E oho! Ngāti Toa Rangatira: People of the stars — whetu ki te rangi ka uhia ngā kapua kia ngaro ngā whetu e kore e ngaro

Speaker

Te Waari Carkeek

Te Waari Carkeek: Tēnā koutou, tēnā tatou i huihui nei i tēnei rā. Haere mai koutou me o koutou whakaaro, me o koutou ngā ahuatanga kei runga i a koutou. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou. Ko au, ko Te Waari. I whanau mai au i Ōtaki. Inaianei e noho au i Whakatū.

Let's get into it, eh?

[LAUGHTER]

I'm really, really quite thrilled to be here today to talk to you about a-- I just can't give you the history of Ngati Toa in one hour. But what I'm going to do is give you a journey through some Ngati Toa kōrero. And somehow, we have to get from the beginning of time to today at quite a quick pace. But I think the theme of these talks are around treaty, and around revival, and around survival. And those are the sort of things I want to tease out with you.

And I chose Ngati Toa-- the People of the Stars. And I thought, far out. Why am I using the People of the Stars? And it just seems to be a contemporary theme at the moment of Māori people regaining their sense of who they are and where they come from. And we have Matariki being celebrated throughout the country. And we have a re-emergence of our sense of heritage and beliefs.

We know that we live on —Papatūānuku, the Earth. And when you're living on this planet, when you look up at night, what do you see but the stars. So those are our neighbours. And our ancestors decided that those were our family. And so, that's why I use that People of the Stars. It's not to say that Ngati Toa are the only People of the Stars. We are amongst the many, many, many families, the many whanaunga the many tribes, who believe in a very similar thing as we do.

So I'm going to go through quite a bit of kōrero. So here, I've got on here the front is He kakano i ruai mai i Rangiatea e kore e ngaro. Well-known throughout the whole of Māoridom, the seed broadcast from Rangiatea will never be lost. And we Māori see rangiatea as the highest heaven in the pantheon of heavens in Māori mythology and ideas about the heavens above. So we come from the highest of the above-- Rangiatea-- and we'll never be lost.

So here we are, alive and fighting. And this is a picture that was taken from when we had the exhibition at Te Papa. And all of our young men were out in the front at the front of Te Papa performing Ki, ki, ki, ka, ka, ka, the haka of Te Rauparaha and establishing that we're here-- we're grounded. We're in this world. And this haka that we sing-- we perform-- being performed all around the world by the All Blacks. It's really interesting that they only sing the last verse-- Ka mate, ka mate, ka ora, ka ora, tēnei te tangata. But then, we go back a few more verses.

And the story that they probably don't understand is that our tupuna, Te Rauparaha was in a very, very precarious situation. He was running away from enemies. He was hidden in a kūmara pit and below the surface of the Earth. And there was a woman who sat on the entrance to protect him and to stop people from finding him. So the words of the first verse of "Ka Mate." It's called Ki, ki, ki, ka, ka, ka, kei waniwani i taku hika.

That's the first line of the first verse. And what he's talking about is, he's in the pit looking up. And he can see that his future is closing in on him. And the only thing between him and life is the fact that there is a woman sitting on there stopping the enemy from getting past into where he was hidden. So there's a whole lot more to the haka than what we see at All Black Rugby games. We just see the last verse being played out.

But as Ngati Toa people all know, that when the haka will go on-- there's a 10-minute haka that leads up to the last verse of “Ka mate, ka mate”. And those are things that make the haka a precious taonga for our people. Just getting up and doing ka mate, ka mate is sort of like just frothing at the mouth.

[LAUGHTER]

Whereas getting up to do the whole series of verses telling the story, illustrating the seriousness of the situation, and then coming to the crescendo of being relieved and free-- that's the real taonga of that haka. So I've got some of my young people here today. And you never know. I'll try and get them to perform by the end of this kōrero.

[LAUGHTER]

They may feel like they want to do that. They may not. So here we go. Here, what we're finding is that our ancestors in particular looked at the stars, navigated by the stars, planted and worked their whole cycles by the stars. And these are the things that we lost during our period of colonization. Sometimes, they were thrown away, because we thought that the grass was greener on the other side. And sometimes, they were taken away. Because we weren't allowed to think in that primitive manner. Yet they remain.

And we haven't lost the ability to connect to those things that are above us and that we see and will never go away. So Mangoroa-- mango is the hammerhead shark, and roa is long. So the whole of the Milky Way is figurative-- or that's a metaphor for the Milky Way and the way that it flows through the heavens above. So that's our Mangoroa. We'll go out tonight, and we'll see it up there again every night for infinity.

So our people being great navigators and voyagers saw symbols in the sky. And one of the great symbols in the sky is a series of constellations that make up the Great Waka of Tamarereti. Te Waka Tamarereti. And here, you'll see different stars denoting different parts of that Waka. Atutahi and these up there, these are Scorpio, Te Tau Ihu. There's Punga, there's Crux, and there's Alpha and Beta are the Orion, and Pūanga. So all of these stars make up this heavenly Waka. And this was followed by out tūpuna when it moved through the heavens on its nightly pathway around the stars.

So I just wanted to reiterate that a lot of things that were told to me were told to me by our elders. And I'd say to them-- they'd be talking about someone or something-- and I'd say to them, oh, when did that happen? And they'd look at you, like if you're young and say, oh i hoe tonu mai to waka i Hawaiki. And It took me a long time to figure out what that saying meant. And what they were saying is that you weren't born yet. You were still paddling your canoe from Hawaiki.

So you were still a twinkle in your father's eye, or you were just swimming around in the ethers of the skies. So we all believe in going back to Hawaiki. our souls return. And we all believe that we came from that place-- from Hawaiki. So it's a really important saying, i hoe tonu mai i Hawaiki, is that you came from somewhere before you got here. You go back to that somewhere when you leave.
When we came from the Pacific-- middle of the Pacific-- we came to this place here in Aotearoa Kāwhia Harbour. The Tainui waka, we're Tainui waka people-- our relations are all in the Waikato. They're all in the Pare Hauraki, in the Hauraki-- all around that area. And Ngāti Toa as a tribe grew and populated this area here, Kāwhia. And there are places in there that are synonymous with our tribal history and what happened to us as a tribe.

So when the Tainui waka arrived, the captain-- of course-- wasHoturo. And Hoturo established his altar at Ahurei in Kāwhia. And then, that Ahureiwas the place where they established their higher place of learning, the wānanga. And those people who attended that wānanga were of the senior tribes-- or senior lines of the tribes that lived around there. So they weren't all just Ngati Toa, but they were senior people from each of the tribes.

So you were chosen, not just put in there. You just couldn't get in there by being a smart person. You had to have specific DNA-- whakapapa connections-- to be able to attend that whare wānanga. And some of our people did attend. Now, I know that, for instance, that Rangihaeata was one of the chosen that went into that whare wānanga. I know, for instance, that Nohorua, Te Rauparaha's eldest brother, was one of those men who was sent to the whare wānanga. I know that Te Rauparaha didn't go to the whare wānanga. He wasn't the senior in his line.
So those are some of the things that happened in our tribe. So we populated most of that area. Our tribe also had connections to all of the other tribes around here. So when it was good-- when things were going well, Kāwhia was known as Kāwhia moana, Kāwhia kai, Kāwhia tangata. So there were lots of tribes who all lived and had their lives-- everything in their life provided for around Kāwhia. So Kāwhia kai, so Kawhia the place of bountiful food, and Kawhia tangata, where many men could prosper.

This is a map. These - both maps show Mōkau ki runga, Tāmaki ki raro. So Mōkau is above, Tāmaki is below. Mangatoatoa is in the center, ki waenganui, Parewaikato, is the Waikato area. Parehauraki is the Hauraki area. Te Kaokaoroa o Patetere. Te Kaokaoroa o Patetere is the sort of like Ngāti Haua area along the Kaimanawa ranges. And then, Wharepuhunga is in the middle of Ngāti Raukawa.

So I've got two maps there. This map over here shows Mōkau ki runga Tāmaki ki raro. In our view of the world, Māori viewed that north or Auckland was down, and Wellington was up. So today we go, are we going up to Auckland, or we're coming down to Wellington. That's a natural thing that people say without even thinking. But in our ancestors' time, they were going down to Auckland and up to Wellington. So that's why this map's been put like this. But this is the way that we view it today.

So Mōkau ki runga, Mōkau is above, Tāmaki ki raro-- Tāmaki is below. So Pōneke would be above Mōkau. And it goes up that way. Really important to understand how we see the world from an alternative lens, not a Western lens. Whereas Western society or Europe was always at the top of the globe. But our people, Māori people saw that we were on top of the world. And that everything else was below us.

It's just a different way of looking at it. I mean, if you were out in the middle of space, looking back at Earth, which way is up and which way is down? It's just a matter of perception and seeing that the difference between our people's mindsets is just simple as that. That's not trying to say, one is right and one is wrong. It's just different.

So we come down to this area here. And there's been a big jump between Kāwhia and down to Pōneke. And the big jump that happened is that our settlement at Kāwhia was disrupted by internal fighting between our own relations. So our Ngāti Toa people got off side with our Ngāti Maniapoto and Waikato people. We are all the same people. We all belong to Tainui. So it wasn't as if someone from outside the tribe was attacking the tribe. It was the actual house falling in on itself-- attacking itself. So a house divided is a house that falls.

And what we had was that we had some really strong leaders who decided that it was best for the iwi, for their tribe, to move from Kāwhia and come to the south to survive. That was a plain and simple decision that they had to make. Stay in Kāwhia and become enslaved, and probably be killed, and watch your family being killed, or move to the south and have the opportunity to live and to prosper. And so, that decision was made. And our people decided to make a journey from Kawhia up here down around here. So they came down here.

So the first part of the heke from Kāwhia was called tahutahu ahi. And that heke from Kāwhia to Mōkau-- that first section of our journey was called tautau ahi, because they were lighting fires to survive. They were being pursued by the enemy at the time, which was sections of Ngati Maniapoto, And there was a group of our people who were in company with Te Rauparaha and his family. Te Rauparaha's wife was pregnant. And so, they were delayed.

And the bulk of the tribe had already moved on to Mōkau. But because of the pregnancy of his wife, Te Akau, they had to slow down and move less quickly than the others. Now, that caused them to be spotted by a scouting party of Ngāti Maniapoto. And so, they got to the Mōkau River in the evening. And they were going to cross the river. But the river was actually flooded. And it was dangerous to cross over the river. So they were stuck on the north side of the river.

So then, the women-- there were more women than men in the group-- so they decided that they would light fires. And they would light more than the number of fires they needed for their group. And in the half dark of the evening, the women decided to support the men by dressing up as warriors and running from fire to fire to make out that the group was bigger than it actually was. So that the enemy could see this activity going on, but couldn't make out if they were men or women. But they could hear everyone from that group doing haka as if they were a war party of men-- doing haka and shouting, and causing a commotion.

So that was a ruse that they used to pretend that they were bigger and stronger than they were actually. And they kept this up all night by lighting fires, by decorating bushes with cloaks and with feathers to make it look like they were groups of people sitting around huddled around a fire. And they succeeded in tricking the enemy into thinking that they should hesitate and not attack Ngāti Toa at that place.

So by the morning, the river had subsided enough for them to escape across over to the south side to safety. And so, that's what happened. But also, before they went across there, they had families amongst them. And they had one particular family who had a child who was crying in the night. So Te Rauparaha said to the parents of that child to smother the child. The death of the child was to allow the rest of the troop to be able to survive. Because they would have all been caught by their enemy-- if the enemy had realised that it was just women and children, they would have attacked.

So there's some of the-- there's one story that we don't talk about too often. And the kōrero was that Te Rauparaha said, that child is me. So he was to regain his mana by ensuring that the parents of that child were given another child to replace the child that they lost. So the kōrero around tahutahu ahi is extremely significant.

It's not just about lighting a campfire and cooking a meal on it. It's more about the fact that this is on the edge of life. You're about to be discovered, and the emotions that it brings is that you're scared, you're unsure, you're full of fear. But you manage to persevere and get through that difficult time.
So they managed to get across to the south side of the Mōkau River to meet up with their relatives the Ngāti Tama and some of the Ngāti Toa who had already moved ahead of them. So that was in this little place here. There's a spot up there called-- there's a land block up there called Pura Pura. And Pura Pura is another word for embers. Pura Pura can be embers. And on that little site is the place where the encampment was made.

When they got to Mōkau, meeting up with Ngāti Tama, and the Ngāti Mutunga, and the rest of Ngāti Toa in the Mōkau area, they regrouped and stayed there for at least a growing season. So it was here that they lived with their relations. And they encouraged their relations of Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga to join them in their heke and their journey through the south. So they made friends. They made friends with Te Atiawa. They made friends with most of these people here. They moved around here. They didn't make friends with those ones.

[LAUGHTER]

I'm sorry.

[LAUGHTER]

But there were some difficulties they faced in this area here. And most of that's got to do with old time grudges. It was grudges that were there before they even came along. But so, they had some-- so they called this part here-- what's it-- Tataramoa?

Thank you. They called this after the bramble bush, the Tataramoa. If you know what bramble bush is, it's got a little hook on it. So every time if you try and move through it, it hooks you up. So this is what happened in this area here. And that part of the journey was called Tataramoa.

So moving down here, what I'm told is that the total number of people in the heke would have only been about 500 Ngāti Toa, if that. Because we're also mixed up now with Ngāti Tama, Ngati Mutunga. We've also got our other relations from up in Kawhia with us-- the Ngāti Rarua, the Ngāti Kauwata. And even though we're one group, we've got distinct separate leadership of each group. So 500 Ngāti Toa amongst the whole group.

Then, we get down to Whanganui. And they have relationships already established with Ngāti Apa. And then, they get down to the Horowhenua – Manawatu, Horowhenua. And they establish relationships with the local iwi there, Muaupoko. And as far as they know, they're in good friends with them, until they get to Ohau. And then, one night Te Rauparaha and his family were attacked.

And then, the whole troop moved down to Waikanae. And then, at that place, the whole tribe was attacked. And then, the whole tribe makes a play to go and live on Kapiti Island. And they end up on Kapiti over here. So that one up there just shows that whole journey-- in there. And this is where they found sanctuary on an island just off the west coast here, called Kapiti.

So this here, kāore ā te rākau whakairo, kei te tohunga te whakairo . So a tree doesn't carve itself, it's just a tree. The tohunga does the carving. A person does the carving. A tree just stands there as a tree. But it takes a person to make the designs-- to do the carving.

So in here, we've got this tohunga here. This is Te Rauparaha's eldest brother. This is Nohorua. And Nohorua was, as I mentioned earlier, one of the tohunga or one of the people who was trained in the whare wānanga at Kāwhia.

So he was quite an influential and powerful person in the tribe. And he was a spiritual advisor to the tribe-- in particular to his brother as well-- but also to the rest of the tribe. This is the descendants of Nohorua. This is Uncle Pat Ray. This is Uncle Wira Kateneand I think this is Maui Pōmare. But Uncle Pat is the direct descendant of Nohorua, as well. And he's well-known amongst our generation.

He was quite a formidable person in the fact that he kept ti tikanga]. He kept strict guidelines on the way that we perform and function on marae. And then, of course, his son Matiu, who was the previous CEO of Te Rūnanga o Ngati Toa. And a tohunga in his own right in leading the tribe through the settlement process of the Treaty of Waitangi claims and the settlement process, and then leading the tribe, and to where the tribe got to today.

This picture here is of the tribe's paramount chief. Everyone thinks Ngāti Toa is all about Te Rauparaha. It is. He's part of our tribe in particular. But this person here is Te Peehi Kupe The firstborn of the firstborn of the firstborn of the firstborn-- that sort of genealogy. And impeccable whakapapa, he came down with the heke.

He went to England and 1823, '24. So he was in England for a year or two. And this is where he drew his own moko -- his own pattern on his face. And then, he came back to New Zealand about 1828. And this is his son, Te Hiko – Te Hiko o te Rangi, so the son.

Now, I put Te Peehi up here, because Te Peehi had his own challenges. When they were in Waikanae, on the heke his family was attacked, and he lost his children. They were killed. So he was so heartbroken about losing his children that he decided that he wanted to leave the country. And so, he went to England. And he was really going over to England to have a look around and see what there was in England. He wanted to get revenge on the loss of his children.

So he was over there in England looking at how he could get guns to come back and take utu on the tribe that killed his children. So that'sTe Peehi. He came back in 1828. He joined in the raids into the South Island. And he was killed in battle with Ngai Tahu down atKaiapoi. So he lost his life. Te Hiko, the son, being the natural inheritor of his father's mantle, leads the tribe to the South Islands as well to get revenge for his father. And so, he went down to the South Island.

Ngāti Toa's always had some difficulty with our relationships. In particular with Ngai Tahu, some of ourNgai Tahu dislike Ngāti Toa immensely. And they have a right to have their stories. There were attempts by Ngāti Toa in particular to heal those rifts. And those attempts were quite strong. They created bonds with the Ngai Tahu by intermarriage. And to build a bridge between our tribe in the South Island. So there are particular families now amongst us who are the bridge between us and between the Ngai Tahu people.

There are many families in Ngāti Toa who have connections to other tribes. So when we've come through the experiences that we have as a tribe, then it leaves you a bit wounded. So the best possible way of fixing those wounds is to mend those breakages by making strategic alliances in marriages. And so, there are parts of our tribe who are married into Muaupoko.

There are parts of our tribe who are married into Rangiāane. There are parts of our tribe who are married into Ngati Kuia. There are parts of our tribe who are married into all of the tribes in the bottom half of news of New Zealand--Wairarapa, Ngati Kahungunu. And this is a way of ensuring that we have a whanaungatanga broader than just our own Ngati Toa-tanga.

These are some of the battle axes who came down in the first heke, and who fought. They would have been much younger than these photos show you here. But they were the young warriors of their day who fought alongside Te Rauparaha and all of the others that came. So Nopera Te Niha, our well-known ancestor. Ropata Hurumutu, very, very tough old man. Hohepa Te Maihengia. And this one, he's Pirihana Tungia. This is Erenora.

I think this is Riria and Oriwia. But they're all in the generation of the heke. Of course, this will be taken about 20 or 30 years later after the prime of their youth.

Te Rauparaha and have stories about Te Rauparaha's birth being prophesied. That they were to wait for the Taniwha to be born. And when he was born, the sign of the Taniwha was that he had an extra toe on one of his feet. So he had six toes. And that was the sign that he was the Taniwha.

This is Rangihaeata, his nephew. And this is Tamihana Te Rauparaha, his only surviving son, who was born on the heke on the journey down from Kāwhia. So Tamihana here, there is a recent book that's just been published by Ross Calman called the life, about Tamihana’s] diaries. And really interesting book. Because Ross really hasre- translated the writings of Te Rauparaha, the son-- the son here.

And he was quite an articulate writer. He was one of the first of our tribe to learn how to read and write. So he was a convert to the Anglican faith-- Christianity. He's a character sometimes to be loved, sometimes to be-- he's abhorrent. Even though he was a Christian, he was also a slaver. He had slaves in his household. And he was quite opinionated. He also wanted to become the Bishop of New Zealand.

He thought that he had-- may as well go for the whole, go for the top of the tree, and become the Bishop. When he couldn't become the Bishop, he wanted to become the King. And so, some might say he had an inflated sense of ego. But he was just doing what he was used to-- being in charge. Here's Te Rauparaha here. Really well-captured image of him. I think there was the Abbott photo here. And this is when he was quite elderly.

This one here is Mātene te Whiwhi. He was a young child during the heke, the journey from Kāwhia to this area. A convert, along with Tamihana to Christianity-- and did a lot to keep peace amongst people here. He wrote, or he took notes from his Uncle Rangihaeata and wrote down the dictations of Rangihaeata, and stories, and whakapapa, and other kōrero. So they are really closely related.
So Tamihana and Mātene played a big part in getting this building built. Te Rauparaha of course provided the material to build this building. And these poles here, they were all sourced from the Ohau River in Ngāti Tukohere country. And they were floated down the Ohau River, and then floated to Otaki and dragged across the land to be built with the stands here today. So this, of course, is Rangiatea, the interior.

Of course, in 1995 it was burnt down-- an arsonist burnt it down. And then, it was rebuilt and replicated in the same manner. So our people flocked to Christianity. But they took themselves with it. So the church is called Rangiatea after our highest-most heaven. The church is decorated with mangopare. The pattern on the rafters is mangopare, which is the hammerhead shark. Like I said, Mangoroa, like the heavens up above.

And along the walls on the panels of the church, they decorated the church with pura pura whetu, or star seedlings. So they took themselves into their new faith. And this is taken on the day it was reopened. Now, honestly, if you want to go to church now, and you go to Rangiatea, you just have five people at the front. Lucky if you get 10.

That's the nature of things today, that not many people are being drawn into church. And I think it goes for all churches, that the call to church isn't heard as strongly as it used to be. Something's changed. But these are the things that we know-- physical representations of our people's thoughts, our people's ideas, and our people's beliefs are still intact.

Ah. Ma te wahine me te whenua ka ora ai te tangata. This is Topeora. This is Rangihaeata’s sister. And I put this in here, because this is the real Topeora, taken in a Wellington studio here, as they're preparing her for her photograph. It's a black and white, and there she is. And she looks pretty old there. You can see the lines on her face. And she's covered in this kaitaka.

This is the Lindauer. So I thank Lindauer for doing this to our ancestress. He's given her 30 or 40 years youth and turned her into a sort of like a postcard. But it's an interpretation of this one here, being much younger, much stronger, and getting the strength in the face, and just making you look quite forceful and dominant.

This one here is the He Tohu exhibition here at National Library. And this was only done a few years back. And this is a reinterpretation of all of this. This here is around her signing the Treaty. So they decided to put a pen in her hand to show that she was signing the Treaty. Very forceful, formidable person. Loveliest stories around her. She signed the Treaty apparently on Kapiti Island. When she went forward to sign the Treaty, I think Williams was standing there and didn't really agree to having women come forward to sign.

And she just pushed herself forward, because she knew who she was. She didn't have to be told-- and grabbed the pen and put her mark on the Treaty. So that's a little couple of squiggles that she put on there. That was in 1840, of course. In 1842, she discovered that her husband had an indiscretion with one of her slave girls. And when she found that out, she had the slave girl killed and eaten. So she wasn't someone to be mucked around with. And I thought, that's a horrible thing to do to someone.

[LAUGHTER]

But she did it. And she could do it. Now, what I found out, is that the husband was playing around with this girl-- he'd been playing around with a few other women as well-- and when she killed the girl, she ate the girl, and then told her husband that his lover was sitting in her belly laughing as his stomach grumbled. And that was her way of getting her utu on her husband. It also meant that all the other women on the tribe just stayed right away from her husband.

[LAUGHTER]

So I love this photo here, because that's the true person. And these are both interpretations of what this person could have been like in their different time.

Once again, there's Rangihaeata there. He's another poster boy of Ngati Toa. We like to chop them out and show that the epitome of Māori men and warriorship are in our ancestors. This photo here of these three people-- this is Hana Kutz, and this is Winiera Te Kanae.

And they have with them Ereonora. You would have seen Ereonora in the earlier picture. Ereonora was the daughter of the woman who was killed at the Wairau. Now, the woman who was killed at Te Wairau was called Te Rongo, or Te Rongo Pāmamau. And Ereonora was the only child of that woman. So she was a really special person. And here she is here with her two whanaunga sitting on the front porch of the old Tō Rangatira in Porirua.

So Rangihaeata, well-known for his obstinance and his refusal to give way to the Crown law. So this here is a depiction of the attack on Battle Hill. And where he held the top of the crest of the hill against these forces-- the constabulary. And from the top of Battle Hill, he escaped back up into the Horowhenua.
This is Rangihaeata at Waikanae. And he's sitting with his group of his family-- his wife. He had about four wives. And I think he had them all together. So they were all living around him.

And he had a senior wife called Rangiuira. He had a secondary wife called Rangipikena. He had a third wife called Rangieringa. And he had another wife who I've forgotten. So it's four.

So quite a forceful person. And some say that he was even more staunch than Te Rauparaha. He was someone who didn't suffer fools. So he got into a conflict with Sir Governor George Grey. And George Grey put a bounty on his head. I think about 10 Guinea gold coins. And Te Rangihaeata scoffed at the ransom and said, here, look. I'll give you four pennies for Governor Grey's head.

[LAUGHTER]

And I'm good for my money. I'll tie the four pennies to the corner of my cloak. And you know that you'll get paid.

[LAUGHTER]

So that was his response to a ransom being put on his head. But it also affected him deeply when Te Rauparaha was arrested, and captured, and kidnapped by Governor Grey and his troops. Because it meant that his rudder his pouhad been taken away from him. And he was sort of rudderless. He didn't have that steadying calm influence of Te Rauparaha in his life at that time.

So we make a jump. And the jump is around to the 1970s. This here is the Māori protest for Māori language. I think it's about 1972.

And this man here is Ngāti Toa kaumatua. This is Te Aweonuku Rene, or Uncle Joe-- Joe Rene There's Hannah Jackson, and there's a few other well-known people there. They're going to parliament with the petition for Te Reo Māori, way before it became-- this is, I suppose, at a time when Te Reo Māori wasn't highly valued.
We were losing Māori speakers-- especially native speakers-- rather quickly. And there was no promotion of Māori language in any of our schools or any of our institutions. So it's the beginning of a wave of protests that went through the '70s into the '80s, into the '90s, and onwards. Just wanted to say that we were there. And we were leading that charge into regaining Te Reo Māori.

This is people who we know and people who we remember. This is Auntie Charlotte or Auntie Harata Solomon. She was well-known. You often saw her on advertisements and plays. She was a creative artistic person. This one here is Uncle Puoho Katene another creative artistic person who was a choir master and taught many of our tribe in singing and performance.

These two ladies here, they live in Takapūwāhia today. So these karanga, that's Claire Mete Kingi. And there's Rehia Kingi. They are both kuia of marae today. And this is Te Ariki Wīnera, our previous chairman of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Toa. Just wanted to make sure that we have a perspective on the current crop of kaumatua. There are many more, which I could have filled up a whole page-- 10 pages-- of photos of kaumatua who are significant to us in these days.

The Treaty of Waitangi Settlement. So we went through the claims process. And as many of us know who have been through a claims process-- or who are still going through a claims process-- it's tedious. It's exhausting. And it's adversarial. It's not a life-enhancing process. And it's quite challenging on the spirit of people. It can twist people's spirits. So we managed to get through that claims process.

Then, you get to the next hurdle, which is the settlement process and the negotiation process. And that is also full of difficulties and hooks. And you get through that. Then, you get to the actual legislation of passing the settlement. And that happened too. So these are the people who worked tirelessly on that process. This is Mattagain. And this is Uncle Iwi who was working on our committee to negotiate and to settle.

And this is Tiratu Williams, Aunty Sozzle, who is the only surviving claimant of the Ngāti Toa Waitangi Tribunal claim. So she's gone from signing the claim through to signing off the settlement. And that's the only survivor from, I think, a list of about 20 people who started out the process. So settlement claims going through, often a lot of those people who started out don't get to the end of that process.

So we're really fortunate that Tiratu is actually with us today. It's that connection to all of those people who put their energy, and their thoughts, and their goodwill into resolving an issue on behalf of the tribe. So we think that once you've settled, you haven't got an axe to grind with the Crown anymore. So they say. You're settled.

And so, your grudge with the Crown is over. Or the settlement gives you an opportunity to leverage further remedies from the Crown and to influence Crown behaviour towards you and your behaviour towards them. So it just really opens a new book, and a new way of behaving, and a new set of challenges for a settled tribe.

And there, there's a little snippet of Miria Pōmare, who was also the claims organiser as well. So I wanted to make sure that they were acknowledged.

So our settlement area is this part of the North Island and this part of the South Island. This is what we claimed in the claim. What we got is a bit smaller than that. But this is what we said our tribal domain was, from almost up here in Rangitikei down to right down to there. I think that might be Kaikoura or somewhere. That's what we thought we had claim to.
Oh. And my lady upstairs, can she play my tape please? This is a video from our present chairman of Te Runanga.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

• My name is Callum Katene. Recently, I was elected to the chair of the board of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Toa Rangatira. I'm the son of Te Puoho and Francis Katene. And I grew up in our family homestead on Mātai Whetu Street in Takapūwāhia, directly opposite one of the Takapūwāhia urupa. My second home was the old Katene homestead on the corner of Te Hiko and Ngatitoa Street, and Tiri Katene was my second mother.

I currently live in Johnsonville with my wife, Hinemoa, my four children, nine stepchildren, 14 grandchildren. Professionally, I'm involved in the technology sector. And I have been involved in software development and electronic communications for all of my adult life.

This is an exciting time to be involved in the work of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Toa Rangatira. After being largely ignored for 180 years, the tide is turning, and our indigenous rights are being taken more seriously. The recent announcement of the establishment of mana whenua seats for the Wellington City Council, along with the establishment of a Māori health authority are two examples of where we can exert our influence to further our interests for our people and for Iwi Māori in general.

Just as a final word, it's important for the Rūnanga to extend our reach to those of our whanau who don't live nearby. So for those of you who live distantly, maybe overseas, we encourage you to use the technologies at our disposal to stay in contact with us, to provide your feedback, give us your thoughts, tell us what we're doing right, and tell us what we're doing wrong. That will be the best way for us to make sure that we've got this-- the waka on the right path. Kia ora.

[END PLAYBACK]

So that's our new chairman, Callum Katene from the Katene family. So brought up by Uncle Puoho And our present Rūnanga CEO, who we got here, Helmut Modlik This is our present CEO. I've put on-- and this is Taku Parae. He's our cultural advisor, in charge of our kaumatua and cultural activities. And I put here, Ammond because Ammond also involved in many of our cultural activities. These are the people I know.

There are lots more people I don't know. But there's a huge staff uptake at the moment. And what's happened in the last couple of years, is that the Rūnanga has expanded to accommodate for a whole lot of needs that they see happening in our tribe. And Ngāti Toa's a little bit different from other tribes in New Zealand, predominantly because it's urban-based. And there are lots of people that it can service through the activities that Ngāti Toa engage in. So what benefits Ngāti Toa people can also benefit other Māori, non-Māori in the area.

So the tribe run a really good social services. They run also a health service, which is in Porirua and in Wellington. That health service is not only for tribal members but for community people. So got quite a good reputation in running health services. The tribe-- if you go on to the tribe's website, Te Rānanga o Toa Rangatira. You'll find that they've made investments into housing, bought a home for retirees. So they're investing in assets which have some return for the tribe and for the future, which is really, really admirable.

I'm living in the top of the South Island, in Nelson. So our situation in Nelson is quite different. Population-wise, we're not even as big as Porirua in Nelson. But the home base, Porirua very strong, very upwardly mobile place, a large population, large deficits also in the people and the assets of the area, but growing. Wellington-- the same. It's a growing place. The Hutt Valley-- the same. it's a growing place.

So things are looking quite interesting on the horizon for Ngāti Toa as a tribe, making strategic investments, making sure that we don't lose our principle, the money that we received in our settlement is still secure, and that we're living within our means-- that's the other thing. So those are the sorts of things that all tribes who have settled have to confront-- have to face-- about keeping a house in order.

So we're very fortunate that this guy here, Helmut, has come along with some quite savvy business acumen to go with running our rūnanga. So the rūnanga is not just about business. It's not just about making a dollar. The rūnanga is also about creativity.

And one of the things that the tribe has a plethora of, and adept in, is creative expression. And Patricia Grace, as her name says, Grace, very gracious lady-- wonderful intellect and great writer. I've got a photo of Cousin Ross (Colman) there. He's going to be someone to watch in the future about his interpretation of Te Reo Māori.

We've got Buck Nin here, and quite a wonderful artist and expressive, different, and still very, very ultramodern. And Jim Moriarty, actor, brilliant actor, expressive, and fun to be around, but also well-known for his craft. And over here, we've got the group that was signing the deal with the rugby union about the use of the haka "Ka Mate,Ka Mate" by the All Blacks. So it's just been put in there to.

So our tribe and our rūnanga is pumping at the moment. It's actually very buoyant. I'd encourage you to go online and look at what they've got-- what the strategic plan-- like all businesses and all institutions, you've got to have a plan. You've got to have a vision. You've got to have purpose. You've got to walk the talk. So many of us know that institutions write these fantastic plans in it. But then, when it comes to putting your plan into action, sometimes there's a mismatch.

So this is early days yet. And our strategic vision is to support our tribe, to assist our tribe to grow in the best way, to keep to the principles and to the values of our ancestors, to be honest, to be truthful. Those are things that just roll off the tongue. But they're actually there for a purpose. And it does help create a very, very strong bond between the people who run the ship and the people who occupy the ship. For myself, I'm an occupier of one of the cabins on the ship. I don't run the ship.

My interaction with Ngāti Toa is that I'm part of the whakapapa committee. So we have a whakapapa committee, which looks after ratifying people's connections to the tribe. And we have that committee in place. It's not funded by any government agency or any outside source. The iwi pay for this ourselves. It's to keep our tribe focused and also the members of our tribe acknowledged as being members. Being on the whakapapa committee is a great responsibility, because you have other people's genealogy.

And it's not a thing to bandy around. It's you know someone's genealogy, I know who you are, I know your whakapapa. That's not what we're doing. We're there to ensure that those people who are of Ngāti Toa descent have a right to be a member of our tribe. Although saying that, there are people who do ask to be members but who don't fit the criteria for membership.

And our principle is that we connect people back to the people-- their ancestors who came on the heke. If you're a member-- if your tupuna was part of the heke, then you are able to be registered as a member of Ngāti Toa. It's quite simple for us, because those people who came on the heke shared the same stories, shared the same experiences. And that's in your history. So if you can connect back to those people who were on that heke, then you can become part of Ngāti Toa. Tēnā koutou. I think we're going to leave it there.

[APPLAUSE]

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