A Bay of Plenty Discovery

The day I left Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty on my recent travels around New Zealand, I took my time, dawdling first in the lovely, little seaside village of Maketu before carrying on to sunny Te Puke.

I was so distracted by my thoughts about Maketu - and how much I loved the place - that as I drove out of Te Puke I almost missed this marae - Tuhourangi Marae. If it hasn't been for the bright school gateway on this Te Kura Kaupapa Maori, I would have sailed straight past.
The gate is a memorial, unveiled in 1948, to Maori soldiers killed in battle. It was when I was walking back to my car after photographing the gate that I looked up and saw the marae in straight in front of me across the busy highway. I took these shots from there. I haven't hadd time to find out anything about the marae, other than it sits in the Rohe of Waiariki/Te Arawa. If any readers can enlighten me further please leave a comment.

Architecture - Traditional and Contemporary.

There's something wonderfully unexpected about coming upon a Marae in the middle of highrise architecture.

That's what I thought when I spotted Auckland University's Nga Wai o Horotia Marae, dwarfed by the towering highrise on Symonds Street in Auckland a few weeks ago. Wonderful iron gates of a contemporary design too - I wonder who designed those?

As I travel New Zealand I'm so used to finding marae tucked away down little side roads, often well off the beaten track, that I did a double-take when I first glimpsed this one and wondered if I might be imaging it.

Museum Stories

I took these two photographs in Auckland Museum last year. I was taken not only with the beauty of the carving but also the story behind how they came to be there. The boards were created in the late 18th century by the Te Whanau-a-Apanui people of the eastern Bay of Plenty (East Cape) at Maraenui, near Te Kaha. The museum exhibit shows the central barge boards (maihi) and doorway (kuwaha) of a pataka (storehouse), which was dismantled in the early 1820s and moved to Raukokere, where new carvings were begun. Before they were completed they were hidden in a cave at Te Kaha to protect them from the 1823 raids by the Northland Ngapuhi tribe. They were recovered from the cave in the 1890s and bought by the Auckland Museum in 1912. I have featured the Maraenui Marae, Te Kaha and Raukokere on this blog previously. Just click on any of the names in the label line below this post to take you to photographs of each of them.

Te Kaha - An East Coast Marae

The skies were putting on a show the afternoon I rolled into the little east Coast town of Te Kaha - home to around 350 people, who live in homes gathered around the Te Kaha Marae - sometimes also called Tukaki Marae

The main coast road curves around the small hill that offers the marae a commanding outlook up and down the coast. Across the road, in total contrast, sits the new Te Kaha Hotel, which clings to the cliffs above a wide sweep of East Coast beach.

There wasn't a soul about the day I drove through and, with an eye on the clock and due in Hicks Bay later that afternoon, I only had time for a brief stop. But it was nice to sit there and reflect on how the marae scene might have looked back in 2007, when locals staged a massive powhiri (welcome), for Corporal Willie Apiata to celebrate his being awarded the Victoria Cross. Apiata - like New Zealand filmmaker, Taika Waititi, calls this marae home. I suspect the little community hadn't seen so much action for decades, as then-Prime Minister Helen Clark, Defence Force chiefs and Maori dignitaries arrived to congratulate Willie Apiata in the traditional Maori way. Also in the traditional Maori way, the crowd of over 3,000 visitors was treated to a traditional hangi feast - crayfish, mussels, oysters, titi (mutton bird) and more - prepared by the Te Kaha locals. All of that required tractors to help burrow out hangi pits big enough to cope with the numbers.

Te Kaha Marae sits within the rohe (tribal area) of Te Whanau-a-Apanui.

www.apanui.co.nz

Top of the South

The Nelson region, at the top of the South Island, is home to the eight tribes of Te Tau Ihu (Nelson-Marlborough) – the legacy of thousands of years of migration and intermarriage. They are Ngati Kuia, Rangitane, Ngati Apa, Ngati Toa, Ngati Koata, Ngati Rarua, Ngati Tama and Te Ati Awa. Whakatu Marae, in Nelson itself, is one of seven marae in the region. It’s a large complex (10 hectares) that includes this beautiful wharenui, housing for the kaumatua (elders) a kohanga reo (pre-school language nest) and a centre for health and social services. I stopped by when I was travelling the length and breadth of New Zealand in April-May (travel guide research) and took these photographs. I particularly liked the detailed exterior carvings of warriors paddling a waka (canoe) along the roofline of the wharenui (meeting house).

The destinies of the Te Tau Ihu tribes improved significantly with the establishment of the Wakatu Incorporation in 1977. The organisation today manages multi-million assets that include agriculture, forestry, commercial developments, orchards, viticulture, fisheries, marine farming and subdivision development. There has also been a significant move toward the restoration of marae, the establishment of kohanga reo and health and training centres. www.wakatu.org

Of Film and Marae

It was a pleasant afternoon back in early May when I arrived in the small Hokianga settlement of Whirinaki in the Far North. The first thing that caught my eye were the two cute red-roofed churches – they stand like little beacons all over rural Northland and I love them. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to stop and visit them but I did drive down the road that lead to Whirinaki School, the local kohanga reo (Maori pre-school) and Moria Marae. I didn’t venture anywhere near the marae as the flag was flying and there were people all about. The flag is usually the sign of a tangi (funeral) in progress and I think people deserve privacy at times like that.

I have since discovered that Moria Marae recently hosted the 3rd Hokianga Film Festival, which acknowledged the feature films of the late Barry Barclay, an influential New Zealand filmmaker, theorist and writer, who took part in the 2007 festival.
Barclay was and still is highly regarded within the New Zealand film industry. His television series Tangata Whenua and his feature films The Neglected Miracle, Te Rua, The Feathers of Peace and The Kaipara Affair all cemented him as someone with a unique ability to understand - and capture on film – the essence of Maori community and bicultural New Zealand. I would have enjoyed seeing the 2009 festival with its emphasis on locally-produced material telling local stories. Not only is it a wonderful opportunity for established and aspiring filmmakers to come together to learn and share their skills and knowledge, it also provides an insight into the often unsung heroes of local communities – and within Maori communities there is a richness of story-telling that to my mind, is frequently overlooked. It’s good to see that this festival is well supported by Creative New Zealand, The Film Archive, the New Zealand Film Commission and the Hokianga Community Educational Trust.

On a Hill

Whitianga Bay, 51.2km north east of Opotiki on the North Island’s East Cape, is one of the prettiest beaches you’ll find. I arrived there, on my recent North Island travels, on May 8th. It was a sunny afternoon at 1pm and when I saw the sign pointing to Whitianga Marae, I turned right and drove up a short, steep, gravel road and found myself directly in front of the marae. It sits on a grassy knoll overlooking the beautiful expanse of ocean and the pretty horseshoe bay, with a thicket of pine forest rearing up behind the buildings. I felt at ease there. I felt a strong sense of peace and calm for reasons I couldn’t explain and I stayed for some time, sitting out the front of the marae, thinking about all the people who might have walked under its divine, ornately carved waharoa (gateway).

I loved its lively painted fence. I admired the lush pa harakeke (flax grown for weaving) that grew to one side of the car park. I wondered about the war memorial commemorating the lives of all those lost in both world wars, the Korean war, the Malaysian and Indonesian conflicts and the Vietnam war; and I thought about the statue commemorating the life and bravery of Te Moananui-A-Kiwa Ngarimu (1918-1943), who at 24 was a second lieutenant in the 28th Maori Battalion in Tunisia in World War II. Of Ngati Porou and Te Whanau-a-Apanui descent, Ngarimu grew up in Rotorua. He was awarded the VC posthumously.

One of the most striking things about the Whitianga Marae is the beautifully-carved waharoa and as the afternoon shifted, I took great delight in photographing the marvellous shadows it cast across the marae lawn. They seemed to have a life of their own and as they stalked across the grass, it was almost as if the carving was coming to life. All up it was a beautiful little stopover that I still think about frequently.

Inanga Season

Whitebaiting on The Avon River, Christchurch 2008 Ajr

It’s whitebait season again. I was reminded of that twice last week – when I saw the ‘baiters’ working the Avon River and when I visited Riccarton Market and saw a stall selling whitebait fritters. Most New Zealanders are familiar with whitebait and have probably tasted them at some point in their life. What most people don’t know is that five separate galaxiid species make up the whitebait catch – inanga, banded kokopu, koaro, short-jaw kokopu and giant kokopu. Inanga (Galaxias maculates) is the most common in most river systems. All whitebait species spend part of their life cycle in fresh water and in the ocean and it is estimated that over 99.5 percent of the larvae die between hatching and returning from the sea as whitebait. Some of those inevitably end up in the whitebaiters’ nets and that’s just the way most whitebaiters like it.
At The Box, Waimate. Ajr
I’ve had some terrific encounters with whitebaiters in the name of journalism. Last year I did a story on the fishermen who trawl for whitebait within the residential stretches of the Avon River in Christchurch; I’ve watched the men at The Box, just off the coast near Waimate, fighting the treacherous seas to fill their buckets with their favourite delicacy; and I’ve interviewed the kaumatua of Arahura on the West Coast for one of Ngai Tahu’s Te Karaka magazine kai features. It was for the latter that I spoke with Te Maori Raukawa, who told me she was 83 the last time she went whitebaiting at the Arahura River mouth just north of Hokitika. We were all sitting down on the banks of the Arahura River, the sun on our backs, the skylarks singing, the sock nets in place in the river and chef, Jason Dell moving his spatula with a calming rhythm that lulled the hungry kaumatua into a state of mouth-watering anticipation.

Riccarton Rotary Market, Christchurch. Sept. 2009 Ajr
It was a happy scene that reminded Te Maori of the hundreds of times she and her late husband, Hector, had scooped at the river mouth for hours on end, going out on one tide and staying until the next. “It was hard work but it was lovely when everyone was fishing. They’d all set up in their own places and we were all related, so it was a very social time. But the bait are not as thick as they used to be,” she lamented at the time. I remember being amazed at the time when they told me stories of having so much whitebait in their nets – far too much for family needs - that they used it for garden manure. When sales for whitebait became a reality, the Arahura excess catch was sent to Christchurch on the 5pm goods train. It was put on the market at Ferron & Sons the next morning. Eli Weepu remembers the trains too.
“No one had fridges back in the thirties, so if we got too much whitebait it was always sent across to Christchurch,” he told me. He was just five when his father used to take him down to the river mouth on a horse and sleigh.
“Our dads used to teach us how to make the scoop nets from the straight branches of the lancewood. Long before that, back in the old days, they used to weave the nets out of flax fibre.
“And if the whitebait were running everyone would be down at the river in those days. But we never set nets. We usually only fished for enough for a feed and the best way to eat it was straight out of the river and cooked loose in a hot pan with a bit of butter and eaten with salt and bread.”

The Box, Waimate. Ajr
Back on the Avon in Christchurch Bill Espie is a regular whitebaiter. He’s one of dozens of urban whitebaiters who frequent the banks of the Avon and Heathcote Rivers during the annual whitebaiting season and when the tides are right he heads for his tried-and-true spot beside the Stanmore Road Bridge. He’s a regular there and locals often stop for a chat. That’s half the attraction Bill says. It’s a pleasant distraction in a long whitebaiting day that starts at 7.30am and ends around 6pm.
“I come here every day during the season. If it’s raining I can sit under the bridge but when the weather is good I can sit up here near the footpath and heaps of people stop and talk. It’s a nice relaxing way to spend a day and if I’m lucky I can get enough whitebait for a feed,” he says. Bill has been whitebaiting since he was seven – over fifty years – and although the catch varies he considers it a good day if he gets 1.5 kilograms of bait – and he does, often. “I got around 31 kilos for the whole season last year. I can’t afford to buy it at around $100 a kilo, so it’s great to be able to go home and make a fritter or two.”
Whitebait it seems – and the act of fishing for them – is addictive. They all say the same thing: it’s not just about getting a good feed, it’s as much about the act of fishing and the social encounters, the sharing and the inherent hunter-gatherer spirit that they all share.

Back in the Hokianga

I was heading for the little village of Kohukohu to catch the ferry across to Rawene on the edge of the Hokianga Harbour in the Far North, when I saw the sign for Pikiparia Marae. I swung off the mangrove-bordered main road into Smith Deviation Road about a kilometre north of Kohukohu village. Pikiparia is home to the Te Ihutai, one of the Te Rarawa hapu; and the small cluster of marae buildings are tucked beneath low hills overlooking mangrove swamps. There was a small urupa (cemetery) on the hill above (to the left in the above photo). I didn’t linger because there was no one about for me to chat to and I had a ferry to catch to Rawene but I did regret that this was just another interesting marae that I had had to leave without discovering more about its interesting history.

Fenced In

A traditional Maori pa was a collection of houses on ancestral land, which were protected by surrounding pallisades. You won't find those in New Zealand these days, although a number of modern marae do have surrounding pallisade fences based on traditional designs. I photographed this new one a couple of weeks ago at Picton's Waikawa Marae, a Te Ati Awa iwi base.

Waitangi - The Whare Runanga

The Waitangi Treaty Grounds are home to two important buildings in national history – the Waitangi Treaty House, where the treaty was signed; and the Whare Runanga, a Maori meeting house. Both are monuments to a nation its people and its ancestors. When I was in Waitangi during my latest ‘around-New Zealand’ trip, I spent half a day at the Waitangi National Reserve, wandering the grounds and buildings with lead guide, Wil Napier (Ngapuhi). Wil was brought up on the reserve (his father was caretaker), so there’s no better person to have as your Waitangi tour guide.

The Waitangi Whare Runanga is a little different to most in that it is a building of national rather than tribal significance and as such, it welcomes people of all tribes and nationalities; and it is one of the few whare runanga that you are allowed to take photographs in. Its foundation stone was laid by Lord Bledisloe on February 6, 1934 and it opened in 1940 to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the 1840 signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. It is also unique in that its elaborate interior carvings are a monument to the ancestors of not one iwi (tribe) but to all tribes of New Zealand. The poupou (carved figures) down each side of the interior are arranged in pairs (28 in all), and because the whare runanga is in Ngapuhi territory, the Ngapuhi carvings of their tribal ancestors, Hineamaru and Rahiri take pride of place. The carvings for all tribes were created specifically for this whare runanga under the supervision of master carver, Pine Taiapa of Ngati Porou. Carvings from each iwi tell the ancestral story of each in their own distinctive carving style.

For Maori, the meeting house and marae (literally the grassed area in front) sit at the heart of Maori society and culture. They are a symbol of prestige, a monument to tribal ancestors and much more than a simple architectural statement. Each part of the wharenui (meeting house) symbolises a notable tribal ancestor – the head (koruru) at the top of the roof apex is the head of the ancestor; the ridgepole is his backbone; the bargeboards the arms (with lower ends divided to represent fingers); the interior rafters are the ribs; and the interior is the chest and belly. www.waitangi.net.nz

One Sunny Day in the North

It was a gorgeous morning on May 1st the day I drew to a stop outside Te Uri o Hina Marae at Pukepoto, on the road from Kaitaia to Ahipara in the far north of the North Island. It’s one of twenty-three marae in the Rohe o Te Rarawa, which covers a large area from Hokianga Harbour inland to Mangamuka, up to Awanui and part way up Ninety Mile Beach. Te Rarawa is one of the six Muriwhenua tribes – Ngati Kuri, Ngai Takoto, Te Patu, Ngati Kahu, Te Aupouri and Te Rarawa - who populate the Far North.

What most intrigued me here was the carving above the door of the wharehui, Hohou Te Rongo, which you can see in part in one of the images here (complete with resting swallow) and in its entirety on the wharehui in the top set of images. There is one remarkably similar to it in Auckland Museum, dated from 1400. The museum carving was thought to be a door lintel but experts now believe it may have been a roof decoration. It was found at Lake Tangonge, near Kaitaia, in the heart of Te Rarawa territory.