Hangi

On Wednesday the 10th of August, Sacred Heart School had a hangi.

Hāngi is a traditional Maori method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in a pit oven still used for special occasions.

To "lay a hāngi" or "put down a hāngi" involves digging a pit in the ground, heating stones in the pit with a large fire, placing baskets of food on top of the stones, and covering everything with earth for several hours before uncovering (or lifting) the hāngi.

We brought food to school on Tuesday in tinfoil containers ready for Wednesday. The senior children helped to dig the hangi pit on Friday last week. Mrs T-Ks husband, her brother and some other parents came to school while we were sleeping and lit the fire so that it was ready to put in the food just before school started on Wednesday morning. Below are some photos from the day.

Waiting for the fire to burn down.

Getting ready to remove the ash before putting in the baskets of kai (food).

Covering the baskets with sacks and cloth.

Covering the hangi with dirt.

Putting our hands into the hangi to feel how warm it is.

Before the hangi could be lifted, the children in our school needed to welcome our visitors onto our school grounds by having a powhiri.


A Pōwhiri is a Māori welcoming ceremony that can involve speeches, dancing, singing and finally the hongi.

Finally the hangi is ready to be lifted.

Removing the cloths and dirt.

Removing the baskets of cooked kai.

We really enjoyed our kai from the hangi. Some of our highlights included:

• that the food tasted really nice
• that the food was cooked well
• putting our hands into the warm dirt of the hangi
• it was a frosty morning and the hangi warmed us up when we went to look at it

A big thank you Mrs T-K, Mrs Lieshout and all the other people who helped to make this special occasion possible.