SONGS FOR THE BRAVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 278, 23 November 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

SONGS FOR THE BRAVE.

MEMORIES OF ORAKAU BATTLE

THREE SURVIVORS

UREWERA CHANTS OF SORROW.

(By JAMES COWAN.)

There are still with us at least three Maori survivors of the most heroic defence in the story of the New Zealand wars, the battle of Orakau, in ISC4. A note from a Ngati-Maniapoto friend tells me that Te Huia Raureti and Pou-patate are still in the land of the living. These whitebeard heroes were both members of the bodyguard of devoted warriors who safeguarded their chief, Rewi Maniapoto, on the retreat through the swamp of death when the defenders of Orakau Pa abandoned their entrenchments on the last day of the siege (April 2).

I heard the story of the battle not only from men of the district in which it was fought, but also from two men of the Urewera and allied tribes. One of these is, so far as I have heard, still living; he is part Patu-Heuheu tribe and part Ngati-Maniapoto; his name is Peita Kotuku. A man with a strange wild story; his war service against the pakeha covered a period of ten years.' He was one of the escapees with Te Kooti from 'Chatham Island in the captured schooner Rifleman in IS6B. And if Paraki Wereta, of Te Umuroa, in the Urewera Country, is also still above ground, that will make four—the last , four of the immortal three hundred (about thirty women among them), who held out for three days in the cannon-1 battered earthworks against six or seven j times their number. This bv way of preface to two eloquent poems of lamentation, dirge* composed for the Urewera warriors who fell at Orakau. These ?hieh I have turned up in one of my field notebooks, were recited to me some thirty . vears a-o at Ruatahuna, where several Sivor C s of the battle, erne a grievously vended man, were then living. From a man at .Lake Wa.karemoana too, came one" the son ? s; his grandfather, he related, was killed by the explosion ot a hand-Tenade thrown into the pa. The Ngati-Haniapoto, by the way, have no special dirges for Orakau. Te Huia explained to me the reason: "We did not lose any of our important chiefs there; there were only a few of our tribe iu Orakau, hence it was not necessary to make lamentation over it." But the" Urewera suffered terribly. The most remote tribe from this seat of war, they sent a column which bore the brunt of the fight, and had forty to fifty killed,

Over-confidence and Pride. "Kimihia, niugahaua, Keiwhea Rakuraku," oue of the Urewera chants begins. The composer inquires where is Rakuraku, the young chief of Ruatahuna, a member of the Whenuanui family. Where is Rakuraku? Alas, he perished in the lost battle! Proudly he marched away In the fighting band of Penetiti, His head adorned with battle plumes. He clutched at the stars. He grasped at the moon ! But he was gripped at last by ghostly hands— The grip of Death.

In the original the expression "e kapo kite whetu, e kapo kite luarama,"' (grasping at the stars and moon) are a bitterly ironical description of the warrior's over-eonfidet.ce and pride. Penetiti (also known as Penewhio) was the chief priest or tohunga of the Urewera war column of about a hundred men, which responded to Rewi Maniapoto's invitation to join in the war. His incantations ajid prophecies fully persuaded his followers that they "would be successful in their expedition. The other waiata of mourning is a longer song, and it must have been overpowering in its effect as an "apakura" of sorrow for the lost one*. chanted as it was by all the people of Ruatahuna when the survivor? of the battle entered the marae at Mataatua and stood in bowed silence before the assembled tribesfolk. The chant begins with these sentences: i

Ku liun au fci te koba E huaki nei, Me ko wai '! Kaore ko te mauiiutanga 0 te taniwha i te rua.

Portent of Death.

This is a reference to the belief that I lightning flashing downward over certain sacred burial mountains (rua koha) lis a portent of death. .Such displays of UghtniD" are associated with some disaster to the tribe. The composer of the chant goes on to mention by name the chiefs who fell at Orakau and the sacred peaks and hills where their ancestors bad been laid to rest and where the omen of the lightning is read:

Yonder stands Matakuhia: Its lightnings flashed the death Of'Te Mai, Te Ao, of Horopapera. Far away at Whakapunake and Panekiri Cliff Te Umuariki and his-fellow chiefs were laid On Huiarau's cloudy range the baleful glare Betokens Kuru-o-te-Marama's last dav

Alas for Ruatahuua ! Bereft of all but women; Manawaru's proud crest Is borne away r A needless sacrifice. By Marata. by reckless Penewhio, le were led foolishly : to death ! Cold in the earth our -warriors lie, le return to us no more; ' Thus it is.as it was said of old The offspring of Tuhoe go wastefully down Into the Night of Death.

The closing lines in the original are are ancient proverb of this mountain race of hardy fighters, who ever braved fearful odds:

Ko te nri a Tuhoe Moumou.iangata M te po.