A call to take care
the new supporting legislation,
or "canoe," supporting the Treaty of Waitangi, because
it is a sign of a new summer of Maori
pride.
Toia mai1
te waka nei
Kumea mai te waka nei
Ki te takotoranga i takoto ai
Tiriti2
te mana motuhake3
Te tangi a te manu e4
Pipi-wha-rau-roa5
Kui! Kui! Kui!
Whitiwhiti ora!
Hui e, ta?iki e.
Haul
this canoe
drag the canoe up here
to its
resting place;
the Treaty gives
us our autonomy.
May the cry of the bird,
the shining cuckoo
- Quee! Quee! Quee! -
signal a change for the better.
Draw together, become intertwined!
G Toia mai
te waka nei Em Kumea mai te waka nei
G Ki te takotoranga i C
takoto ai A7 Tiriti te mana D7
motuhake
G Te tangi a te manu e
Pipi-wha-rau-C-roa
Kui! Kui! Kui! G Whitiwhiti ora! D7 Hui e, taiki G
e
Toia
Mai te waka nei is the second verse of a song
that master carver Piri Poutapu composed after he was
instructed by Te Puea Herangi, in 1936, to build seven
carved waka taua representing the people of the seven
principal voyaging canoes that arrived in Aotearoa from
Hawaiki.
The waka taua would go to Waitangi for the 1940
centennial of the signing of the Treaty. They would be
shown nationwide on newsreels in picture theatres as
symbols of a Maori renaissance. And hapu scratching a
living in depopulated back country areas, impoverished
and isolated after a century of war, poverty and
epidemics, would get the message that conditions were
about to change for the better. Here is the first verse.
Tenei
ra a Waikato
Tahi tu tonu te haere
i te mataara o nga marae
i takahia nga wa o muri
ahakoa tupuhi nga hau
nga hau o te ao
Kui! Kui! Kui!
Whitiwhiti ora!
Hui e, taiki e.
On
this day, Waikato people
started out on a mission
to alert all the marae
struggling in the back country areas
that even though the winds have been stormy,
the winds of the dawn
- Quee! Quee! Quee! -
are signaling a change for the better.
Draw together, become intertwined!
1
Toia Mai
A
big ornate war canoe was a symbol of the independence and
mana of the tribe, (like British battleships in the early
20th century and US aircraft carriers today) and needed
protection from the elements. It was hauled from the water
after use, and stored in a boat shed.
Piri Poutapu and his team began their project by hauling
the waka Te Winika out of the mud. It had been
built in the early 1800s and was rotting away on the
riverbank at Tuakau. The restoration of Te Winika
for the centennial of the Treaty was a milestone in the
renewal of Maori mana and autonomy. Te Winika is
now in the Waikato museum.
2
Te Tiriti
At
Waitangi in 1840, after 20 years of ruinous inter-tribal
musket wars, Maori signed sovereignty of their country
over to Britain, in return for guarantees about their land
and other possessions.
But a giant land grab (E
Pa To Hau) then took place when
British capitalists and venal officials ignored this
treaty for the next 120 years.
3 Mana
Motuhake
Literally
"separated prestige," or the authority and capacity to be
autonomous.
This is a political term created during post-Waitangi
attempts (Hoia
Ra Nga Waka Nei) by Maori groups to
continue to control their own affairs or regain
jurisdiction that had been removed or lost.
4 Te
Tangi A Te Manu
This
is an old karakia (Whakarongo ki te tangi o te manu
e karanga ake nei, hui, hui, hui, huia...) whose
words have been incorporated into this modern poi song.
It connects us to world of the atua by way of
bird-calls, and then it focuses on the good news of the
shining cuckoo's distinctive September bird-cry
announcing the end of winter ...May the spirits give
us a summer that is without storms or drought. Metaphorically
...May the spirits give us what the Treaty promises.
This karakia would
originally have been chanted in a fast monotone. Listen
to a
similar karakia.
5
The Shining Cuckoo
The
Pipiwharauroa spends winter in the Solomon Islands and
then flies down to New Zealand in late September to breed
in our forests. It replaces the eggs in Grey Warblers'
nests with its own eggs, and leaves those little birds to
hatch and rear its chicks.
Wiremu
(Piri) Te Ranga Poutapu
(Ngati
Koroki, Tainui)
Born in Maungatautari in 1905, the son of Pouaka
Winikerei, a carpenter, and of Rangitaau Paraki. He was
whangaied to Te Puea Herangi and accompanying her to
Ngaruawahia in 1921 to establish Turangawaewae marae. Piri
worked mainly as a carpenter. His first carving project
was Pare Waikato, in 1927. In 1929 he went to study
carving at Ohinemutu for 3 years, learning from Eramiha
Kapua adzing and carving, as well as karakia and rules of
tapu proper to the art.
In 1932 he returned to Ngaruawahia and established a
carving school similar to that at Ohinemutu.
By 1936 he began a project to carve seven war canoes for
Te Puea. Due to lack of funding, only three of the
projected seven canoes were completed for the nation's
centennial celebrations at Waitangi in 1940.
In 1943 he quarrelled with Te Puea and left Turangawaewae.
Without his expertise the canoes were not kept in good
repair and could not be used for ceremonial occasions.
In 1971, for the Auckland Anniversary Regatta, he repaired
the canoe Te Winika, and trained the crew for the Auckland
event. The following year, the building of Taheretikitiki
II began at Ngaruawahia. He led the team renovating the
old central hull section and performed the necessary
rituals. Taheretikitiki II was launched in 1973.
In 1974 he was made an MBE. He was planning the final
designs of several more canoes when he died at
Turangawaewae marae on 20 August 1975. His wife, Ngamako,
had died in 1969 and he was survived by three sons and a
daughter. He was buried on Taupiri Mountain.
If
you can make any corrections or improvements to this
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(Ngati
Koroki, Tainui)