Pouwhenua now stands in City Council building

Tu Tangata, Issue 14, 1 October 1983, Page 8

Pouwhenua now stands in City Council building

A pouwhenua representing part of the history of the Manawatu now stands in the Palmerston North City Council building on the edge of the Square. Carved by Te Atu Clamp and named Okatia, < the pouwhenua reaches two stories in the entrance-way of the council building. The spirit of Okatia is represented on the upper torso with the lower reaches colourfully carved in birds and eels and trees. Okatia is the spirit figure reputed to have picked up a gigantic totara tree and carved his way to the sea thus creating the Manawatu gorge and the river.

The carving was done at Palmerston North Teachers Training College, outside the Maori Studies room. Kaumatua Polly Matenga of Rangitane and Matawhai Durie of Te Kauwhata and Rangitane officiated at the completion of the work. Mac Whakamoe put the 44 men who were to carry the pouwhenua, under tapu, and then the three kilometre walk to the council building began.

It was an impressive sight with the pouwhenua being carried amidst waiata and chanting down the main road into the centre of Palmerston North. What was thought by council engineers would take several hours in erecting the pouwhenua, took little time with foundation supports going down to the basement. The tapu was then taken off the workers who returned to the Training College for kai. Later in the afternoon Okatia was finally blessed by Hapai Winiata in the presence of the Mayor, Brian Ellwood and fellow councillors.

After six innovative years as Secretary of Maori Affairs Kara Puketapu felt he was getting rather “ponderous” and “complacent” in his departmental role. So when Maori leaders asked him to head the recently unveiled Maori International company he decided to accept the new challenge. He has been granted three years special leave from the public service to lead the new company which aims to promote Maori business ventures particularly in export and tourism. Mr Puketapu believes the company has a vital role to play in boosting Maori economic development. “Maoridom has considerable social and cultural muscle but no economic clout.” He says he is leaving behind him a dynamic department working with a Maori community which is stronger than ever, and entering a marvellous new era of progress.

But he says the department was not always geared towards change and flexibility. He was appointed Secretary in 1977 the youngest ever permanent head of a governmental department, after working in a variety of government departments as a social science trainee, field officer and administrator. A Te Atiawa who grew up a speaking Maori in a traditional extended family, he was a graduate of both Victoria University in Wellington and Chicago University, a consultant to the Ford Foundation in New York on American Indian and Maori exchange programmes, and a former Maori All Black.

At Maori Affairs he found a “very well-disciplined, bureaucratic, stable department.” “That worried and encouraged me. I thought if ideas were too deeply entrenched how could I get things moving. I had to make changes quickly but aimed at long term objectives.” He also had to gain the confidence of the Maori community. “For the first couple of years there was hesitancy about me. They were saying “who is this man?” His answer was the Tu Tangata programme emphasising growth, self-help, and concepts like whanau and kokiri. Under his leadership the department spearheaded other programmes kohanga reo, rapu mahi, kokiri centres, and most recently the matua whangai programme. His personal favourite is the kohanga reo programme “kohanga reo is the most beautiful effective programme that any social-minded department runs in this country.” Mr Puketapu will leave the department to take up his new post in November.