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Story: Māori feasts and ceremonial eating – hākari

Feast at Matatā

At this feast at Matatā in the Bay of Plenty in the mid-19th century, food is conspicuously displayed. Fish, possibly shark, is being dried, and baskets of food have been put on the whata (stage).

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: PUBL-0014-36

by George French Angas

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Basil Keane, Māori feasts and ceremonial eating – hākari – 19th-century hākari, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/zoomify/40555/feast-at-matata (accessed 8 June 2026).

Story by Basil Keane, published 5 February 2013.