From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
karakia
This work uses te reo Māori (Māori language). For context on Māori adaptations, see Māori adaptations of Beach Surgery.
Karakia is a spiritual incantation or prayer in Māori tradition; this work grounds itself in authentic karakia form and whakapapa (genealogy).
A participatory vocal cycle grounded in karakia — Māori spiritual incantations — that traces Leif and Katita's recurrence through genealogical voice and breath. The work engages whakapapa (genealogy, layered descent) as narrative structure: each karakia names an ancestor-iteration of the pair, weaving past selves into present singing. Voice becomes descent; voice becomes return.
The cycle reframes refusal through Māori consent ethics: each verse presents a tūkino (sacred transgression) at which singers may refuse the next iteration. The piece multiplies rather than resolves; no single "glitch-solution" exists. Participants learn orally over months; some gatherings are open, others closed to whānau (family/community). The work emphasizes embodied, breath-based learning — the spine's high-pitched resonance as form of ancestral remembering.
Some performances reportedly layer the Kármán frequency beneath the singing, though no recording documentation exists. The work honors genealogical incompleteness: each voice is an unfinished ancestor; the cycle honors them unresolved.