TE PAAHI – A BADGE OF HONOUR

Te Paahi, a visionary lived and instilled into his people the doctrine of peace and welcomed Christianity, trade missions and colonisation as the shadow of change. He probably lost his life in 1810 defending those virtues.

Karanga rang out across a freshly mown hilltop, to receive us to the site of Te Paahi’s home at Rangihoua in The Bay of Islands.  Our procession, bearing a small medallion lost for two centuries and earlier this year turned up at Sotheby’s in London for auction. We carried the small box, like a body in an open casket as kuia called us emotions filling the space where the taonga was laid on a korowai draped table. One kuia later told me, “We have waited two hundred years for this home-coming.”

There are moments in life never to be forgotten.  This weekend is one. Standing on this holy rise and looking across Pewhairangi, Te Paahi’s legacy for peace on earth and goodwill to all people resonated across a contrasting landscape of eternal peace and materialism; here an entire peninsular manicured to the inth of grass, the clash of two worlds is still evident, a moment both liberating and painfully sad; liberating in that whanau and hapu released from some of the grief they have endured.  And painful in kuia and koroma looking out across a patrimony no longer in their reach.  They called. Prayed. And sang hymns and waiata as well provided kai as a holy thanks-giving for this place, treasured waters, islands and land. But it was for the medallion they were shedding tears of joy and sadness. For them and us this was no ordinary journey. Thanks to Te Papa Tongarewa and Tamaki Paenga Hira for allowing this healing to take place. In this setting, words have power:  Te Wairua, Te Ihi, Te Mana, Te Wehi and Te Tapu ...  power, elegance, in moments of holiness conferred upon our tiny lives.

We were richly welcomed into the heart and soul of Ngati Rua, Ngati Torehina and later at Te Tii Marae by

Ngati Rehia

We gazed in awe.  We listened in awe watched by Maunga Matakaa.  From here we look across places with indelible layers of history written into the landscape.  Another told us, “You’re looking at where Marsden preached the first Christmas sermon across there at Oihi in 1814.”  The coastal coves and seaside cliff tops so redolent with living memories of our colonial past.

Te Paahi spent time in Port Jackson where he met and befriended Samuel Marsden. He and Marsden had long discussions on religion. Marsden was so impressed with Te Pahi's 'clear mind', and his eagerness to hear about English laws and customs, that he began to plan the establishment of a Church Missionary Society mission at Te Puna under Te Paahi's protection.  He also became good friends with Phillip Clarke, the governor of New South Wales who minted the medallion to weld their friendship.  To ensure a safe return for Te Paahi and his sons, King put at his disposal the Lady Nelson, which departed on 24 February 1806. Te Paahi and his many acquisitions arrived at Te Puna safely.  The Lady Nelson, loaded with spars and seed potatoes sailed back.  Te Paahi was quick to grab new opportunities

Te Ara, the son of a rangatira from Whangaroa, asked to work his passage home on a ship. An incident occurred which resulted in him being flogged. One source says that he refused orders claiming poor health and noble birth.  Others state that the ship's cook accidentally threw some pewter spoons overboard and falsely accused Te Ara of stealing them to avoid being flogged.   Upon reaching Whangaroa, Te Ara reported the indignities to his people showing them the whip marks on his back. In accordance with Māori custom, utu was necessary to restore mana. Under British law, whipping was the common punishment for minor crimes.  In Māori tradition, the son of a chief was a privileged figure who did not bow to an outsider's authority. Physical punishment of a chief's son, though justified by British law caused the chief to suffer a loss of mana which required utu.  Alexander Berry, the ship’s surgeon in a letter describing the event, said: "The captain had been rather too hasty in his ruling."

 Late in 1809 the new nation gasped when a 395 ton brigantine convict ship called at Whangaroa to load spars when on the third day, the Boyd was taken by vengeful Maori and the crew killed except three. The cargo was plundered and the ship burnt to the water-line. It was concluded that Te Paahi was responsible. The whalers too were inclined to believe in Te Pahi's guilt. 

What happened?  Tara, chief at Kororareka, the rival anchorage to that of Te Puna, did his best to convince the authorities that it was Te Paahi.  In retaliation, ostensibly to release captives, the crews of five whaling ships took Te Paahi's island by force on 26 March 1810.  About 60 of his people were killed and his property destroyed. Te Paahi, although wounded, escaped. But within days, he died from a wound suffered in the fighting. Marsden, convinced by accounts given to him by Nga Puhi leaders Ruatara and Hongi Hika in 1814, made strenuous efforts to clear his friend’s name.  He considered Te Paahi had been confused with a rival chief, Te Puhi of a Whangaroa hapu, Ngati Uru who raised The Boyd.

Te Paahi paved the way for missionaries to come to Aotearoa New Zealand by providing friendship, security, safety and land.  It wasn’t hard to imagine that the central issue was land - that is, an attitude to land.

 Maori have traditionally exploited their lands just as other peoples have done. When Te Paahi and his people got hold of Pakeha agricultural and fishing technologies in the early 1800s, they did it better than settlers.  What made it different was land wasn’t an item of individual ownership nor a disposable commodity.  Instead, land was the very abstract nexus of Turangawaewae, inherited rights to occupy and raise crops and families, but also to fish and snare and do other things.  The one thing you couldn’t do with it was to dispose of it.  It was a trust handed down.  The whole community, tribe or hapu lived as one with whenua as Kaitiaki, a different thing to ownership.

It’s now evening, and we’re called into the ancestral house, ‘Tino Rangatiratanga’, again we are flanked by rangatahi and mokopuna keen to view and touch their tipuna in the reawakening episodes of their tribal history unfolding right before them.  Tribal elders of Ngati Rua, Ngati Torehina and Ngati Rehia were bonded together by taonga – a time traveller come home. 

The memory of Te Paahi has survived the shadow of change.

Extraordinary.  How a small medallion, no bigger that a fifty-cent coin can do so much to bring disparate members of Ngati Rua, Ngati Torehina and Ngati Rehia together in a reunion of spirit, mind and body. As with Te Paahi, the medallion represents a pact of goodwill, trust and peace.

Before we left, we gathered inside the meeting house for Poroporoaki, a poignant moment as the children filed past and gently touched the taonga in mediation.  Another exquisite moment to take away.

Redemption is a huge issue that face us globally.  One of the most important things that take place in the hearts of the offended is the release from unresolved grief.  In the children today, Te Paahi’s legacy of Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all People lives on.  We are left feeling richer. 

Ae! He honore.

POTIKI TUAKANA TAONGA

“So long as kaumatua held the tensions between tohunga, tuakana and potiki in balance, the wellbeing of hapu remained robust.” Haare Williams speaking this week at Kaiaua, Firth of Thames.

Pa transformed the landscape into visible expressions of mana o te whenua by building impressive palisades and gateways. While these fortresses were great feats of earth-carved works of engineering, art and sculptures, they stood out as practical statements of strength and manifestations of mana over the land.  These represented unity, strength, infinity and spirituality (holiness) and social interactions. Maungakiekie is an example of tribal dominance over Auckland.

Three domains of protection: 

(1)     The domain of nga atua, the gods of te whare wananga o Tane, atua (deities) were accessed by tohunga ahurewa (high priest) via tuahu (sacred altar) and asked to provide kin group with bountiful harvests, safety, knowledge, spirituality and empowering wisdom 

(2)     The domain of marae-atea is where the complimentary, but different manifestations of tapu/noa, war/peace, host/visitor, male/female, senior/junior were skilfully woven and held together by kaumatua

(3)     The third domain of taonga representing the wairua of key ancestors, enabling rangatira during life crises to bind together the kin group as a singularly powerful entity, taonga is also an emblem of peace and trust

Rangatira (chief) possessing chiefly status, was imbued with mana and the authority conferred by the people, capable of making final decisions, power over life and death, a community worked to maintain the mana of the rangatira (chief) and hence mana of hapu

Tohunga (priestly leader, specialist and scholar) is a level of leadership within the tribe with access to atua (deities), a person regarded with awe and circumspection 

Tuakana is the first born of the chief the natural heir to the position of rangatira as senior of a set of siblings, has to be protective the position, younger siblings become a threat; potiki on the other hand is not hampered by sibling tensions (refer to Maui, the last born of Taranga).

Potiki is the entrepreneurially-minded class of Maori leader allowed to be on the ‘wild side’, ‘wilfully naughty’, and as ‘haututu’ such a child was looked on as potential leaders.  They were often brought up by grandparents.

Kaumatua held heritage and change in balance.  Potiki challenged heritage and sought change through feats of courage and rascality. While kaumatua represented heritage ways through the provision of customary tikanga (stability), upcoming potiki carried a propensity to challenge older siblings, parents or even elders. Tribal narratives are littered with stories of adventurous potiki who attempting to prove worthy of leadership, met a similar fate as Maui; the cost of life in the pursuit of immortality.

So long as the kaumatua held the tensions between tohunga, tuakana and potiki in balance, the wellbeing of hapu (kin group) remained robust.

Only through the marae forum of leadership (tangata whenua or ahi ka) could manuhiri (outsiders or visitors) gain legitimated access to tribal resources.  To attempt otherwise was to transgress boundaries and therefore provoke a crisis. 

But that is exactly what poitiki class of Maori leaders would do; challenge the boundaries of heritage and authority or the conservatism in their eagerness to explore new opportunities.  More often than not, a life-crisis would erupt, challenging the checks and balances of heritage versus opportunity. 

 

When the dust of war settled, it is on the marae that kaumatua again negotiated peace through tuku rangatira (gifting land rights), taumau (marriage alliances), moko taura (child adoption) and presentations of taonga (tribal heirlooms) beyond the tribe.  Boundaries are reaffirmed and taonga travel through the generations as solemn symbols of peace and trust. (eg Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipipi Te Waharoa personal mere to Cameron). 

It is during the tangihanga that the power of taonga becomes apparent.  Appropriately used, taonga assisted in ameliorating tribal tensions and the obligations being experienced by loss.  Taonga act as here (binding together) collapsing time so the ancestors they represent can be present guiding the wairua in its return to spiritual homelands.

A note about the most celebrated potiki of all.

Maui is potiki the last born of Makea Tutara and Taranga. He was potiki the youngest of a set of siblings, a trickster hero found in all myths. While the Greeks alluded to Homer, so it is with Maui a central and formative element in Maori and Pasifika cultures. These narratives bring out the search for immortal life, the distaste for incest, respect for elders and the recognition that sexual intercourse is a prerequisite for new life.  The conflict between the individual and group is brought out when he challenges the authority of elders. Because he is potiki, he is given freedom.  He is the representative free male and through him we are shown tikanga (the right way to do things).  The belief in mana is brought out in the rituals. It is Maui who rises up against overwhelming odds by ‘breaking’ the rules.  Maui potiki introduces the theme that trickery and deceit are acceptable if desired social goals are achieved.  He is also the benefactor of all human kind.  In Te Ika a Maui, he outwits his older brothers who could not overcome their greed for land. Maui’s final encounter with Hinenui Te Po was foretold, so the story justifies the Maori predictive powers of omens, prophecies and dreams.  His encounter with Hinenui Te Po provides a rationale for death the ultimate penalty, a warning for going too far.

The platform is there for junior children to step up provided they show intelligence, wit, boldness and cunning determination they too could rise and become rangatira.

Our world, for a start anyway can be seen through a prism of two worlds; Te Ao Maori, and Te Ao Pakeha, our two worlds in unity - Nga Ao E Rua. 

Haare Williams

Kaiaua 28 September 2014

Vocabulary

Haututu – wilfully naughty, inventive, creative

Hinenui Te Po – guardian of the spirits, death

Kaumatua – elderly male and female

Pakeha -denotes non-Maori, of European ancestry, a New Zealander

Maori - from tangata maori, ordinary, common people

Taonga – living treasures

Tauiwi – ‘just landed or recently landed’, also means ‘visitor’

Tikanga – doing what is right, the opposite is he (wrong doing)

Ihi – power, possibility, potentiality, spine tingling,

Wehi – fearfulness, awe, reverence

Wana – artistry (as in haka)

Mana – personal chiefly charisma, integrity, authority, trust

Wairua - living spirit, sacredness of life in all things

The Long Road to Redemption for the Crown ...

Haare Williams heard of the Tuhoe struggle through the many ponderous stories told to him by Wairemana, grand-daughter of Tutakangahau and felt her pain in episodes of inter-generational mamae. There was some cheer at Taneatua this week as Treaty Negotiations Minister; Hon Chris Findlayson announced the government’s formal apology for the continuous persecution of Tuhoe.  $170m some compensation for the bloody wounds held in silence, grief, rage and fortitude.  Maybe this week, as the cold wind of Okiwa blew across the valley, we felt a flicker in the light of redemption for The Crown.     

He rongo korero noake - I heard that last week Tame Iti with his Tuhoe kin welcomed into his heartland home of Ruatoki those who put him into the largest [i]Hinaki’ in the country with a glass of distilled red wine.

I heard that … Tuhoe; people of “The Mist,” a story of survival.  I was a blessed grandson surrounded by the Tuhoe narrative handed down from her dad, Taihakoa Poniwahio of Ruatoki and her grandfather, Tutakangahau of Waikaremoana.

I heard that … Te Kooti and Rua Kenana were their links to the remnants of their land and the common ties that brought them together. I heard that … the negative Pakeha (state) constructs of Tuhoe as dissidents who provided sanctuary for criminals in the Urewera canopy of bush, mountains and mist.  They were painted as a people that should always be treated with distrust.

I heard that … the intrusions of the state into Te Urewera borders on trumped up charges of being “… in pursuit of refugees and fugitives”. I heard that … the forced session of Tuhoe lands around Waikaremoana – all the way to Ruatoki, Waimana, Ohiwa, Pekatahi and Opouriao happened for alleged disloyalty.

I heard that … Kenana, the Prophet founded his community on non-violence, strict hygiene standards, a school, a marae and a temple with compulsory schooling and church attendances, a savings bank, savings of £31,000, superannuation, a farming co-operative, and as well a settlement run by his own parliament.

I heard that … Tamaikoha visited officials amongst them PM Richard Seddon and the courts to fight to protect Tuhoe lands, bush and water. 

I heard of … the rape of the land and the mana of a peaceful people wanting their independence yet forced through poverty to eke out a living without the resources they once managed to a white legislative hegemony of looters who came in the guise of missionaries, surveyors, soldiers and politicians, miners and cattle barons.  They came as the advanced occupying guard – their lust for land was endemic.  Teachers and nurses they trusted.

I heard that … Te Kaunihera Whitu Tekau-The Council of Seventy outstanding leaders: Nūmia, Tamāikoha, Tūtakangahau, Rakuraku, Tamarau, Te Ahikaiata, Te Makarini, Tāpeka, Te Kererū, Poniwāhio, Te Amo all the way to Tāmati Kruger and Tame Iti.  Historian Judith Binney described them as,

 “… actively seeking to protect lands of Tuhoe.”

“… ka tangi ki tēnei taonga e hohou nei i te maungārongo ki te whenua, whakaaro pai, whakawātea i te whakamomori i uhia ake nei ki runga ki a Ngāi Tūhoe, kua mahea rā haere whakamua.” 

(I grieve, not for the past but for the future as this taonga laid out on the marae reminds us of the peace that will come over the land; one that will set us free from the bonds of grief.)

A tribute by Tuhoe kaumatua, [ii]Te Rangi Puke at Waikirikiri Marae, Ruatoki to Kahurangi Judith Te Ohomairangi o te Aroha Binney on Monday 30 November 2009 at the launch of her book ‘Encircled Lands 1821-1916’.

I heard that … Knowledge is emancipating, knowledge is a freedom held in waiata of a long trail of betrayals that bite deep, but Tuhoe today sees knowledge as a precursor for healing wounds rendered over 140 years.  The mending is a long way off.  The state cannot salve its guilt in a bottle of distilled red wine from the rich Earth of confiscated fields in Opouriao for the ultimate redemption can only come from Earth and from God.

I heard that … the final chapter of this saga is about redemption and moving ahead as Kruger put it, “… it’ll take time for us to heal but the state must bear the ultimate guilt.” 

I heard that … Tuhoe is now holding its breath for the state to do the right thing by them.  May the battle end, but they ask, “… when will the war end?”

I heard that … when Rua Kenana, The Maungapohatu prophet stepped forward to peacefully receive Police Commissioner, John Cullen with ninety-nine fully armed and mounted police on Sunday 2 April 1916, and his powhiri was crushed with violence and the deaths of two; his son Toko and a follower, Te Maipi.  What happened in Ruatoki seven years ago; was this an episode of history repeating itself: Parihaka, Rangiaowhia, Rangiriri, Pukehinahina, Ngatapa, Bastion Point …

I heard that … the people of Ruatoki still cannot believe that their sleepy hollow was rudely woken up on Monday 15 October 2007 to a violence that hovers still in their peaceful corner of Earth. 

“I got up early on Monday and drove to my Kohanga Reo.  About 3kms from home, I was stopped by a strange site that still frightens me.  There was this road block and six cops, well I thought they were cops on the road, masks covering their faces and armed with machine guns (I think).  I was rudely asked to, “… step out!” which I did.  Then they lined me up against my number plate and photographed me.  After about an hour, they let me go without answering my questions.  I didn’t know that Tame Iti had been arrested until I got to my Kohanga Reo.  So now we’re terrorists.”  (Interview [iii]Te Umu Mere McGarvey, Tuhoe Kuia, Ruatoki 16 October 2007)

I asked Tuhoe Treaty negotiator Tamati Kruger, “What is the price for $170m?”  His reply, “It’s not the price but the cost.” 

At the heart of our nation is a spirit of goodness, the light of redemption that Kruger is holding up for us above the gloom from which shines maungarongo (reconciliation, restitution and redemption), whanaungatanga (hospitality, generosity and respect), Kaitiakitanga (protection of natural and spiritual richness), and mana (integrity of both partners of the treaty). 

I heard myself say, “… thank you Tamati thank you Tame, thank you Tuhoe for showing us how naked we look in the wake of a litany of betrayals. Nga mihi nui ano hoki Chris Findlayson ...”.

He rongo korero noake - I heard that, tonight as Tame Iti takes a deep breath, a reprieve from Te Hinaki and the courts, he’ll be celebrating with “Hei Tira Tira-Hey Diddle Diddle …”, he holds above his head a bottle to celebrate, but you can be sure what he’s holding up is not a Molotov cocktail.

---

[i] Hinaki – jail, prison, internment, a trap for eelsinaki

[ii] Te Rangi Puke died earlier this year haere e te rangatira, haere atu ra.

[iii] Te Umu Mere McGarvey – daughter of Tuhoe rangatira and leader, Kūpai McGarvey

AMOKURA

A student in Haare’s Te Reo class described the Maori language as “ ... te reo gave me another feathered wing to fly.”

In Oceania, there's a bird called Te Amokura.  It is greatly valued for its beautiful bright-red plumage and its elegance in flight.  It is rarely seen in New Zealand now, but for most of us there are only its feathers seen on the feathered cloaks that remain in Museums. - two steps away from paradise.

Some feared the fate of Te Ro in its flight to survival.  Some knockers told us Te Reo will decline to a minority ceremonial language like a museum relic that enshrines the dead of a past glory.  Is Te Reo safe?

While there are over 80,000 plus non-Maori now enrolled in Te Reo classes around the country, the first language of New Zealand isn't safe.

Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori has been and gone but should we not continue and make every week a week for all things precious?  The danger of loss resides here in Aotearoa, as the loss of Te Amokura in Oceania is a loss to the identity and education across Oceania.

Like any plague the danger is progressive and contagious.  As with other killing diseases, it thrives on ignorance and neglect.  Carl Dodson, a recent academic to visit here, begged us to preserve the Maori language as a unique heritage of New Zealand. “If it dies”, he reminded us, “It will be through neglect by both Maori and Pakeha.  “if it is to survive it is here.”

The Maori Language has survived.  Slowly!  Grudgingly slow!  Maori activism to recognise te reo came in 1975 with Te Hikoi from The Far North to the steps of parliament.  Whina Cooper, Syd and Hannah Jackson petitioned government to recognise the Maori Language in statute.

Eventually, te reo was given official status under the Maori Language Act 1987.

This was seen as a great break through. The protagonists argued that it wasn't just about language or education that was at stake but personal and national identity.  They remonstrated and told a nation that the cycle of alienation is problematic and expensive to break.

“At thirteen I continued to learn te reo because it gave me so much pleasure.  I was inspired enough to carry on at varsity.  Te reo gave me a connection to the land that runs deep for me.  This is for me a gateway to the story of our land, our history, our identity as a people drawing upon the rich cultures of Britain and New Zealand. Te reo gave me another feathered wing to fly.” (Anna)

Let us heighten and keep what is Good in a world growing small every day.  We are sometimes submerged under a tidal wave of Free Market propaganda.  Allow ourselves, especially our kids to know what is precious and wear their taonga like an outer garment, as a badge of honour.  Find a purpose in life and live it’

Isn't it true that those who are dispossessed of their mana become possessed by it? 

Maybe, just maybe we can once again see a battered taonga rise and soar above our skies. 

Note.

According to Elsdon Best Te Amokura, the red tropical bird was prized by Maori as a rare taonga for its long red plumage, also a valuable item in barter. Its visits to New Zealand are very rare either blown here or wrecked in a storm..

AMOKURA

A student in Haare’s class described the Maori language as “ ... te reo gave me another feathered wing to fly.”

In Oceania, there's a bird called Te Amokura.  It is greatly valued for its beautiful bright-red plumage and its elegance in flight.  It is rarely seen in New Zealand now, but for most of us there are only its feathers seen in feathered cloaks that remain in Museums. - two steps away from paradise.

Some still fear the fate of te reo in its flight for survival from extinction.  Some knockers told us te reo will decline to a minority ceremonial language like a museum relic that enshrines the dead of a past glory.  Is te reo safe?

The danger of irretrievable loss is greatest here in Aotearoa New Zealand which, like any plague the danger is progressive and contagious.  As with other killing diseases, it thrives on ignorance and neglect.  Carl Dodson, a recent academic to visit here, begged us to preserve the Maori language as a unique heritage of New Zealand. “ If it dies”, he reminded us, “It will be through neglect by both Maori and Pakeha because its only home, if it is to survive is here.”

Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori has been and gone but not forgotten.  The Maori Language has survived.  Slowly!  Grudgingly slow!  

Maori activism to recognise te reo came in 1975 with Te Hikoi from The Far North to the steps of parliament.  Whina Cooper, Syd and Hannah Jackson petitioned government to recognise the Maori Language in statute.

Eventually, te reo was given official status under the Maori Language Act 1987.

This was seen as a great break through. The protagonists argued that it wasn't just about language or education that was at stake but personal and national identity through the taonga of ancestors.  They reminded the nation that the cycle of alienation is problematic and expensive to break. I commend some eighty-thousand non-Maori New Zealanders today learning te reo.

“At thirteen I continued to learn te reo because it gave me so much pleasure.  I was inspired enough to carry on at varsity.  Te reo gave me a connection to the land that runs deep for me. This is for me a gateway to the story of our land, our history, our identity as a people drawing upon the rich cultures of Britain and New Zealand.  Te reo gave me another feathered wing to fly.” (Anna)

Let us heighten and keep what is Good in a world growing small every day. We are sometimes submerged under a tidal wave of Free Market propaganda.  

Allow ourselves, especially our kids to know what is precious and wear it as  taonga, like an outer garment, as a badge of honour if you like.  Find a badge in life and live it.

One day, with your help and our collective support for a rare and beautiful taonga, we may once more see the full plumage of Te Amokura soaring above our skies.

Note.

According to ethnologist Elsdon Best, Te Amokura, the red tropical bird was prized by Maori as a rare taonga for its long red plumage, also a valuable item in barter. Its visits to New Zealand were very rare either blown here or wrecked in a storm.. 

A stitch that binds time

In all its holiness, Hotunui embodies all that has symbolic and practical meaning.   For Haare Williams the pulsating, vibrancy of Hotunui is held together and dominated by a singular word mounted on the face of the house; the name ‘Hotunui’

 “… haere mai koutou, piki mai, kake mai.  Kua tae mai ki te poho o Hotunui!”

Welcome to the pride of Marutuahu of Thames and Ngati Awa of Whakatane.  Hotunui   one of the jewels in the crown of The Auckland War Memorial Museum is a living taonga of all Marutuahu iwi; Ngati Maru, Ngati Whanaunga, Ngati Tamatera, and Ngati Paoa.  In here, in the body of this great house, we feel the warmth and presence of ancestors.  Feel too, the dynamics of a people who assembled an assortment of resources like food, flour, gold, £1000, with a labour intensive force consisting of men and women to build this whare, a wedding gift.  Men worked the wood, and groups of women gathered harakeke, kakaho, pingao and kiekie. 

Hotunui is the progeny of these tribes who came to dominate a strategic area of coastal New Zealand.  This house embodies changes that were actively shaping New Zealand society in the 1880s. 

Hauraki and Whakatane communities were already undergoing major changes from a rationally Maori economy based on kinship ties, reciprocity and payment in kind, plunged inextricably into a cash economy of gold mining, farming and horticulture, shipping and a variety of small business enterprises.  You could say, Maori kicked off the free market ideology.  True also in the religious circles of life. Maori values were irrevocably reshaped by Christian beliefs and practices.  Hotunui displays the use of steel tools and techniques which revolutionised the character and size of meeting houses that saw innovations in style, size, and decorations.  You’ll see bold new applications which took on a new turn in the 1880s.

Hotunui is the product too of the post Land War Years.  Houses in this era experienced a revolution in new materials, colour, European and religious symbols and tools which added to a new expressionism in meeting houses.  Hoterenui Taipari, chief of Marutuahu, made a speech in 1868, “I look forward to a time of peace in a united nation and you must all be steadfast in love forever.” 

He called in Ngati Awa to do the job.  His reason, to seal the relationship through marriage, but they were renowned carvers and house builders.  Hotunui is more than a wedding gift.

Look carefully to the walls and you’ll catch something unique in the poupou depicting the fish-like features of Ureia, a marakihau or taniwha carved in the traditions of Mataatua.  It is only one of the standout features in Hotunui.  Look again, the tukutuku panels and know that these are some of the oldest in existence, hence their fragility and wear.

In all its holiness, Hotunui embodies all that has symbolic and practical meaning.   For me the pulsating, vibrancy of Hotunui is held together and dominated by a singular word mounted on the face of the house; the name ‘Hotunui’.  This is the name that unifies the whole of Marutuahu and Ngati Awa. 

In Hotunui, the ancestors are celebrated through legendary depictions of heroic deeds thereby providing a visually rich narrative of tribal history.  This is the ultimate source of mana which looks to honour the past, preserve the present and protect the future. 

  “Maori cosmology locates past time to the front, while the future lies behind one.  Being unknown the future is behind the person where it cannot be seen.  Maori move into the future with their eyes on the past.”

Neich 1993:124

For Manuhiri walking in her, unfamiliar with the symbolic meaning that surrounds them, it can be overwhelming to the point you can observe everything but see little..  There’s more here than you see.  I am connected to Hotunui through Ngati Awa and so for me, Hotunui is my university, my library, my church, my courtroom, a place to celebrate whanau weddings and birthdays and a place where I can extend the sanctity of saying goodbye to our dead. It is a place where I belong, a seamless connection that which continues to provide the link with my past through the avante garde of modern Maori art, music, literature and to the cosmology that is me.

Elders Walter Taipari, Huhurere Tukukino, and Emily Paki once reminded me in an interview of the precious connection they held with Ngati Awa.. 

The principle of ‘Utu’ sustains that which is rich and enduring in Maori culture.  Many, Maori amongst them, confuse the meaning of ‘utu’ as revenge.  Hotunui isn’t just a simple wedding gift but one that reaches out across whanau, tribal and political boundaries. 

Utu is a ‘return’ for a favour or ‘debt ‘given.  The ‘return’ can occur immediately but in some instances it could take the richness of time to occur, a year, decades or a generation may pass, but the ‘debt’ was never closed.  Time distilled the mana of the gift.  The greater the expression of generosity, the greater is the mana of the return.  The principle of ‘utu’ is reciprocity embodied in three values: giving, receiving and returning. When a ‘gift’ is given the recipient is immediately ‘obligated,’ to return.  The giving or the return is done with a little bonus and keeps the recipient in continuous ‘debt’.  Utu is never closed.  Insults, theft, injury; these are bad gifts and can escalate into full-scale fighting, war and death.  But ‘utu’ is also the reciprocal exchange for good gifts like a house (Hotunui), a waka (Toki-a-Tapiiri), a white stallion, cloaks, a mere, and baskets of kumara or cash in an envelope.  In times past, the ultimate gift was that of land, then a gift of a bride or the gift of a child.  Polished greenstone was highly valued. 

When you walk in here, you feel the classicism, the elegance, beauty, and mana and know you’re amongst aristocratic rangatira.  Although built in the 1880s, it remains in 2014 a vital symbol of a rich past, and for a future based on the verity of tribal growth and economic independence.  I also see a precise reading of the barometer of a culture in change as it did in the 1880s.  Maori culture isn’t fading away into some homogenized heap at the bottom of the political and economic garden.

 “Hotunui pulls together the unbroken fibres that stitch our people together; past, present and future.” (David Taipari, Marutuahu leader 2013)

Hotunui the house will always add to the fund of knowledge that helps us dip a little deeper into the social and spiritual springs of our land and know what it means to be people of the land.  Ae!

Tangata whenua.

It’s here for you of the world to enjoy.

WAIORA

WAIORA-LIVING WATER

The Maori view is that wai (water) is the spiritual substance of Papatuanuku-Earth. Over generations, they have found that contaminated water, especially if t contains fecal coliforms cause disease and likely death.

Not knowing anything about microbiology the logical response or the well observed ressonse have always been to see things from a spiritual way, that from te taha wairua.  Uncontaminated water had the ability to allow life.  

I grew up with grans Wairemana  and Rimaha in a remote New Zealand harbour coast.  They saw water as waiora or 'life giving.' This was not a casual observation but one tested over generations of sanctions (tapu) and sanctified use (noa).

The first classification they made was that water possessed 'Wairua' or by another name, 'Waiora'.  This is the purest form imbued with the spirit to create and nurture life and to counteract evil and sustain well being and safety. 

Wai maori is ordinary water with no suspended solids, highly oxygenated  special properties excepted with no spiritual significance. 

The third classification is Wai unu or drinking water without special properties excepted additives, substance is suspended.  Wai kino (dangerous water) or water containing any level of pollution which debase the mauri of water which has been altered with the spiritual component changed and can be harmful; rapids, swirling springs come under this classification.

Waimate is water which has lost its mauri and is dead, damaged or polluted. Water in this category is highly dangerous to the wellbeing of persons.  This water has lost its ability to give life.  In Maori philosophy, it is almost impossible to restore the mauri ora' to water that has been so affected. Maori know that waiora and wai maori are fundamental to environmental systems and regard any form of water contamination as totally unacceptable. Maori say that waste water must be disposed on land and not in water.

Today as we face global warming, the Maori perspective to water is becoming increasingly relevant. Maori see environmental challenges to include a holistic view where everything is interconnected through whakapapa to Ranginui (Sky) and Papatuanuku (Earth).  The cultural landscape has a continuous and cultural extension with natural features such as water catchment, forests, bush, marshlands as well as physical formations such as valleys, estuaries and features that link with kainga, waahi mahinga kai, Parekura, ara, paparahi, waahi tapu not to mention people who live 'back home' on the land (ahi kaa).

Kaitiakitanga is the exercise for the spiritual protection of things precious like water with its potentiality to give life.