Religious life in Rātana and Ringatū is richly textured and deeply communal, combining public worship, family- and hapū-based rites, seasonal gatherings, and culturally inflected modes of devotional expression. Both movements make use of marae (communal meeting grounds) as focal spaces for ritual, but each also preserves movement-specific loci with historical associations. Rātana Pā, on the Whanganui River near the settlement of Rātana, developed in the early decades of the twentieth century as a centre for pilgrimage and organization associated with Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana (1873–1939). Ringatū was founded in the wake of Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki’s experiences in the late 1860s; Te Kooti (c.1832–1893) and his followers established a pattern of worship and covenantal practice that remained rooted in East Coast and Bay of Plenty communities and in other North Island localities where his influence was strongest.
A distinct sensory texture characterizes liturgy in both traditions. Ringatū services are often marked by the singing of psalms and the recitation of Old Testament passages in te reo Māori; the movement’s liturgical repertoire reflects Te Kooti’s foundational emphases on covenant, law and the Psalms, and many congregations sing the Psalms responsively in Māori translations. Observers and participants note the use of upraised hands in prayer—the gesture from which the name Ringatū (upraised hand) derives—and a disciplined, orderly pattern of ritual that interleaves scripture, waiata (songs), and karakia (prayers). Historical and ethnographic records indicate that Ringatū congregations have maintained stable patterns across scattered rural settlements, often meeting on marae or in whare karakia (prayer houses) that the movement established or adopted in places such as the Poverty Bay/Tairāwhiti region, parts of the Bay of Plenty and other East Coast rohe.
Rātana ritual life centers on large hui (gatherings), structured weekly worship, and the healing practices associated with Tahupōtiki Rātana’s ministry. By the early 1920s Rātana Pā functioned not only as an administrative centre but as a site of pilgrimage: adherents and visitors travelled there for healing services, communal prayer, and seasonal festivals. The movement’s calendar includes regular Sunday services, commemorations of the founder’s prophetic experiences that followers date to 1918 and the subsequent organizing years, and annual gatherings—commonly held during the summer months— that historically have drawn thousands of participants. Practices at Rātana services typically include collective singing of waiata, public testimony, the laying on of hands, and the administration of sacraments adapted from Protestant forms (such as baptism and communion) within a Māori cultural setting. Adherents describe these sacramental acts as being celebrated both in church-like spaces and on the marae, where they are accompanied by formal acknowledgement of whakapapa (genealogy) and the roles of kaumātua (elders).
Both movements engage intensively with Māori customary rites such as tangihanga (funeral rites), which remain central to social and spiritual life. Tangihanga performed for members of Rātana or Ringatū communities typically blend Christian prayers and scriptural readings with Māori lamentation, waiata and ceremonial address by kaumātua and whaikōrero (formal speeches). Mourners customarily stay on the marae, follow established hospitality protocols, and perform haka and laments; burials take place at local urupā (cemeteries) with rituals that integrate customary tapu and karakia. Births, marriages and deaths therefore unfold in hybrid liturgical spaces in which Christian sacramental forms and customary Māori law and practice are co-present. Baptisms and marriage rites in Rātana congregations resemble Protestant sacraments in form but are commonly celebrated on the marae and incorporate explicit ritual acknowledgement of tribal links and obligations.
Pilgrimage and calendar observance vary between the movements and by locality. Rātana’s annual gatherings at Rātana Pā—frequently scheduled in January in many years—are significant social as well as religious events that combine worship, political organisation and socializing; historical reportage and movement records from the interwar and postwar periods show these hui functioning as forums for communal decision-making and for articulating claims about land and representation. Ringatū communities maintain commemorations connected to Te Kooti’s life and to local histories of covenant-making; these events are frequently oriented around agricultural cycles, seasonal obligations, and local hapū responsibilities as well as liturgical seasons taken from the Christian calendar. Adherents explain these commemorations as acts of covenant remembrance, situating local history within a theological framework derived from Old Testament precedent.
Sacred objects and spaces are important focal points in both traditions. For Ringatū, particular copies of the Bible and Māori translations of the Psalms, memorial sites and designated meeting houses may assume sacral status within congregational life. For Rātana, the pa itself and its associated banners, processional standards and memorial sites function as loci of sanctity; Rātana Pā’s meeting houses, graves of prominent figures, and banners used in processions contribute to public identity and to the ritual mapping of sacred space. Marae on which Rātana or Ringatū communities gather are simultaneously cultural and religious centres: they host hui, whakapapa recitations, whaikōrero, and the negotiation of communal obligations, and they embody the entanglement of sacred and secular responsibilities.
Healing practices remain analytically central to understanding ritual life. Both traditions claim traditions of spiritual healing: adherents of Rātana historically emphasized cures and deliverance associated with Tahupōtiki Rātana’s ministry, and contemporary and historical newspaper accounts, as well as movement archives, document visits by individuals seeking healing in the 1920s and later. Ringatū ritual also includes prayers for divine intervention in times of illness and social distress; adherents often frame such interventions in terms of covenantal protection and deliverance. These charismatic elements—laying on of hands, public testimonies of cure and deliverance, and ritual petitions for wellbeing—have at times been controversial with mainline churches and historians, producing debates about orthodoxy that reflect wider conversations about charismatic practice in global Christianity.
Music, language and oratory sustain continuity and memory. Waiata (song), haka (ceremonial posture or chant), and te reo Māori prayers articulate communal identity; both movements have historically given preference to te reo Māori in worship, a choice that functions both to preserve language and to assert cultural continuity. The incorporation of Māori poetry, genealogy and local histories into liturgical speech means that worship serves simultaneously as liturgy, mnemonic performance and juridical proclamation: ceremonial speech acts can reaffirm rights, record grievances, and rehearse whakapapa claims. Practice varies by geography and generation: urbanization after World War II saw many adherents move to cities such as Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton and adapt worship to urban marae, halls and community spaces. Younger adherents and participants in Māori language revival initiatives frequently emphasize te reo Māori and cultural reclamation in liturgy, while older practitioners often stress continuity with earlier forms. The result is a living ritual ecology in which adaptation and preservation coexist.
In every case, ritual life in Rātana and Ringatū is inseparable from social life: worship, land, kinship and political claims are mutually reinforcing. Adherents hold that the movements’ rituals integrate personal piety with collective memory and sustain ongoing claims about land, mana (authority) and covenant that continue to shape Māori religious and political life in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Scholarly and archival sources, along with oral histories preserved by kaumātua and congregational leaders, provide the principal evidentiary base for reconstructing these practices and for understanding their changing expressions across regions and generations.