The sixth pou whenua planned for the Ahipara/ Tauroa coastline has been unveiled.
The sixth pou whenua planned for the Ahipara/ Tauroa coastline has been unveiled.
The sixth of 16 pou whenua planned to be erected along the Ahipara/ Tauroa coastline has been unveiled in an early-morning service.
The event was supported by more than 50 people on April 29 and concluded with breakfast at Roma Marae.
The Kaiwhakairo/ carver of the pou - named Waitahapāua- was Te Aroha Te Paa.
The pou was blessed by kaumātua Haami Piripi, who said at the time Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed at Kaitāia, Waitahapāua was a bustling little settlement situated beside a shallow dune lake and where the wānanga of Te Mumu had been established.
Kaumātua Haami Piripi blesses the pou whenua Waitahapāua, the sixth of 16 pou whenua planned to be erected along the Ahipara/ Tauroa coastline.
Piripi said the wānanga which had a term of two or so years required its adult participants to live there and become schooled in pre-European knowledge of cosmology the forces of nature and the rituals passed down countless generations. Fortunately, the wānanga was attended by both academic scholars locally and from further afield including Henry Stowell or Haare Hongi of Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi ancestry.
Having attended Mumu’s wānanga for two years he went on to study at university and later worked as a senior scholar in Taranaki and later in life in Wellington. An active member of the Polynesian Society he was a regular contributor to articles, essays, and historical information, Piripi said.
In 1877 the Tauroa peninsular was acquired by immigrating from hapu rangatira and in the establishment of Pākehā ownership. Trees were cleared and the land cleared for use as a farm. That enabled the wind to invade the plateau bringing with it the west coast sands and the constant erosion continued to smother the topography creeping further and further inland. By 1900 the little community beside the lake known as Waitaha Pāua was also under threat forcing the occupants to relocate to Ahipara and Pukepoto. By 1913 the lake had filled with sand relocating the cemetery to the Pukemiro urupa at Ahipara.
‘’Waitahapāua then became a place with increasing historical significance retaining only the more sacred aspects of its formed status as a place of learning. The “tapu” of Waitahapāua continues to flow through the under-ground aquifer onto the rocky coastline at Tauroa. The water has been classed as sacred and tapu and local tangata whenua do not drink from it.
Kaiwhakairo/ carver Te Aroha Te Paa with the pou whenua Waitahapāua she carved which has been erected along the Ahipara/ Tauroa coastline.
‘’The pou whenua erected resurrects the name Waitahapāua and connects the people associated with it to its history and provenance as a cultural landmark. The carving depicts the history of the arriving waka since Kupe and the taonga they brought with them. One of these is our local taniwha Paraweta, who is often a forgotten personality in the description of our local cultural icons.
‘’But the pou is not just for Māori, it is also a message to all members of our community and all visitors, providing a standing voice of welcome and a cloak of hospitality, giving effect to our tikanga Māori, we the hapu and iwi of Ahipara.
‘’Kei reira ngā kaupapa tawhito mō te iwi, te mana o ngā tupuna te puna whakamaua kia tina.’’
