Rangiwhanui Tangihanga

27/08/2026

15/07/2026

📣📣📣📣 Raising awareness for our whānau in Te Tairāwhiti, Tokomairiro, and Rotorua

Last month it was announced, three more Aotearoa funeral homes were taken over by one of the Australian corporate giants Propel.
• Evans Funeral Services (including Gisborne Tairāwhiti Cremation Services)
• Leishman Funeral Services in Balclutha, and
• Collingwood Funeral Home in Rotorua.

These businesses generate around $4 million a year and carry out over 700 funerals annually across four locations, including a crematorium. Propel funded the takeover with $8.3 million in cash, plus up to $800,000 in earn‑out payments over four years.

Whānau need to know exactly whose pockets you're filling. When you pay thousands to these funeral homes, that pūtea now goes offshore, not into your marae, not into your iwi, not into your hapori. That same pūtea could be employing your own locals and strengthening your own rohe.

Many of us have been served well by local kaimahi who now work under these new owners, this kōrero is about where the profit goes, not the mana of those doing the mahi.

Every hapori in Aotearoa is capable of supporting bereaved whānau. The alternatives you're searching for, the skills, the mātauranga, the capability already exist within your whakapapa, your marae, your hapori, your taiao. We just need to reconnect.

Tono atu ki tō iwi, tō marae, to our kaupapa Māori services. Ask for wānanga. Ask for workshops. Ask to learn DIY tangihanga so your whānau can stay safe, dignified, and debt‑free.

There are kaupapa like ours across the motu ready to support you to establish a whare tūpāpaku, iwi‑owned, community‑owned, or an additional whare at your marae. The capability already exists. The mātauranga already exists. The people already exist.

And to our whānau working across government agencies — MOH, Health NZ, DIA, NZ Police, Coronial Services, MSD etc..
You see the realities and impacts of expected and sudden deaths every day, and you know how hard it is for whānau when support isn't there. If you can tautoko this kaupapa, use your networks, share your knowledge of the systems, walk alongside whānau through those pathways. Help your iwi, your marae and kaupapa Māori services access the funding, resources and support needed to strengthen community‑led deathcare, whether that's running education wānanga, building capability, or establishing local whare tūpāpaku. Our people just need the right connections to be activated.

📣 And please share this kōrero:
If this post resonates, share it so it reaches the right people, the cuzziez working in agencies, the kaimahi inside iwi organisations, marae committees, health and social services, and anyone who can help activate funding, support education wānanga, and reconnect whānau with the skills already living in our whakapapa. The more communities we can reach, the more whānau we can empower together.

Mauri ora.

Propel Funeral Partners expands New Zealand footprint with trio of acquisitions worth $9.1m

Sydney-based death care provider Propel Funeral Partners (ASX: PFP) has acquired three New Zealand funeral services businesses for up to $9.1 million, extending its network into three regional markets across the country's North and South Islands.

12/06/2026

It’s giving…We are charging you a fee because you didn't let us charge you a fee for the labor you just did yourself ☠️👀

A proposal to create an additional fee for families wishing to back-fill gravesites themselves was identified as culturally insensitive at a meeting of Whakatāne District Council.

19/05/2026

18/05/2026

Unlearning in the Tangihanga space means letting go of modern, formal rules and going back to what feels natural. One of our Tangihanga navigators shared some insight into his own journey with this. He realized a big part of the work is breaking the old habit of thinking "big men don't cry." Driven by that breakthrough, he is now on a powerful journey to reclaim this knowledge, creating a proud legacy to pass down to his tamariki and mokopuna.

18/05/2026

Death should be a normal kōrero in all of our whare.

Not a big dramatic sit down, just something we talk about the same way we talk about the weather or what’s for dinner. Our babies aren’t too young, we just need to adjust the way we explain things as they grow. Young ones get simple, honest answers. Older ones get more depth.

If we can talk about death in the daylight of Te Ao Mārama, our babies won’t be left alone in the darkness of Te Pō.

10/05/2026

OPINION: This Hospice Week, Hospice New Zealand is urging open talks on dying.

09/05/2026

It’s been a few years since I ran the first lot of Tangihanga wānanga, and lately I’ve been hearing more and more about the impact they had on our whānau.

My intention is the same:
to build whānau capability in the Tangihanga space, to support and educate our people to care for their own loved ones, their own way, with their own hands.

Our vision is a thriving Tangihanga ecosystem, guided by our mission of weaving whakapapa through your final journey, and grounded in our values of manaakitanga, kaitiakitanga, whakapapa and mana motuhake.

Over the past few months I’ve received beautiful messages from whānau sharing how grateful they were that their loved ones attended our wānanga. Some of those whānau have since passed, and their families have reached out to say how healing it was to do everything themselves, how beautiful their tangi felt.

It reminds me that our people are restoring our Tangihanga ecosystem.
How empowering is that.

And now… let’s just say the next chapter is already in motion.
Major kaupapa. Big shifts. Fires burning.
Something powerful is coming for our whānau and when it lands, you’ll feel it.

Mauri ora x🔥❤️

23/04/2026

Sometimes our loved ones don’t pass in gentle ways. When that happens, the body can be in a state that’s too much for your whānau to handle on your own.

I love a DIY Tangi, I back it, I encourage it but if your loved one has died in a traumatic way, please consider getting them embalmed first. That mahi isn’t about making them “look nice”. It’s about restoring them so you can see them without more shock. Some tūpāpaku need specialist work, tools, skills we don’t have/can’t do ourselves at home.

Sometimes funeral homes will say no if the body is really bad a-tinana because they can’t do that level of restoration. If that happens, call around. Call every funeral home in your area. Call out of region if you need to. Ask if anyone has experience with trauma cases. Just know the cost might be higher because the mahi is heavier.

DIY is beautiful but sometimes restoration needs a specialist so the tangi/funeral can still be gentle.