Hangi is the oldest style of Māori cooking. When Kupe arrived in Aotearoa, after a couple of pit-stops along the way in the Pacific Islands, he bought with him hangi, which is called umu in Samoa and Tonga, lovo in Fiji, imu in Hawaii and ahima'a in Tahiti.
The word hangi is derived from two Māori words, ha - the breath of life and ngi - the spark or essence of the whenua (land).
"Whenever we open meeting houses or break tapu, we have hangi because that brings us out of the spiritual world into the world of the living and brings us together," Spraggon told the Herald.
"Every community had a hangi master. Whether it was an aunty, uncle or brother, they were the caretaker of that hangi knowledge.
"They know what rocks to use, where to get them and, more importantly, how to prepare and cook the kai.
"But it has become a lost art as more and more whānau are using steamers and those types of cookers, so the real art form of hangi is being lost."
Spraggon is hoping to reignite that tradition with a made-for-TV reality programme to be filmed later this year. He will take rangatahi (youth) through a three-month hangi education course.
"We have to find ways to keep retaining the mātauranga - knowledge," Spraggon said.
The rocks, he says, holds the key to cooking a good hangi.
"You need rocks that can be heated to 700 degrees and hold that heat. The reason people come out with half-cooked hangi happens because of the rocks," he said.
"You don't just put in the rocks and walk away. There's an art to the different types of rocks. If you have the knowledge from the elders, then that makes it easier.
"It's the mauri (essence) of the rock that is released and cooks the kai when you prepare them correctly."
Hangi master Rewi Spraggon was providing 1000 meals a week to the homeless and food banks during lockdown. Photo / Michael Craig
During Aotearoa's first official Matariki celebration, Spraggon will assemble 11 of the country's top Māori chefs to showcase the indigenous holiday and the best of Māori kai.
The food and the wine will be served against the backdrop of traditional hangi-style cooking, fused with 2022 imagination and Kiwi wine.
This is the first year that Matariki will be marked. Spraggon hopes that one day Matariki will be embraced like Thanksgiving Day in the US, where whānau and communities come together to eat and celebrate.
Matariki had a resurgence in the early 2000s, and in 2009 the then Waitākere Mayor Bob Harvey lobbied Prime Minister John Key to make it an official holiday in June.
"But Key didn't want a bar of it," Spraggon said. "He joked that we should have it in August on his birthday."
