Mana'aki
Mana'aki is a collection of ritual practices performed to maintain a connection to the ancestors, attend their needs and allow them to participate in the lives of the living. Every hakanu is taught the basic rituals of mana'aki to attend to the spirits of their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Beyond that, as the dead enter fully into the spirit realm of Utulhuanu, only the specially trained tukuoro are capable of contacting them.
The most important part of mana'aki is remembering the stories of the ancestors' lives, who they were, what they did, and what they experienced. Living hakanu must remember these things to remind the ancestors of who they were and so maintain a connection to the world of the living and recognize their decendents. It is through these practices that Utulhuanu is maintained as a home for the departed.
Over generations though, these stories grow in the telling. Warriors become supernaturally gifted masters of battle. Those with a gift for water magic become elemental powers in their own right. The eldest ancestors are woven into stories of the creation of the world and its characteristics. Young hakanu are taught these stories as truths as real as the face of their own mothers and in turn teach their children. The stories are told back to the ancestors and in the telling, the ancestors become greater. They gain the powers attributed to them in the stories.
Over time, the koroua, eldest ancestors of the hakanu, have become associated with great exploits in life or aspects of nature in the minds of the people and through these beliefs, gained power over those aspects, but only through the wills of the living. This is the power of mana'aki.
The masters of these stories are the tukuoro. With the exploits of the koroua on their lips they can summon the ancestors, causing them to manifest as they are presented in their stories. When aroused by the tukuoro, they can rend the ground, cause the seas to rage or rain lightning and fire, or come into the bodies of living hakanu and invest them with their power for a time.
More recent ancestors are also capable of acting through their ancestors in this way, and are known to help their descendents in great need in small ways, particularly those with whom they shared a close relationship and maintained the relationship after death.
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