Te Tai – Treaty Settlement Stories

[Deep resonant sound of a gourd.]

(Welcome screen with the logos of Te Tāwharau o Ngāti Pūkenga and Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture & Heritage. Aligned left on the screen are written the words ‘Te Tai Whakaea Treaty Settlement Stories Ngāti Pūkenga’.)

[Background music starts].

(The video cuts to speaker standing in front of sand dunes with the sea and islands in the background.)

Speaker: “The sacred canoe of Ngāti Pūkenga is Mātaatua. Our ancestor, Toroa, was the captain and rangatira. The Mātaatua waka was his waka. Therefore, that is Ngāti Pūkenga's waka. Mātaatua came for several reasons. One, the continuous fighting overseas. Number two, there was also the population growth. And also, to bring the knowledge of our ancestors here; the mauri of the waka and the kūmara. The waka was built on the island of Ma'uke. Which is an outer island, an hour from Rarotonga. The Mātaatua waka left Ma'uke and then landed at Rarotonga. From Rarotonga it came across the ocean and got caught up in a whirlpool. Our canoe then traveled the Kermadec Islands, Rangitāhuahua. From there it traveled to Repanga, north of Auckland. Where the saddleback birds guided our waka to north. From Pārengarenga it came through to Kerikeri. From there it came to Te Tī. And then from there to the Bay of Islands. Then from there to Hokianga.

And it came through to what we call the Mitimiti area to the Waihou River and landed there. From there it came back to Hokianga. From Hokinga it then traveled all the way to Waitaruke. From Waitaruke it then traveled all the way to Whangārei. And from Whangārei it then traveled all the way to Mangawhai. And from Mangawhai it traveled all the way to the Waitarere River. To Kaipara and from Kaipara it landed at Manukau. So, from Manukau our waka was then taken to Ōtāhuhu. From Ōtāhuhu our waka was then taken to beach. And then from there it went to Pāremoremo. From there to a creek named after Toroa, ko Te Okiokinga o Toroa. From there to Tīkapa. They took one of the mauri stones Mātaatua and Poumātapu and buried it at Moehau. Poumātapu. From there to Tauranga. From there to Maketū. From there to Pukehina. From there to Te Kaokaoroa. And to here where we are today at Te Awa o Te Atua. Where Wairaka swam and she received her monthly menstruation. She became a woman. And then her father said, ‘What is that under you Wairaka?’ She said, ‘Oh it's godly blood of life’. And then Toroa said, ‘I name this river mouth, Tarawera. Te Awa o Te Atua, the sacred river of God’.

Our canoe Mātaatua, once they had finished here traveled to Thornton, Ōkōrero. And then to Whakatāne. And then it landed at the river mouth there called Ōhinemataroa. It was tied up to a rock called Tokatapu. And the men went inland to do karakia. Their karakia for safe journeying and setting up camp and establishing their home there. So, the whole of Whakatāne was named after our ancestor Toroa, called, Te Whare o Toroa. The home or the house of our ancestor Toroa. Not long after that the two brothers, Toroa, his younger brother Puhi they had a disagreement. They planted the kūmara in the garden there in Whakatāne called Matirerau. Not long after that Puhi, our ancestor then took the Mātaatua canoe from Whakatāne and traveled to Ōpōtiki. From there to Tōrere, from there to Gisborne, from there to Wellington. From Wellington to Auckland, in a place there called Point Chev. From there it went north where Puhi established Ngāpuhi in the north. And that's where Ngāti Pūkenga's canoe is now. Mātaatua at Tākou.”