A STAPLE FOOD
PIPIS AND THE -MAORIS
The river pipis are still a staple part of the diet of Whakatane's Maori folk and at low tide there js usually a boat or two on the bank with gatherers wading in the water. The name of the pipi bed is Otawaha and for generations it has been a famed place for the shellfish. Elsdon Best in ''Tiihoe'' says th.it gathering shellfish on the bank was one of the principal employments of the Whakatane women. So important was it that if a person, was asked "What is your child?" and the reply was "Ko Otawaha V! —(lt is Otawaha), then it was known that the child was a female and a future worker on the pipi bank. The thick deposits of pipi shells or. the laces of cuttings on Hillcr-st show just-how important a part Otawaha did play in food supplies. TRAVELLING 80 YEARS AGO An old settler in the Waimana district informed a "Beacon" representative yesterday that to make a trip into Whaaktane thirty years ago meant fording the river no less than nine times.
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Bibliographic details
Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 6, 3 May 1939, Page 5
Word Count
184A STAPLE FOOD Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 6, 3 May 1939, Page 5
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