Te Whanake - Our Blog
Te Whenua – a meaningful experience
Toitu he kainga, whatungarongaro he tangata.
The land still remains when people have disappeared
On Friday last week (24 June) the Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa Trustees visited a number of cultural sites significant to our tūpuna (ancestors) stretching from Kaiteriteri to Raumanuka in the Tasman Bay area.
Thank goodness for a sunny day because the Trustees and I toured our lands on mountain bikes, which provided a more personal and in-depth experience of our whenua, and a better understanding about the journey our tūpuna undertook to get here.
A good example of this is a story that I think really connects our hapū to this place. It’s the one of Merenako, a Te Ātiawa o te Waka-a-Maui kuia who in the 1830s was exploring these lands – in particular the Riuwaka Valley. Starting at Puketawai and climbing the hill to area now known as Dehra Doon, Merenako travelled through what was mostly swampland at the time, which gave Riuwaka its original name of Turi Auraki, meaning ‘tired knees’.
Like Merenako and many of our tūpuna who explored this area over 180 years ago, we travelled through the whenua including Pukekoikoi, Puketawai, Turi Auraki, Hui Te Rangiora, Whakapaetuara and Pounamu.
We also visited Kaiteriteri, the site of the hui our ancestors had with the NZ Company in 1841. At this hui our tūpuna were adamant that Te Maatu be excluded from Pakeha settlement. Of course it wasn’t excluded and this particular event is where our story begins, and is the origin of our legacy as the Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa Iwi Trust.
When we arrived at the Motueka bridge, the Trustees acknowledged the mana of our awa with karakia, and paused at Raumanuka to consider the new cycle trail that crosses our whenua on the beachfront.
This group bike ride gave Trustees both context and direct contact with our land, and gave us all a heightened awareness of what we are trying to achieve with the hapū – the descendants of the original land owners in Motueka.
If you’re looking for a way to connect with your lands a cycle ride around the whenua is a good way to go.