesting of kai-moana from the rocks on the reef, preparation for a hangi, a demonstration by Te Umu-rangi of his range of knowledge, and then his gowning, all accompained by karakia, with a communal meal and many waiata concluding the day. The training process for Te Umu-rangi began at birth, with his mother chanting oriori to him and a tohunga (his father?) carrying out rituals to prepare him for his future role. As he grew, he learnt practical activities such as gathering, harvesting and preparing food, weaving, carving and warfare. Many people taught him, with uncles, aunts and grandparents all playing important roles, with a mixture of on-the-job training and formal learning, similar to tody's apprentice, medical student, or church minister. A ritual marked each step in the learning process, including some form of test for him. The main form of social control in this society was tapu, so a respect for these religious restrictions, with a good knowledge of their operation, was an essential aspect of his education process. In a society without textbooks, his elders taught him his iwi’s values, history, and models of behaviour with songs, proverbs, historical stories, mythical tales, and family trees. We can see hints of all these in Pinepine. Te Umu-rangi would have spent several years in a whare wananga (probably at Omahu up on the hills behind today's Hastings) learning a vast repertoire of waiata, karakia, whakapapa and ancient healing knowledge to prepare him as tohunga for the next generation of the tribe.