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Podcast: Paki Kēhua
Episode: The Burning Mattress
Description: Episode 20 - The Burning Mattress (Based on a True Story)
You're supposed to burn the mattress that a tūpāpaku lies on. It's based on an old tikanga whereby a small 'whare mate' was built specifically to house the tūpāpaku, and then burned immediately after the body was taken to the urupā. I mean, would you really want to sleep on the same mattress after a dead person has been on it?Today's Māori are different, and the old ways are often traded off for convenience and expedience. Young Māori of today, beware...