An Interview: Maori Placenta Burial with Jade Howarth

Today I’m sharing the family rituals and placenta stories of my beautiful friend Jade. In Maori culture the placenta is spoken as whenua and the umbilical cord pito. When a child’s whenua and pito are buried on Marae land, it is believed that their sacred connection to Mother Earth Papatuanuku is solidified. I recently spoke to Jade about her experiences and how the placenta is honoured by Maori culture in New Zealand.

1. Tell me a little bit about yourself, your family and your heritage.

I am a mother of two boys, ages 4 and 7. I am originally from New Zealand and married a lad named James from England. We moved to Australia in 2013. Both of our boys were born here in Australia but we still have a very strong connection to our homeland. James loves New Zealand more than me I think, it’s home to him as well. We continue to teach our boys about my Maori heritage and the language as well as indigenous Australia as I believe that is their culture as well.

2. Can you describe the placenta traditions and rituals performed after the birth of your sons and how closely they followed that of your ancestors?

With me birthing both of my boys in Australia it made for an interesting journey back to our motherland, we had to take both of my placentas back to New Zealand frozen, through customs which was funny. No issues at all though.

We (all of the birthing mothers in my family) bury our placentas on our family land under a native tree. We go and buy the young tree from a local nursery and that tree will grow with the child. Burying our placentas connects us to our ancestral land on a physical and spiritual level, it is our place of birth and it will be where we are brought back to when we die.

3. What made you chose to follow these ancient rituals and honour your placenta in this way?

It is what my family have done for many years. James digs the hole and together we place the placenta in and say a little karakia (prayer) before planting the tree.

My mother birthed all of her babies at home on that land and buried her placentas on the same land so I always knew I would do the same to honour my children so they always had somewhere to come back to. It will always be their home no matter where in the world they end up.

4. How did these rituals make you feel?

Very much connected and grounded, I always know there is a place that is sacred to my body and the birth of each of my boys. Our family land is so special, it will always be in our family so knowing that we have that connection even though we don’t live there is very special to me.