“SACRED EARTH”

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 72, Issue 6243, 17 June 1946, Page 6

“SACRED EARTH”

LINK' WITH THE TAINUI CANOE STATEMENT BY MR TE HUIA In the Courier of the sth instant appeared an article dealing with the “ Sacred Earth from Hawaiki.” Mr Raureti Te Huia, of Kihikihi, supplies the following comment: — This is a very interesting story to those people who are keen to know New Zealand and its early history. In the Courier article it was stated: “ The Tainui landed at Kawhia, and Hoturoa, master of the canoe, brought the sacred earth ad deposited it for the first time upon the new country, and over it he erected an altar, naming the altar Rangiatea.” I would like to make the matter clearer. Rakataura the first to land in New Zealand, and he erected the first altar (Tuaahu) at Maketu before any other canoe landed there, and named it Maketu, an old Hawaiian name. Rakataura again was the first to erect an altar (Tuaahu") at Kawhia, and named it Ahurei; hence the songt Tu kau Ahurei l Te huinga o te tapu Tamaiti nukarau Kia Uenuku-Tuwhatu.

The earth brought from Hawaiki was deposited at Hawaiki between Kawhia and Aotea, and is used as a kumiara planting place to this day. I will leave Rakataura -and turn to Te Rauparaha.

In the Courier the story continues: ‘ About one hundred years after the landing of the Tainui the Maugatautari party claimed the sacred earth, and took it with them wherever they went. . . . During 1818 Te Rau-

paraha, a very ambitious young man of the Maungat?<utari party, went south and settled in the Otaki district.” My version of this is that in the year 1814 Te Rauparaha and his people, the Ngati Toa, of Kawhia, went south with Tuwhare, of Ngapuhi, and his war party; they landed at Parangarehu (Pencarrow Heads), and later a battle tpok place with the Kahuhunu at Wairarapa; the defenders were victorious, and the Ngapuhi made peace with the Kahuhunu. Then Te Rauparaha and Tuwhare and their war party returned home. In the year 1815 Te Rauparaha made war against the Wiaikato and Maniapoto tribes for the death of Tarahitaua in the year 1816. Te Hiakai, chief of Waikato, made peace with Te Rauparaha at Te Arawi, Kawhia, and at the end of that year Te Rauparaha left Kawhia for ever to settle in the Porirua district. In the year 1820 Te Rauparaha declared war on the Muaupoko and Rangitaane tribes, and defeated them at Horowhenua pa. In the year 1846 Te Rauparaha was a prisoner of the New Zealand Government and remained so for two years. About that time Tamehana, son of Te Rauparaha, was a pupil of Bishop Selwyn at Tamaki School; he then went abroad, and returned to New Zealand in 1949, when he established the Maori King movement.

As for the name Rangi-Atea (Day of Peace), this is the name of the secret home and burial grounds of Tuiongo and his wife Mahinaarangi, which is near a place called Paewhenua, in the vicinity of Rangi-toto Range.