No one was untouched by COVID-19
Aotearoa was still in a COVID-19 red traffic light setting when my mother-in-law Tinirau Barlow passed away in April 2022. Because my wife Tia had contracted coronavirus a few days earlier, we did not take Tinirau directly to her treasured Tūrangawaewae marae, and instead brought her to our Hamilton home. Tainui kaumātua, Taki Turner and Pita Te Ngaru, braved the conditions to come to our house and welcomed Tinirau as we carried her casket inside. Tia sat outside on the deck, isolated, wrapped in blankets, wearing a beanie, and a mask. Overcome with grief, she began live streaming with her mobile phone. Facebook notified me that she was streaming. After the speeches, I asked Tia why she had started live streaming, as she knew I was investigating live streaming tangihanga for my PhD research subject and that I had been opposed to sharing tangihanga publicly on Facebook. Tia was so overwhelmed with grief that she tried to find a way to share her loss with her wider whānau, just like many others did during the coronavirus pandemic.
Unfortunately, a few minutes of video were shared publicly following Facebook's algorithm, and we quickly deleted the post. We never intended to live stream the funeral of Tinirau because she was a private person, but Tia contracting COVID-19 had changed everything. We created a Facebook community page and both Tia and our daughter, Te Inuwai, invited whānau and friends to join, allowing us to control what was posted and who could view it. Tia negotiated with the Tūrangawaewae marae chairperson to record the pō mihimihi (final night of tangihanga) and the church service of her mother's tangihanga. Tia and other whānau and friends who could not attend were able to view these two parts of the tangihanga. Almost 300 people joined the Facebook community page. The comment posted by Tia's cousin, Brad Roy who lived in Canada, summed up the difference that live streaming made for those who could not attend physically. "I feel like I am there, Aunty Tini. Thank you for filming. I know you are keeping an eye on us now with a big smile" (B. Roy, personal communication, April 20, 2022). Our experience with live streaming parts of the tangihanga of Tinirau demonstrated that technology could help those unable to attend in person to grieve online. Beyond this, it also reinforced the need for a guide to assist whānau, hapū, and iwi to stream tangihanga. This research across three tiers sought to develop a solution to help people who were serious about streaming tangihanga to a virtual audience and who wanted to do so with integrity.
Tinirau Barlow, Ngāti Mahuta
