Dr Te Anga Nathan

14/06/2026

Live streaming saved many whānau from grieving alone. But for others, broadcasting a tangihanga online was a breach of tapu.

Lifeline or desecration?

Where do you stand, did live streaming help or harm the sanctity of tangihanga?

Read the full post → click below.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, tangihanga were prohibited on our marae, forcing whānau to find new ways to grieve, connect, and honour their loved ones.

11/06/2026

The impact of COVID-19 was devastating, causing more than seven million deaths globally, and the number of fatalities continues to rise (Worldometer, 2024). As of May 22, 2024, in Aotearoa, 5,697 people had died from the pandemic, including 585 Māori (Whatuora, 2024). This was equal to about one Māori for every ten non-Māori — a significant reversal of the death rate of more than eight Māori dying for every one non-Māori from the Spanish influenza pandemic a century earlier (Rice, 2011).

Aotearoa put stringent measures in place to restrict the movement of people and prohibited tangihanga. As public funerals around the globe were banned, there was an explosion of live streaming as people turned to technology to fulfil mourning rituals and share grief in isolation. However, detailed instructions on how to set up live streams were lacking — arranging virtual memorials posed significant challenges to whānau dealing with death and technology at the same time.

Throughout these challenges, Public Health Physician Dr Elana Curtis argued that the government's enforcement of tangihanga guidelines was overly restrictive, stating: "They are limiting the ability to conduct tikanga and tangihanga processes and they're not coming from a public health evidence-based perspective" (Tyson, 2020, para. 5). Wairarapa resident Irihapeti Roberts set up a petition against the ten-person limit as her grandmother was near death and sought to safely plan for her tangi (McLachlan, 2020).

Māori were not asking to ignore public health. They were asking to be trusted to uphold tikanga safely. That distinction matters. Read more: teanga.co.nz

08/06/2026

Why Live Streaming?

I chose live streaming tangihanga as a research subject for my PhD as I witnessed the challenges that whānau faced during the COVID-19 lockdowns, which saw tangihanga banned to prevent the spread of the virus. Many turned to live streaming memorials, while others suffered in isolation and the indignity of not being able to attend the burial or cremation of a loved one. Those who chose to live stream memorials and tangihanga also had to come to grips with learning how to operate this new technology while mourning their loved ones at the same time.

One anonymous online survey participant shared that she had to organise her mother's tangihanga on Zoom in August 2021 on the eve of Aotearoa going into a Alert Level 4 lockdown due to the arrival of the Delta variant of the coronavirus. "It was difficult navigating and teaching whānau how to dial and use the online function as we could not be at the marae. Māmā was at the funeral home, and we literally had to dial her in so whānau could pay their respects. A muri i te tangihanga hui t**a, ka tangi hotuhotu ahau, no time to tangi online as I was organising everything" (Survey participant, 2023).

This experience was an example mirrored by many whānau who struggled to share their grief and the ritual of tangihanga with others using new technology. I watched several live-streamed tangihanga which, despite their best efforts, breached tikanga. Some live-streamed tangihanga showed people drinking alcohol, playing cards, arguing, doing burnouts in their cars and on motorbikes. Others took selfies with the deceased and posted them on social media. These actions were actions I did not consider when my parents passed away.

So, it was my cousin Josephine Rangi's passing that stirred me into action, as I wanted to provide a solution to the lack of live streaming guidelines from a Māori perspective to help whānau. Josephine died of a non-related COVID-19 illness in Auckland Hospital and the whānau tried to wait out the lockdown period. However, after several weeks of their daughter being in refrigeration her parents gave permission to bury her. I organised a memorial online to pay respect to the beloved schoolteacher and proud descendant of Te Aupōuri and Tūwharetoa. Josephine was buried in a Tūwharetoa whānau urupā (cemetery) near Atiamuri. A cameraman with a live streaming pack narrowcast the funeral service at the urupā for her parents and siblings who were watching online in lockdown from Auckland. When I reflected on the Zoom memorial that I created for her, which strictly followed a pōwhiri and was conducted solely in te reo Māori, I could have made it more inclusive. Hence the significance of this research for me personally.
Read the full series at teanga.co.nz

06/06/2026

Aotearoa was still in a COVID-19 red traffic light setting when my mother-in-law Tinirau Barlow passed away in April 2022. Because my wife Tia had contracted coronavirus a few days earlier, we did not take Tinirau directly to her treasured Tūrangawaewae marae, and instead brought her to our Hamilton home. Tainui kaumātua, Taki Turner and Pita Te Ngaru, braved the conditions to come to our house and welcomed Tinirau as we carried her casket inside. Tia sat outside on the deck, isolated, wrapped in blankets, wearing a beanie, and a mask. Overcome with grief, she began live streaming with her mobile phone. Facebook notified me that she was streaming. After the speeches, I asked Tia why she had started live streaming, as she knew I was investigating live streaming tangihanga for my PhD research subject and that I had been opposed to sharing tangihanga publicly on Facebook. Tia was so overwhelmed with grief that she tried to find a way to share her loss with her wider whānau, just like many others did during the coronavirus pandemic.
Unfortunately, a few minutes of video were shared publicly following Facebook's algorithm, and we quickly deleted the post. We never intended to live stream the funeral of Tinirau because she was a private person, but Tia contracting COVID-19 had changed everything. We created a Facebook community page and both Tia and our daughter, Te Inuwai, invited whānau and friends to join, allowing us to control what was posted and who could view it. Tia negotiated with the Tūrangawaewae marae chairperson to record the pō mihimihi (final night of tangihanga) and the church service of her mother's tangihanga. Tia and other whānau and friends who could not attend were able to view these two parts of the tangihanga. Almost 300 people joined the Facebook community page. The comment posted by Tia's cousin, Brad Roy who lived in Canada, summed up the difference that live streaming made for those who could not attend physically. "I feel like I am there, Aunty Tini. Thank you for filming. I know you are keeping an eye on us now with a big smile" (B. Roy, personal communication, April 20, 2022). Our experience with live streaming parts of the tangihanga of Tinirau demonstrated that technology could help those unable to attend in person to grieve online. Beyond this, it also reinforced the need for a guide to assist whānau, hapū, and iwi to stream tangihanga. This research across three tiers sought to develop a solution to help people who were serious about streaming tangihanga to a virtual audience and who wanted to do so with integrity. Read the full series at teanga.co.nz

06/06/2026

After sharing my Facebook tribute to Tā Hirini Moko Mead and attending his tangihanga at Kokohinau Marae, Te Teko, I found myself challenged to share my research rather than let it sit on the shelf in a library.
In 2025, I completed my PhD at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, the institution he helped build for all iwi, for all people. My research is titled He Maimai Aroha: Live Streaming Tangihanga During COVID-19.
His passing, and the death of Tā Tamati Reedy and Dr Whatarangi Winiata — three tōtara hāemata gone within weeks of each other, has lit a fire under me. These were men who were not matapiko with their knowledge. They shared it. They built institutions with it. They signed their books carefully, because the work mattered.
So in their honour, I am going to share mine.
Over the coming weeks, I will unpack my research in plain language, what I found, what surprised me, and what I believe Māori broadcasters, whānau, and iwi need to know before they livestream at a tangihanga.
This is my humble contribution. A grain of sand on the beach of life.
It begins here.
E ngā tōtara hāemata o te wao nui a Tāne — moe mai, okioki mai rā.
Check out my website where I will share a series of posts at teanga.co.nz

08/07/2022

Crafting newsworthy stories that resonate. Tau Hona shares her son's deadly dance with measles.

08/07/2022

Content with a Māori mindset. Ngahia shares how she battled to save her daughter's life.

08/07/2022

Proud to craft Auntie Hera White's hauora story. She felt embarrassed that she couldn't remember the last time she caught a common cold. He iho pūmanwa ki a tātou katoa. E rere ana āku mihi ki a Ngā Miro rāua ko Waikato-Tainui.

30/11/2021

Spent the day working with Brett Phibbs, one of the countries professional photographers, shooting a campaign we are working on. And he took this shot of me as I was setting up for the next interview. Cheers, Brett.

29/10/2021

This was always going to happen. Te Matatini postponed to 2023

TE MATATINI HERENGA WAKA HERENGA TANGATA NATIONAL KAPA HAKA FESTIVAL 2022
FRIDAY 29 OCTOBER 2021

MEDIA RELEASE

Te Matatini event organisers have made a decision on the future of the 2022 Te Matatini Herenga Waka Herenga Tangata National Kapa Haka Festival.

After much deliberation, specialist advice from Māori health experts and statisticians relating to the current climate of COVID-19 in Aotearoa, Te Matatini has made the collective decision to postpone Te Matatini Herenga Waka Herenga Tangata National Kapa Haka Festival until February 2023.

The festival will remain at Eden Park (Ngā Ana Wai) in Tāmaki Makaurau and all qualifying Kapa Haka and judges will remain the same as they currently stand.

“Tiakina te whakapapa, tiakina hoki te Kapa Haka are paramount and have been at the forefront of all considerations and conversations for the Te Matatini Festival organising committee," says Carl Ross, Chief Executive of Te Matatini.

“We know that many whānau will be disappointed that the festival will not go ahead in 2022 as planned. Many plans were put in place and sacrifices made by all our Kapa Haka that will have to be moved.”

“But as we know, protecting whānau is our number one priority, and the DELTA variant of COVID-19 poses a real threat to our people and that is why we are encouraging whānau to get vaccinated.”

“The new COVID-19 protection framework means that all large scale indoor/outdoor events will require vaccination certificates for all participants to attend.”

“We want to applaud our Māori health providers, doctors and nurses for all their continued efforts and hard work over the past 19 months to protect our whānau Māori and assisting with the vaccination rollout.” says Chairman, Selwyn Parata.

ENDS.

https://tematatini.co.nz/media-release-te-matatini-national-kapa-haka-festival-2022/