PARENTAGE

Te Ao Hou, September 1959, Page 11

PARENTAGE Hinekiore, Puhiwahine's mother, was of the Hinemihi sub-tribe of Ngati-Tuwharetoa of the Taringamotu valley and the Tuhua district. She also had ancestral links with the Maniapoto tribe to the north, and the Toarangatira tribe of the Waikanae and Porirua districts in the south. As a member of the Hinemihi sub-tribe she was a

high priestess of the bird cult, and during the bird-snaring seasons of the year, on the Orangi-teihi hills above Oruaiwi, two special bird-snaring trees—named Te Ipu-whakatara (The Coveted Calabash) and Te Ara-mahoe (The Pathway to the Mahoe trees)—were reserved for her. In her time Hinekiore was a famous song-leader, and she also composed a number of songs of the of a topical nature and were couched in deroga-tory terms concerning the unseemly behaviour of the person named in them; or were in reply to some gossip about the composer or her relatives. The early marriage of the widowed Raerae, an ancestress of the writer, was the subject of one of Hinekiore's satirical and censor-ious compositions. There is a long story with regard to this patere—too long to tell in this account—and it must suffice here to explain that in Maori society it is considered a high compli-ment to be the subject of chastisement and castiga-tion, especially in song. The poetesses of the race would not be bothered with ordinary men and women. On this account many of the old songs of this nature have been rescued from oblivion by the descendants of those people who are named in the patere. When Hinekiore died her body was placed in a carved waka (canoe), specially made for her, and it was taken to a secret burial cave of her people. The people who knew where the cave was had died, and for many years a fruitless search was made for it. By a coincidence a leading member of Ngati-Hinemihi, Tuari Ngarama, stumbled upon the entrance to the cave at the time when Puhiwahine's remains were brought from Ongarue in 1944. Mother and daughter now share the same grave at Te Takapu-tiraha. Very little is known of the life of Puhiwahine's father, Te Wetini Te Rangihirawea—as he was known in early life. In later years he was called Rawiri Te Rangihirawea. He was a close relative of Tahuri, the wife of Te Heuheu (Patatai) Tukino, the donor of the Tongariro National Park. He and Hinekiore had a family of three; two sons, Ketu and Te Maraku, and their daughter Puhiwahine.