A Day at Onuku Marae

I've visited Onuku Marae, near Akaroa many times and every time I roll down the hill to the shoreline, I'm struck again by the beauty of the divine little church that sits on a small rise, overlooking Akaroa Harbour. Te Whare Karakia o Onuku was built in 1876 and had its opening in 1878. It sits across the road from the main marae buildings and the cluster of kaik houses that snuggle under giant walnut trees.

When it opened in 1878, it was the first non-denominational church in New Zealand and the opening ceremony was attended by Maori from iwi all over the country. In 1939, it was restored to its original state in time for Akaroa's 1940 Centenary service, which was attened by over a thousand people. As the number of families on the kaik diminished, it closed for services in 1963 and is now primarily used for baptisms, weddings and funerals. The poupou standing to one side of the front of the church is Tumuki, a gift from Te Wai Pounamu Old Girls Association in 19978. It was carved by Pere Tainui.

Across the road from the church, the marae buildings huddle under a backdrop of bush-clad hills. There are two main structures - the Whare kai, Amiria Puhirere, which was opened in 1990. It was named after Amiria Puhirere, who  lived on the kaik and was admired and loved by generations of Onuku whanau. She was the daughter of Mere Whariu and Karaweko and was over 100 years old when she died in 1944. The second building is the handsome wharenui, Karaweko, pictured above.

In the early planning stages of the wharenui, a carving committee led by Pere Tainui, was set up to research the whakapapa and history that would be represented in the house. Master Ngapuhi carver, Eric Korewha was commissioned and he was helped by a group of carvers that included Simon Rogers, Hono Fleming, Hone Taiapa and Carl Wards. They spent four years carving West Coast totara.  Ngai Tahu paramount chief Te Maiharanui is represented in the tekoteko, which stands on the top of the wharenui.

Inside, a series of beautiful tukutuku panels in olive green, gold and black mirror the colours of the Onuku landscape. these were produced by Ngai Tahu weaver, the late Cath Brown of Taumutu, working with a group of Ngai Tahu weavers.

The wharenui was officially opened and blessed at dawn on February 5, 1997.

It was the first carved house to be built on Banks peninsula for over a hundred years.
The marae is homebase for the Ngai Tahu hapu of Ngai Tarewa and Ngati Irakehu and Onuku is a place of historical significance for the fact that it was the first of three South Island locations where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed.
http://www.ngaitahu.iwi.nz/

Maori Place Names - 49

Rapaki, Banks Peninsular

Canterbury, South Island

January 2010. Ajr

A Place Called Home

A picture-perfect day at Koukourarata on Banks Peninsular.

This pretty jetty juts out into the bay just in front of the marae.

You can read much more about this gorgeous, somewhat isolated location by clicking on Koukourarata in the label line below this post. www.nagitahu.iwi.nz

On the Peninsular

I thought I'd just run this pretty scenic shot from Port Levy on Banks Peninsular today. Known as Koukourarata in Maori it's home to an idyllically-place Tutehuarewa Marae that sits on the rise just to the left of the land end of this wharf. I've written about Koukourarata a good number of times before and you can see those postings by clicking on the word Koukourarata in the label line below this post. www.ngaitahu.iwi.nz

Mussels and Memories

Kutai or Toretore = Mussel
One of the favourite traditional Maori foods.
I wrote about mussels and their traditional harvest at Tutehuarewa Marae at Koukourarata -Port Levy on Canterbury’s Banks Peninsular, about three years ago, for Ngai Tahu's TE KARAKA magazine. The marae, a cluster of buildings on a grassy slope, is perfectly placed overlooking a stony beach and a pretty jetty. Koukourarata is well known for producing some of the fattest, juiciest toretore around – mussels up to six inches long have been harvested from the bay over the years. Koukourarata was the largest Maori settlement in Canterbury in the mid-1800s with a population of around 400 people. Back then, Maori from Koukourarata bartered shark and other kai moana for eels caught by hapu from Waihora and Wairewa over the hills; and tons of dried fish were carried inland to trade.

Mussel patties courtesy ex-Executive chef of Blanket Bay, Jason Dell.
I recall Matapi Briggs, then 75, telling me how she remembered a Koukourarata childhood that revolved around the sea. “The sea was our life. It meant everything; it was where we played and where we found our food. We knew where all the best kaimoana was and we only had to walk along the beach to pick cockles, paua and mussels off the rocks. We never needed a boat.” She talked about the times they made fires on the beach, slipping fat mussels in their shells into the ashes and eating them there and then. One of their jobs as children was to gather mussels for family meals but they were taught from an early age only to ever take what they needed, unless the family were taking kaimoana as koha for another runanga. “Our mussels have always been sweeter and juicier. I think it’s because there are a lot of freshwater creeks running into the sea here,” she says. “It’s common for them to grow to four or five inches long.” In the old days - “when my parents were young” - mussels were preserved in seaweed by the tahu method. They’d split the seaweed, put the mussels in and fill the pouch with hot bird fat. They also did that with paua,” Matapi says.

Matapi’s younger sister, Tokerau Wereta-Osborn also has vivid memories of a happy Port Levy childhood. She was just 18 months old when she arrived in the bay and now, her great-grandchildren are the sixth generation of her family to enjoy everything the bay has to offer.
‘The bay has never changed in my opinion. It’s always been a wonderful place to live and the kaimoana has always been plentiful. We used to walk out to the island at low tide to collect mussels, paua, oysters, cockles and conga eel. Our favourite way of eating mussels was simple - they were just opened, scalded in their shells, drained and then eaten with a bit of vinegar and onion. Sometimes our mother would make patties, or she battered the mussels whole but I always preferred them plain with vinegar,” Tokerau says. “I always loved making a fire on the beach and cooking the mussels in the ashes, or on a piece of hot tin and eating them fresh. When we needed to store them we would make a circle of rocks just offshore and keep the live mussels there. It was like our fridge and it saved us going out hunting for them each time we wanted a meal.”

Marine Bounty

Mussels - Kuku, Kutai

Seafood - Kaimoana
At Koukourarata
By the Sea, Banks Peninsular

School's In!

After School Lessons for Koukourarata Tamariki. Image Supplied by Koukourarata Runanga

Te Runanga o Koukourata, based at Port Levy on Banks Peninsular, have taken proactive steps to ensure that their young people are getting the educational help they need to enable them to map a path to a brighter future. They’ve funded an after-school programme of extra tuition for their tamariki (children), collecting them after school, driving them to the Kip McGrath Educational Centre in Christchurch and then returning them directly to their homes afterwards. The programme is now in its third year and those involved say the benefits have been numerous and the children have made significant gains in their learning. “We’ve been delighted with the results,” says Koukourarata project manager, Peter Ramsden (Ngai Tahu, Rangitane) pictured above (centre rear), with a group of the runanga children. “It’s been a real success story.”

Cloaked in History

Kaitorete Spit, Banks Peninsular. Aerial view. Feb. 2009. Ajr

This is an aerial view of Kaitorete Spit on Banks Peninsular that I took from a plane window on my way to Dunedin recently. It’s a place that intrigues me because of its fascinating history and its associations with early Maori. It was back in 2004 that one of the country’s most significant textile finds was unearthed here – tiny fragments of a Maori cloak carbon dated at around 1500AD, making it two centuries older than any cloak ever before found in New Zealand. (The oldest known cloak prior to the Kaitorete Spit find was a 17th century example unearthed in a Fiordland cave). Kaitorete Spit is around 6000 years old and is known to be one of the most ecologically and culturally important sites in New Zealand. It contains a remarkable collection of plants, several rare species of insects, reptiles and birds and it is of significant cultural value to Ngai Tahu for the fact that over 500 archaelogical sites – many of them ancient ovens and tool-making areas - have been found there. Archaeologists have also unearthed the charred remains of a small shelter, stones tools, a flounder midden, evidence of cooking ovens, pieces of kokowai (red ochre) traditionally used by Maori for painting and decorating, a second cloak fragment, pieces of woven sleeping mat, albatross bones, tools, pieces of roof thatch, part of a woven belt and a 600mm long segment of carved wood. All have been removed from the site and restored within the controlled environment of Canterbury Museum. www.canterburymuseum.com

Maori Places Names - 4

Port Levy March 2009. Ajr

Port Levy

Banks Peninsular, Canterbury

The Best Little Small Museum Ever!

Pataka or Storehouse (for food)

Meeting House, Okains Bay Maori & Colonial Museum, Banks Peninsular. 2008 Ajr

If you go down to the bay today, you’re in for a big surprise…..Okains Bay Maori & Colonial Museum is a thing of beauty and wonder – one man’s passion for collecting taken to extremes. Murray Thacker is the man behind it all. When his collection bulged out of his home garage, he bought the old cheese factory building (in 1968) and set up the astonishing array of exhibits he had collected over many decades. In 1977 it was made a public museum and today it gets around 6,000 visitors a year – which is quite remarkable in itself when you consider how ‘off the beaten track’ Okains Bay is. I spent ages here, totally captivated by the gathered histories of Maori and Pakeha alike. The Maori meeting house shown above (interior and exterior) was built observing all Maori traditions, using original materials from other meeting houses. Most of the carving was done by well known master carver, John Rua. The main Maori artefact museum houses many treasures, including a sacred god stick dating back to 1400, a war canoe from 1867 and a valuable Akaroa hei tiki recovered in England and brought back to Okains Bay by the museum’s founder. An amazing treasure trove well worth the effort of getting there.

Knock, Knock Who's There?

Okains Bay Maori & Colonial Museum, Banks Peninuslar. 2008 Ajr

Loved this brass hei tiki door knocker at the Okains Bay Maori & Colonial Museum on Banks Peninsular. It was on a side door at the rear of the museum - the perfect adornment for a door leading in to one of the most impressive collections of Maori artifacts I've ever seen.

MOKO

I’ve been going through my Okains Bay Maori and Colonial Museum photos again and found this one (right) referencing the art of Maori moko or tattoo. Traditionally, men were tattooed much more heavily than women, who mainly tattooed their lips (kauae) and their chins. There’s been a strong resurgence of interest in moko – among both men and women keen to acknowledge their Maori heritage – and many are also choosing to be tattooed the traditional way using uhi or chisels, rather than with modern tools.

Heart-Felt

The traditional Maori Hei-tiki, or neck pendant, usually carved in pounamu (greenstone or jade), has made a big comeback as a contemporary cross-cultural accessory and tourist souvenir. For many Maori the Hei-tiki relates to a sense of Maori cultural identity; for other New Zealanders and overseas visitors, the Hei-tiki portrays a more general sense of New Zealand identity. There are plentiful references to the Hei-tiki form in Maori art and in contemporary jewellery. I spotted these great little felt Hei-tiki brooches made by Deborah Walsh, at The Little River Gallery on Banks Peninsular, 40 minutes from Christchurch. www.littlerivergallery.com

A Bird in the Hand

Wood Pigeon, Takamatua. 2007. Ajr

Meet Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae, more commonly known to we New Zealanders as Kereru, or wood pigeon, although Wikipedia will tell you “they’re not the same as the (true) wood pigeon (Columba palumbus), which is a member of a different genus.” I adore these chubby, colourful birds and it’s no wonder to me that early Maori considered them a delicacy - they do look very juicy. I took this photo about eighteen months ago at a friend’s bach at Takamatua on Banks Peninsular, where kereru are relatively common.