PEOPLE AND NAMES

Te Ao Hou, 1971, Page 10

PEOPLE AND NAMES ‘Old Toko went to the hoko To get Repeka some tupeka’ This was what some of the older kids used to chant. And he used to see old Toko coming down the road in his buggy ‘for the shop’, hitching his horse on the side of the road and walking very slowly with a bad stoop towards the shop. He was a very old man. Repeka was his wife and she was very old too and she had a moko on her chin. But although she must have been about as old as old Toko she looked a lot younger than he did, for he was very bent and wizened. And they said she had a bad temper and would chase any of the kids with her broom if they came near her place, for her orchard was always being raided. But Nick never saw her like this, for old Toko and Repeka lived away over on the other side of the settlement about a mile away. He never saw her much, only when she came down sometimes with old Toko in his buggy, sitting heavily in the seat beside him; and those times she looked nice enough to Nick. Try as he might, he couldn't read in her face or bearing the sort of witch that the kids from her end of the settlement said she was. She was bigger and much heavier than her husband and the buggy would have a bad lean on the side in which she sat. At various times the boy heard all the names of the people of the settlement mentioned, and for a long time he got them all mixed up. First there was old Toko and Repeka whom they never ever called by any other name than Repeka. And then there was their son Hiki Toko, to confuse matters, for the boy never heard the old man referred to by anything other than ‘old Toko’ and thought all along that this must surely be his first name. And across from old Toko and Repeka's, on another hill, there was Tua Wi Hepi and his family. They weren't so bad because all his children were called Wi Hepis and the father himself was often referred to as Tua Wi Hepi. But further along the same hill

on the other side of the wharepuni, there lived old Ted Mananui. His wife's name was Ngapera and never once did the boy hear her called anything else. Never Mrs Mananui or Ngapera Mananui, always just Ngapera. So that sometimes Nick wasn't sure whether she really was old Ted's wife or not. Behind the pa and next to the graveyard was old Mrs Patea, who lived alone with her granddaughter Pera. And for some reason or other she was always referred to as ‘Mrs Patea’ so that there was no mistaking with the boy that this was her surname. But why they should call her ‘Mrs’ and not any of the others, the boy didn't know. Old Matenga lived in the big red house closer to the boy's place, over by Yates'. The house stood back in against the hill, on which, further along was the graveyard where the boy's sister Martha was buried. For some reason or other old Matenga's children were called by different names. Some were referred to as Harrisons and some had the same name as the old man, Matenga. Joan, his daughter, was called a Harrison, and his oldest son, Boy, was also called a Harrison, while Bobby and Julie, the younger children, were referred to as Matengas. Yet sometimes he even heard the old man referred to as Matenga Harrison. It was all such a great mix-up to the boy; a mystery he couldn't hope to solve. Then there was the Yates family themselves; some were called Yates and others Hapukes. And there was that great mix-up of names up the hill from their place, at Reid's. One family in particular. Taiatini was the father's name, yet his children were called Wakas, And Nick was sure they weren't the children of Frank Waka, because for one thing he seemed to be too young to have children as old as Pine and Agnes and Jack. But he knew that Frank Waka was some relation although what exactly he didn't know. If he was old Taiatini's brother, why didn't people refer to him as Frank Taiatini or if Taiatini was the father's first name why did the boy never ever hear anyone refer to him as Taiatini Waka? For never once had he heard him referred to other than as ‘old Taiatini’. And there were others up there as well whose names he got all mixed-up over. He didn't know who was who up there half the time. A lot of them kept coming and going. Which didn't help matters. After a time he even gave up trying to figure out who was who for they weren't one of their crowd anyway, but came from somewhere else. He wasn't sure where, except that for some reason he thought it might be the Waikato. Kingi and Awa and August were brothers, this much Nick knew, and their father's name was Rewiti (that old wizened man the boy saw down at the shop sometimes). This was clear enough to the boy, except when it came to figuring out how come with one of the brothers. Awa and August were called Rewitis, yet Kingi the middle brother wasn't. He was always referred to as Kingi and his children in turn were called Kingis also. How this came about the boy was never able to learn. Even his cousins the Browns' father was never referred to as Mr Brown but always as Wanoa (never preceded by ‘Mr’). And sometimes to further add to the confusion

he even heard the children, his cousins, Tommy and Margaret and the others, referred to as Wanoas. But he had always known them as Browns and this was the name that everyone called them by usually.