'The Food Basket of Rakaihautu': Taumutu

Tu Tangata, Issue 36, 1 June 1987, Page 46

'The Food Basket of Rakaihautu': Taumutu

Dedicated to Riki Ellison

Ko te pae tawhiti, whaia kia tata. Ko te pae tata, whakamaua kia tata.

Seek out the distant horizon and cherish those you attain.

Hori Kerei Taiaroa

He underwent a Pakeha education and advocated the use of European medicines and the adoption of European agricultural methods. But his goal was always to maintain the ‘mana Maori’ of Ngai Tahu and a major part of his life’s work was to seek resolution ot ‘Te Kerema’ (‘the claim’), the Ngai Tahu insistence that the Government should fulfil the promises made to them at the time of the Kemp Purchase and subsequently disregarded. (‘Te Kerema’, partly settled at the time of the first Labour Government, is still being pursued by Ngai Tahu.)

H. K. Taiaroa had large land holdings at Otakou (near to the head which bears his family name) and he and his father are both buried in the urupa above the church at Otakou, but he also had ancestral ties to Taumutu, one of his lines going back to Te Ruahikihiki, one of the Ngai Tahu heroes of Taumutu. One reason for his decision to settle at Taumutu, where some of his ancestors of high rank were buried in the spring Te Waiwhakaheketupapaku, was to be closer to Wellington, where he was obliged to spend much of his time. The Taiaroa family home at Taumutu, Awhitu House, designed by the Christchurch architect T. S. Lambert, was built in 1879-80. By 1884, Taiaroa had completed the transfer of his family to their new home. Though he spent much time in Wellington and also had a town house in Christchurch, Awhitu House has, since Hori Kerei’s time, been the papakainga of the Taiaroa family. It is younger and less grand than many old Canterbury farmhouses, but unique in having remained since it was built in the hands of a family whose ties to the

Tu Tangata features this issue, part two of ‘The food basket of Rakaihautu: Taumutu’. It looks at Te Waihora (also known as Lake Ellesmere) and Maori settlement there at Taumutu. Hori Kerei was the MP from 1871 to 1905. This feature traces his time until the present day when Te Waihora is under threat from commercial exploitation and the food basket is now much depleted. This feature is just one chapter in a book compiled by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust called The Past Today. The publisher is Pacific Publishers and the price is $49.95.

completed Awhitu House for his family, H. K. Taiaroa, moved by a ‘great love of the church’, began to raise funds to erect a church building at Taumutu. Money flowed in from Maori and Pakeha in the Ellesmere district and from Maori of other Canterbury kainga. The site chosen for the church was that of the pa of Te Ruahikihiki, called Orariki, a site of spiritual significance which stands in a special relationship to the hills of Banks Peninsula, the mountains of the Southern Alps and the waters of Te Waihora. The church, also designed by T. S. Lambert, was opened on Easter Tuesday, 7 April 1885. Over the years many denominations have used the church, which has served the Pakeha as well as Maori families of the Taumutu district. Iron has replaced shingles on the roof and the church has

land on which it stands long predate the acquisitions of any parts of Canterbury by even its longest established European families. Two other buildings at Taumutu, the Hone Wetere (John Wesley) Church and the runanga hall Ngati Moki, date from the years immediately after H. K. Taiaroa’s move to the district. Christinaity had come to Taumutu in advance of the first European missionaries. When Bishop Selwyn passed through Taumutu in January 1844 he found some of the Maori living there conversant with the scriptures and catechism, brought to them by Maori converts. In 1865 Taumutu became part of the wide circuit of the Maori Methodist clergyman, Te Koti Te Rato, who was based at Rapaki on Lyttelton Harbour. In the early 1880 s, having

lost the belfry which once crowned the peak of the western gable but it remains a picturesque building in its open setting, the graves in the churchyard sheltered by the low wall of the ancient pa.

A few years later Taumutu also acquired the runanga hall which was built on the site of the pa of Moki II and named after him. It was opened on 7 May 1891, replacing an earlier structure on the same site. Modern ‘improvements’ to Ngati Moki have increased its size and reflect the resurgence of the Maori in Ellesmere in fhe 1980 s, but have sadly diminished its historical character. It is now, however, better able to serve as the main marae of the Ellesmere district.

H. K. Taiaroa died in 1905. His wife Tini Kerei, who was born in Moeraki, lived until 1934, making her home in Awhitu House. One of her sons, Riki Te Mairaki Taiaroa, became acknowledged as the paramount chief of Ngai Tahu. Widowed early in his life, he lived at Awhitu House until his own death in 1954. Riki Te Mairaki Taiaroa adopted his grandnephew, a greatgrandson of Hori Kerei and Tini Kerei, Riki Te Mairaki Taiaroa Ellison, who was brought up in Awhitu House by his great-grandmother and grand-uncle. Riki Ellison lived in Awhitu House all is life, except for a period of service overseas during World War 11. A warm, humble man, he enjoyed great mana throughout the South Island and New Zealand. His standing gave Awhitu House importance in country-wide Maori affairs. When he died in 1984, thousands gathered at Taumutu for the largest tangi seen in the South Island for many years. He was buried in a simple grave close to the western end of the humble church he had loved and cared for all his life and which he called his ‘cathedral’.

Awhitu House has been important as the papakainga of the Taiaroa family and as the residence of successive paramount chiefs of Ngai Tahu. It has also played a significant part in the life of the wider Taumutu-Sedgemere community. Until it was closed in the 19605, the Sedgemere school held its annual picnic on the lawn of Awhitu House. The picnics were great events for all locals, Maori and Pakeha, young and old. Maori and Pakeha alike joined too in such community customs as first footing at New Year. The doors of the hall Ngati Moki and the Hone Wetere Church have always been open to all members of the local community, regardless of race. The interaction between the Maori of Taumutu and the European settler families of the Tau-

special feasts for manuhiri. It is culturally important to Maori that locals be seen to cater more than adequately for guests and that people travelling to gatherings elsewhere take ample supplies of the particular food or foods which their local community enjoys in abundance. The delcine in the number of tuna in Te Waihora is, therefore, of burning importance to the people of Ngati Ruahikihiki/Ngati Moki. So is the mining of sand on Kaitorete, which threatens the destruction not only of middens but also of some of the now restricted stands of pingao. But it is the depletion of the lake’s resources that is felt particularly keenly. Already the memory is fading of the time when those in other South Island Maori communities would say confidently that ‘Taumutu will bring eel’. The practice of people from Taumutu taking tuna, often in large quantities, to hui continued well into living memory, but is a

mutu and Sedgemere districts would, written about in detail, tell much about the accommodation between the races in Canterbury. The accommodation has mostly been happy, but not without friction, and the lake the foodbasket of Rakaihautu has been a main and continuing source of friction. Concern for Te Waihora Uncle Riki’s lake to some young people who are frequent visitors to Awhitu House is a major preoccupation of the Maori of Taumutu and the depletion of its resources of food a cause for bitterness. The Maori people of Taumutu have placed great store on being able to sustain and entertain visitors with the traditional foods of tuna and flounder for which the lake has been renowned since Maori first settled on its shores hundreds of years aog. The choicest tuna were those taken in Muriwai, a lagoon just south of Taumutu, and Muriwai tuna were reserved for use in

practice the local Maori now find it more difficult to maintain. The specially preserved form of tuna pawhara was a particular delicacy which Taumutu used to contribute to gatherings at other South Island marae and even to conferences in the North Island.

Efforts over many years to get at least part of Te Waihora reserved from commercial fishing for traditional Maori cultural uses have not been successful. Taumutu first emerged as a place of importance, hundreds of years ago, because of the resources of its foodbasket. To see those resources exploited heedlessly and threatened is to see Taumutu’s long Maori history treated with disrespect.

Today on the road to Taumutu from Leeston or Southbridge, the tarseal ends just short of Taumutu itself. The shingle road passes close to the earth rampart of the pa of Moki II on which stands the recently extended runanga hall. Further off, the Hone Wetere Church stands lonely in its open landscape, but protected by the ramparts and moat of Te Ruahikihiki’s pa Orariki. A short distance further on, on the other side of the road, Awhitu House is almost hidden by trees and a huge macrocarpa hedge. In the back-

rather ramshackle cluster of huts on Fishermens Point, Banks Peninsula, across the broad waters of Te Waihora, looks like the island it was in far distant times.

ground is the sound of the sea, close but invisible behind the shingle bank that is the southern end of Kaitorete. From the

The scene is peaceful, a change from the days when a Kaikoura party, passing in friendship through Taumutu to see friends at Moeraki, were ambushed and slain, all for some distant slight. Retribution came from Moeraki and during the fray a warrior Kuwhare was taken prisoner by Korako to be used as sacrifice to Mua. He broke away and, being a celebrated runner, outdistanced his pursuers around the shores of Te Waihora and reached safety with friends at Kaiapohia. Taumutu is a place of many memories.

Maori people of many tribes, now resident in Canterbury, look to Taumutu for parts of the traditions, heritage and culture of their race. Groups, Pakeha and Maori, staying in the hall Ngati Moki study the local scene of a place with a long, rich history. The Maori people of Taumutu have been much changed by their long association with European culture, but the changes have not altered their recognition of their ancestral traditions.

Further Reading Andersen, J. C. Place Names of Banks Peninsula (Wellington 1927, reprinted 1976) Graham, G. W. and Chappie, L. J. B. Ellesmere County (Christchurch 1965) Taylor, W. A. Waihora: Maori Associations with Lake Ellesmere (Leeston n.d.)