Marae
The Maori communal meeting ground, with its carved meeting house and dining hall.
Also: meeting house, wharenui
A marae is the focal point of a Maori community, a fenced area of open ground in front of a carved meeting house, wharenui, which stands for an ancestor, with the ridge as the backbone and the rafters as ribs. A dining hall, wharekai, is nearby. It is the place for welcomes, meetings, weddings, birthdays and funerals, the tangi, with rules for how to enter, speak and act. Visitors remove their shoes before going inside. The marae gives a sense of belonging, and everyone with ancestry to it may speak on it. Hundreds of marae stand across New Zealand.
Region: Oceania