He Iti Nā Motai
Almost sixty iwi members met at Te Ara a Tāwhaki on Sunday 28 April 2019 to launch the He Iti Nā Motai oral history report. Volume One and Volume Two can be accessed here.
For Raukawa, by Raukawa, of Raukawa Almost sixty iwi members met at Te Ara a Tāwhaki on Sunday 28 April to launch the He Iti Nā Motai oral history report.
The report took two years to complete and was produced to meet the dual purposes of:
a) to serve the future generations, that they will know themselves; and
b) to serve the current generation in their pursuit of tino rangatiratanga.
The four parts to He Iti Na Motai describe the origins and experiences of the Iwi over the last 180 years. Arini Loader (Ngāti Maiotaki) and Rewa Morgan (Te Ātiawa) begin the story with who Ngāti Raukawa were as a people in the early 1800s; their whakapapa connections to each other and to other iwi around the country as well as iwi structures and influence on the local and wider political landscape.
They go on to describe the trials and challenges faced by tūpuna as they migrated south. Over three to four years, the main heke arrived in the southern lands where other iwi resided at the time and within which Ngāti Raukawa soon established their own mana whenua.
Project supervisor, Dr Whatarangi Winiata says “In this first chapter, we see evidence of the sustained efforts of the Crown to assimilate Ngāti Raukawa into a foreign way of life at the cost of our own rich and unique Raukawa view of the world. The coloniser employed their tried and globally tested tactics of disconnecting the people from their lands and suspending their ties to each other. These interventions brought Ngāti Raukawa to the precipice of extinction.”
A series of twenty hapū narratives illustrate that in the face of loss of hundreds of thousands of acres of land; in spite of the desecration of many waterways, lakes, streams, rivers and aquifers; regardless of the almost irreversible destruction to fisheries, flora and other fauna; the obliteration of the language and notwithstanding the wholesale destruction of the Iwi’s very way of life; despite all of this, Ngāti Raukawa survived.
A project team supported 23 hapū teams to work on their chapters. Members of the team included Fiona Te Momo (Ngāti Whakatere) and Manurere Devonshire (Ngāti Manomano) with the initial lead Gary Hook (Ngāti Huia, Te Ātiawa) until he went overseas. Wally Penetito with whakapapa connections to Ngāti Tukorehe then assumed the role of lead historian for the project. The team has been supported at various times by Hiria Green (Ngāti Pareraukawa) and Lynne Raumati (Ngāti Huia/Te Ātiawa).
The hapū teams were populated by 108 investigators, interviewers and writers. Collectively, they conducted 101 interviews and held wānanga with 303 participants across the rohe. The teams recorded participation by 512 iwi members; it is likely that there were more people engaged in discussions who did not find their way into the record.
Throughout the 20th century, new institutions and structures emerged that were designed to manage their resources, explore opportunities to work with others and/or to exert influence both in their communities and on the national scene. Raukawa imbued these examples of their determination to survive with their distinctive way of understanding and doing things, their own Raukawatanga.
In his chapter, Piripi Walker (Ngāti Kikopiri) focuses on the history of the Raukawa confederation and its capacity for kotahitanga in the past, present and future. Piripi illustrates many examples of Ngāti Raukawa kotahitanga and discusses in depth the Iwi’s introduction to Christianity, establishment of the Ōtaki Māori Racing Club, the Ōtaki and Porirua Trusts Board, Raukawa Marae and its Trustees, the Raukawa District Māori Council and the Māori Battalion Memorial Hall, the new hapū - Ngāti Manomano; the new mandated iwi organisation, the Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga Trust; our language experience through radio spectrum, radio, Te Whakatupuranga Rua Mano and the establishment of Te Wānanga o Raukawa.
The central theme of the experience during the past two centuries has been the search for ever increasing opportunities to express rangatiratanga. Ani Mikaere (Ngāti Pareraukawa) says “the Crown has been relentless in its determination to express kāwanatanga over and above the ambition of its Māori partner represented, by Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga”. She draws on the hapū narratives, literally hundreds of pages that demonstrate the Crown’s duplicity and the length the Crown’s agents would go to have their way. Whatever the cost to Ngāti Raukawa. Finally, Matua Whatarangi draws on the experience of Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga over the last 180 years. He said “its important for the Iwi to cast their thoughts to the future, to alternative ways of organising ourselves, thinking about workforce development and relocating ourselves to the stars above as part of an intergalactic future”.
This report has been written by Raukawa, for Raukawa, of Raukawa with support from whanaunga living in the area. The preparation of the material has been two years in the making and has received the attention of hundreds of Ngāti Raukawa people, kaumātua, pakeke and rangatahi as investigators, writers, interviewers, interviewees, organisers of hui, ringawera, readers, reviewers, planners, and managers. They have all contributed to the content and presentation of this oral history. Dr Wally Penetito says that “these are the kaitiaki of mātauranga and they have served the iwi well.”
The report took two years to complete and was produced to meet the dual purposes of:
a) to serve the future generations, that they will know themselves; and
b) to serve the current generation in their pursuit of tino rangatiratanga.
The four parts to He Iti Na Motai describe the origins and experiences of the Iwi over the last 180 years. Arini Loader (Ngāti Maiotaki) and Rewa Morgan (Te Ātiawa) begin the story with who Ngāti Raukawa were as a people in the early 1800s; their whakapapa connections to each other and to other iwi around the country as well as iwi structures and influence on the local and wider political landscape.
They go on to describe the trials and challenges faced by tūpuna as they migrated south. Over three to four years, the main heke arrived in the southern lands where other iwi resided at the time and within which Ngāti Raukawa soon established their own mana whenua.
Project supervisor, Dr Whatarangi Winiata says “In this first chapter, we see evidence of the sustained efforts of the Crown to assimilate Ngāti Raukawa into a foreign way of life at the cost of our own rich and unique Raukawa view of the world. The coloniser employed their tried and globally tested tactics of disconnecting the people from their lands and suspending their ties to each other. These interventions brought Ngāti Raukawa to the precipice of extinction.”
A series of twenty hapū narratives illustrate that in the face of loss of hundreds of thousands of acres of land; in spite of the desecration of many waterways, lakes, streams, rivers and aquifers; regardless of the almost irreversible destruction to fisheries, flora and other fauna; the obliteration of the language and notwithstanding the wholesale destruction of the Iwi’s very way of life; despite all of this, Ngāti Raukawa survived.
A project team supported 23 hapū teams to work on their chapters. Members of the team included Fiona Te Momo (Ngāti Whakatere) and Manurere Devonshire (Ngāti Manomano) with the initial lead Gary Hook (Ngāti Huia, Te Ātiawa) until he went overseas. Wally Penetito with whakapapa connections to Ngāti Tukorehe then assumed the role of lead historian for the project. The team has been supported at various times by Hiria Green (Ngāti Pareraukawa) and Lynne Raumati (Ngāti Huia/Te Ātiawa).
The hapū teams were populated by 108 investigators, interviewers and writers. Collectively, they conducted 101 interviews and held wānanga with 303 participants across the rohe. The teams recorded participation by 512 iwi members; it is likely that there were more people engaged in discussions who did not find their way into the record.
Throughout the 20th century, new institutions and structures emerged that were designed to manage their resources, explore opportunities to work with others and/or to exert influence both in their communities and on the national scene. Raukawa imbued these examples of their determination to survive with their distinctive way of understanding and doing things, their own Raukawatanga.
In his chapter, Piripi Walker (Ngāti Kikopiri) focuses on the history of the Raukawa confederation and its capacity for kotahitanga in the past, present and future. Piripi illustrates many examples of Ngāti Raukawa kotahitanga and discusses in depth the Iwi’s introduction to Christianity, establishment of the Ōtaki Māori Racing Club, the Ōtaki and Porirua Trusts Board, Raukawa Marae and its Trustees, the Raukawa District Māori Council and the Māori Battalion Memorial Hall, the new hapū - Ngāti Manomano; the new mandated iwi organisation, the Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga Trust; our language experience through radio spectrum, radio, Te Whakatupuranga Rua Mano and the establishment of Te Wānanga o Raukawa.
The central theme of the experience during the past two centuries has been the search for ever increasing opportunities to express rangatiratanga. Ani Mikaere (Ngāti Pareraukawa) says “the Crown has been relentless in its determination to express kāwanatanga over and above the ambition of its Māori partner represented, by Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga”. She draws on the hapū narratives, literally hundreds of pages that demonstrate the Crown’s duplicity and the length the Crown’s agents would go to have their way. Whatever the cost to Ngāti Raukawa. Finally, Matua Whatarangi draws on the experience of Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga over the last 180 years. He said “its important for the Iwi to cast their thoughts to the future, to alternative ways of organising ourselves, thinking about workforce development and relocating ourselves to the stars above as part of an intergalactic future”.
This report has been written by Raukawa, for Raukawa, of Raukawa with support from whanaunga living in the area. The preparation of the material has been two years in the making and has received the attention of hundreds of Ngāti Raukawa people, kaumātua, pakeke and rangatahi as investigators, writers, interviewers, interviewees, organisers of hui, ringawera, readers, reviewers, planners, and managers. They have all contributed to the content and presentation of this oral history. Dr Wally Penetito says that “these are the kaitiaki of mātauranga and they have served the iwi well.”