Urupā Tautaiao: Natural Burials and Māori Environmental Stewardship

Abstract

This study considers how adopting natural green burial practices can create pathways to a more sustainable future strongly rooted in Māori culture and ethics. Interviews were conducted with twenty-five Māori participants from diverse iwi (tribal) affiliations to investigate the feasibility of environmentally sustainable Māori mortuary and burial practices. Thematic analysis of the interviews highlighted three main areas of concern; impact of modern burials on environmental degradation framed through kaitiakitanga, (environmental guardianship), revival of pre-colonial practices and unaffordability of contemporary tangihanga (customary funerals). Urupā tautaiao (natural burials) emerge as a model reimagining precolonial death burial practices for the modern world. In doing so, it challenges the extractive logics of the post-colonial death industry and reactivates the moral, spiritual, and communal frameworks of environment care.