When the time came for the Makiha family to pull down their house, they decided to bury it. Piece by piece, they dismantled the wooden frame and weatherboards, laying them carefully to rest, like an ancestor, in the Hokianga soil.
“It is only right to bury it,” says Rereata Makiha, who led the family through the ceremony. “Buried within the ground, to sleep. Prayers are recited so that it may lay to rest forever, as if she is a person.
