Ambassador to New Zealand Ran Yaakoby and his family became honorary members of Ngapuhi, the largest Maori tribe in the country, with a traditional haka dance and ceremony on Sunday,
The official powhiri, a Maori welcome ceremony, came in honor of Earth Day, and Yaakoby and Ngapuhi leaders exchanged trees. Yaakoby gave the tribe an olive tree, and the Ngapuhi gave him a kauri tree, which the event’s emcee said “may bend but will never break.”
“Being accepted by the Ngapuhi, the guardians of the land, and being here with this beautiful tree we brought and the exchange of trees that will be planted on the sacred land... the same week of Earth Day, for Israelis symbolizes peace,” Yaakoby said at the ceremony.
The Ngapuhi has 125,000 members, and is based in northern New Zealand.
The event was six hours long, followed by a two-hour economic discussion with a company established to strengthen ties between the Ngapuhi and Israel.
“The ceremony itself – acceptance as an honorary member of the Ngapuhi tribe – was offered to me and my family because I wanted to connect with the indigenous peoples [of New Zealand] and not just have official government ties,” Yaakoby explained on Wednesday. “The ceremony is very rarely offered.... It is a great honor.”
Yaakoby was welcomed by the Ngapuhi with traditional Maori songs and dances, with men wearing traditional garb and carrying spears. Yaakoby was outfitted with an adorned cape.
The ceremony included symbolically checking Yaakoby’s intentions, to be sure that he does not mean to attack them. He was presented with a wooden dagger, which he lifted in the air while making eye contact, to show that his intentions are not aggressive.
Next, Yaakoby presented his genealogy, so the tribe would know who it is welcoming.
Later in the ceremony, another group of men danced with oars and gave Yaakoby an hour-long ride on a waka, a Maori canoe, to symbolize his full acceptance into the tribe.
In a video distributed by the Israel Institute of New Zealand, a Ngapuhi elder explained welcoming Yaakoby into the tribe by citing Genesis 12:3, in which God says “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.”
“If we want to be blessed, we bless [God’s] children,” he said. “I am only part of the fabric, the twine and the weave of what God is doing.”