Pepeha is your link on the Māori map: Te Hira Henderson

Kahungunu travelled down the east coast of the North Island, before finally settling in Mahia, where he remained for the rest of his life. Photo / NZME

Te Hira Henderson is curator Taonga Māori, MTG.

A pepeha is a customary thing that introduces and connects oneself to one tipuna, one mountain, one river, one meeting house, one marae and one tribe – with, of course, some variations.

Essentially it locates you on the Māori map (of land, lineage and waka), casting your whakapapa/geneology net wide so others can connect and add onto this.

For example, to choose a Te Matau-a-Māui/Hawke’s Bay marae, such as Waipatu, one may say the following pepeha:

Tamatea Arikinui te tipuna - ancestor;

Heretaunga Haukū nui, Heretaunga Ararau, Heretaunga Haaro o Te Kaahu, Takoto Noa te whare - meeting house;

Waipatu te marae - marae;

Ngaruroro te awa - river;

Te Mata o Rongokako te maunga - mountain;

Ngāti Hinemoa, Ngāti Hori, Ngāti Hawea ngā hapū - subtribe(s);

Ngāti Kahungunu te iwi - tribe;

Takitimu te waka - canoe.

It may not be said in that exact order necessarily, but it identifies your iwi, tribe, hapū, subtribe, waka, canoe, mountain (or in some cases your hill), river, meeting house, and marae.

This establishes your identity - where you are from, who you are from, and connects you up to all and sundry in your tai ao/environment, your whakapapa links to elsewhere, and eventually linking you back to your waka from Hawaiiki.

A pepeha allows those listening to make connections to you, linking you to other iwi and their waka. In the case of Kahungunu and the waka Takitimu, links are quite widespread due to Kahungunu’s amorous explorations of Te Ika-a-Māui/North Island.

Those listening to any Ngāti Kahungunu pepeha may be able to link up their own pepeha to Ngāti Kahungunu tribally, should they relate to one of Kahungunu’s wives from another tribe, or where some of the crew of the waka Takitimu alighted to find a new home.

Kahungunu had eight wives, some of their descendants are now recognised as Ngāti Kahungunu, while others are not. All their children, however, are interconnected and therefore link to Ngāti Kahungunu but with their own varied local pepeha.

Kahungunu’s first wife is Hinetapu of Kaitaia, linking Kahungunu into northern Te Whare o Rāhiri hapū of the Te Ika-a-Māui.

Kahungunu’s second wife, Te Hau Tāruke of Ōpōtoki, established his links to Whakatōhea hapū and was his entry gateway into the east coast hapū, to extend his exploration with passion.

Rounding the east cape and travelling south passing Ruatorea (the traditional spelling of Ruatoria), Tokomaru Bay, and Tologa Bay, he met his third wife Ruarauhanga at Whāngārā and birthed hapū connections to the land of the ‘Whale Rider’.

Fourth wife, Ruareretai o Popoia of Tūranga-nui-a-Kiwa/Gisborne, established his links into hapū there.

His fifth wife, Hine Puariari of Whareongaonga (south of Muriwai), is a sister of his sixth wife, Kahukurawaiara, living a little further south at Te Māhanga Beach, and creating a doorway allowing exploration beyond, toward Māhia.

At Māhia he married his seventh wife, Rongomaiwahine of Nukutaurua, Māhia and his eighth wife was Pouwharekura, and he remained in Māhia for the rest of his life.

Any person from Whāngārā listening to all of this would have the pepeha:

Pukehāpopo te maunga;

Waiomoko te awa;

Waho o te Rangi me Whitireia ngā whare tipuna;

Paikea te tipuna;

Whāngārā te marae.

Their house knowledge would tell them that Ruarauhanga, being from Whāngārā and the third wife of Kahungunu, created a bloodline that connects Whāngārā to Ngāti Kahungunu as a result.

Pepeha is a really important way of identifying yourself and your links on the Māori map, allowing others to see how and where you sit and interconnect.