Story: Society

One way in which Māori traditionally cooked food was in an earth oven or hāngī. Large quantities of food could be cooked by steaming it over hot stones in a pit, which was then covered in. It is still customary for Māori to ‘put down a hāngī’ when large crowds have to be fed. Here the hāngī has been opened and the food is ready for serving. The event, in 1974, was part of a programme exposing students to different cultural experiences.