Huraiti Mana at Heiva Mā'ohi O Patitifa

Te Pū Fenua is the thousand year old Polynesian tradition of burying the placenta upon a child's birth, continuing our eternal relationship between our people and Te Mama Fenua, Mother Earth. A rite that had survived attempted erasure by colonizers. Too often women, their bodies, and the creation of their bodies, are deemed vile & sinful, biohazard and lesser than. Many mothers have fought for decades to revive the rite to carry home with them the incredible creation that had come from their own body and had protected their babies before birth - their placenta - so that it may be buried in their homeland, in the fenua, beneath a tumu, or with the moana, by whatever means to connect their children to the land that raised their tūpuna. I lift my hands to these metua vahine who have paved the way that one day I may also take part in te pū fenua, and my child may know the roots of their ancestors. Māuruuru mai tō'u mafatu te mau metua vahine!

4th place ages 25-34

As the incredible Ra'atira Tiana Liufau explains a dancer should be, have the grace of Hina and the power of 'Oro! Ua te'ote'o roa vau ia 'oe e Pūpahu! Your dedication and love and commitment is the soul of Huraiti Mana! On to the next!