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National

Handmade Māori caskets, safe for the environment

Korowai Caskets is a Māori-owned company that creates handcrafted waka tūpāpaku, which it says are unique from typical coffins and fashioned with aroha.

Mahora Massey, of Te Arawa, is the owner, designer and builder of Korowai Caskets. She says although carving is a male-dominated profession, her expertise in art and design, as well as her experience working for a big casket manufacturer, encouraged her to start her own firm.

“It doesn't matter what materials you use, or what designs are on them, the fact that you get to use your hands as tools to push your aroha through, I think it's a huge honour and it's what inspires me,” she says.

Her caskets are handcrafted from untreated pine plywood and intended to be both robust and environmentally friendly, whether they are buried or burned, Massey says.

“I think we all need to take a little bit of responsibility for our environment and some people like to have that option, even with death and what type of coffin or casket they're going to choose.”

Massey works alone the bulk of the time and it takes her five to ten days to complete a casket. Her signature design is the long rail handles.

“We use the long rail type handles and they're beautiful, because you can have more than the six traditional pallbearers, and you can have children hanging on. And the lovely thing about that is it connects whānau together.”

Massey says it is important whānau are looked after.

“Our suppliers have been really carefully chosen to share the same values as us. We want to make sure that the caskets are looked after and the funeral directors are similar; they're gonna look after our whānau as well.”