*  Tara pounamu has multiple meanings - see below

Pakete Whero

This poi action song has been famous at Whakarewarewa since the early 1900s. It was listed in the program of a 1910 concert organised by Maggie and Bella Papakura. Bella is said to have composed this song in honour of a man from Ruatāhuna that she was secretly having an affair with. The wearing of the red scarves by both of them signaled to each other their secret love. (Paringatai 2004)

A Whaka guide from the 1930s, Bubbles Mihinui, explains:

"It used to be a special song sung by the Whaka guides. Bella composed a poi to this song for the 1934 Waitangi Day celebrations. For a long time only the guides at Whaka could perform it, because 'Pakete whero' has got an offbeat. Bella made her poi sound like the hoof beats of galloping horses - she loved the races."

This poi blended aspects of Māori composition (innuendo about a secret love is often a feature of waiata) with European technique (the fast paced off-beat poi rhythms based on galloping horses).

It was a "poi waka," designed to satisfy the 1900s Rotorua tourist market. The Whakarewarewa Thermal Area guides had turned to organising concert performance parties to increase their income, and Guide Bella in particular quickly honed her poi skills. She took poi to new levels of performance that were based on a mix of traditional conventions and modern practices, and in doing so created styles that quickly became widespread.

Guide Bella Papakura

Ihapera (Isabella) Thom, who was later widely known as Guide Bella Papakura, was born in the Bay of Plenty in the early 1870s. Her father was an Englishman, William Arthur Thom, a storekeeper who later worked in the Magistrate's Courts at Rotorua and Wairoa, and her mother was Pia Ngarotu Te Rihi, a high-born Te Arawa woman of Ngati Wahiao hapu of Tuhourangi.

Ihapera probably received an education similar to that of her younger sister Maggie, who went to schools in Rotorua and Tauranga, and to Hukarere Native Girls' School, Napier. On leaving school, she went to live at Whakarewarewa, the ancestral home of her people.

Maggie and Bella Papakura in about 1910

Under the experienced eye of Guide Sophia Hinerangi, Bella became an accomplished hostess and entertainer, with a special talent for waiata and poi. She developed leadership skills by managing the concert parties established by her sister Maggie.

The family name changed from the dull-sounding Thom to the more romantic Papakura when a tourist asked Maggie what her surname was in Maori. Maggie glanced round for inspiration and saw the geyser Papakura bubbling away nearby. The tourists accepted the name, but Maggie's friends erupted in gales of laughter when they heard her recount the story. She was Maggie Papakura to her friends from that day onward, and Bella was given the name too.

In 1910 Bella and Maggie and their cultural group were invited took part in a Sydney exhibition, giving concert performances and setting up a model Maori village.

In 1911 a touring party consisting of around 40 members of their extended family left for a similar visit to London. They appeared at various venues including the Crystal Palace and White City and entertained thousands of visitors with songs, dances and story-telling.

In the 1930s, as the senior guide at Whakarewarewa, Bella would walk behind the apprentice guides, quietly correcting them as they went.

"Bella was in the background all the time," recalled Guide Bubbles Mihinui, "Teaching in her own quiet way. She hated the word 'tourist.' She told us to treat any stranger to our place as manuhiri ­ a visitor. Body language, that's what Bella used to get her point across. Every single one of her visitors were able to relate to her without any words at all."

Click to watch

Multimedia: History of Poi

Tarapounamu / tara pounamu

Tarapounamu is a mountain peak east of Ruatahuna, the home of Bella's lover. It was so named when Tamatea Kaitaharuahe speared a pigeon there in the mid 1600s. The valuable greenstone point on his bird spear become detached from the shaft, and the bird flew away with the point sticking in its body. Tamatea somehow managed to follow the bird for miles across the ranges and eventually recovered his tara pounamu. Tuhoe bird spears

Bella is implyng she was that pigeon, and she is also making some wordplay on the words "tara" and "pounamu" to sum up her feelings after being with him.

"Tara" has several meanings: it can be a spike or spear tip, and thus it is used as a colloquial term for the penis. "Tara" also describes the side walls between two houses, and so it is sometimes used as a term for the vagina.

"Tatau pounamu," a door of greenstone , is a metaphor for enduring peace. Greenstone carvings were beautiful and everlasting and were exchanged as symbols of peace. Pounamu. So by using a variant of this phrase, "tara pounamu," a sexual organ of greenstone, Bella describes the feeling of utter peace she experienced after she and her lover gifted their sexuality to each other.

Pakete Whero on Record

Variations

Rikihana and Paringatai give the coherent story-telling version.
Freedman and Southern give a later, and more easy-to-sing version, with more repetition in it.

Bibliography

Paringatai, K, 2004
Poia mai taku poi, Unearthing the knowledge of the past
A critical review of written literature on the poi in New Zealand and the Pacific
Thesis for Master of Arts, Otago University PDF

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Published on the internet, 1 July 2007, reformatted Jan 2022