#themoreyouknow

Always the same footsteps.

These photos depict people exchanging hongi. Hongi is a traditional Maori greeting in which the two individuals press both their noses and foreheads together at an encounter; it is similar to a formal handshake, and is often used in conjunction with one. Through the hongi, our hais exchanged and merged. Ha can be translated as breath of life; it could be compared to an intermingling of souls. Exchanging of hongi can also bear the added significance of being no longer considered manuhiri, or a visitor to the islands, but as tangata whenua, a person belonging to the land (Aotearoa).

A comparablegesture can be found in Hawai’ian culture; the two greetings share a similar cultural significance (in regards to the sharing of ha).