Tree · Whakatāne and Ōpōtiki, Eastern Bay of Plenty
Ngā Pou Herenga · The Funeral Guides Collective
Whānau-led, natural and affordable funerals · Eastern Bay of Plenty
Since 2019Works across the regionEastern Bay of Plenty
- community death care
- whānau-led funerals
- natural burial
- volunteer guides
The Funeral Guides Collective started after a 2019 public meeting run by the Eastern Bay Villages charitable trust. It trains volunteer guides who help whānau care for their dead themselves at home, in churches and on marae, without a funeral director or embalming, helping with planning, paperwork, cooling and natural burial. In 2024 it became a registered charitable trust, Ngā Pou Herenga.
Te Ao Māori News reported that the tūpāpaku stays with whānau from death to burial and is wrapped in biodegradable cloth dyed with kōkōwai. A Trust Horizon grant paid for cooling pads and BayTrust granted $10,000 for running costs. The trust filed accounts for the year to June 2025. No website of its own was found.