NZFS * Pinepine te Kura

This is an epic story of a young boy born with the power to save his village from evil. Living far inland on the Takapau Plains, they often became weak and impotent, and blamed their troubles on witchcraft emanating over the hills from vengeful northerners.

We hear the wise tohunga teaching the boy how to protect the villagers by using healing powers he has inherited from Hawaiiki when he received Rangi's powers in a flash of lightning at infancy. The boy is taught how to remove the witchcraft's evils with his kaunati stick, to prepare kaimoana potions to heal their bodies, and to perform therapy sessions to heal their minds.

This oriori uses a "leap-and-linger" technique; moving abruptly from one significant event in his life to the next, with all the episodes building up to a dramatic ending.

Kāpeka 1. The newborn baby is asleep on his father's lap.
"Pinepine te kura, hau te kura, whanake te kura i raro i Awarua ko te kura nui, ko te kura roa ko te kura o tawhiti na Tuhaepo. Tenei te tira hou, tenei haramai nei. Ko Te Umu-rangi na Te Whatuiapiti."	but renowned, because the treasure came up from Awarua, the great treasure, the long-held treasure, Maro Kura the treasure from afar, like was. This is the new visitor just arrived here. Whakapapa descended from

Kāpeka 2. The 2-year-old learns about the power of prickles.
Nau mai, e tama, ki te tai-ao nei, Ki whaka-ngungua; koe ki te kahikatoa; Ki te tumatakuru; ki te tara ongaonga; Nga tairo ra nahau e Kupe I i te ao nei.	Welcome, O son, to this world of life; to the art of defence with the mānuka pole with matagouri, speargrass and stinging nettle and with the prickly obstructions that kept well clear of in this country. Planting for protection

Kāpeka 3. The 3-year-old is is inspired by Tawhiki's powers.
"Piki ake, kake ake i te toi huarewa, Te ara o Tawhiki i piki ai ki runga; I rokohina atu ra Maikuku-makaka, Hapai-o-Mauri. He waha i pa mai, ‘Taku wahine purotu!’ ‘Taku tane purotu!’ Korua ko te tau, e!"	"Climb, climb up by way of the suspended vine, the pathway of Tawhaki when he climbed up high, and there found Maikuku-makaka,Hapai-o-Mauri. Greetings were uttered: ‘My beautiful lady!’ ‘My handsome man!’ Tāwhaki Here's to you and your lover!"

Kāpeka 4. The 7-year-old learns that the powers of Rangi are with him.
Whakakake, e tama, i te kinga o tō waha, No runga rawa koe No te tahu nui a Rangi e tū nei Nā Rangitu koe, nā Rangiroa Nā Tane rawa koe,	Consider yourself superior, O son, declaring out loud That you are of the highest rank. In the great ancestry from Rangi standing above you are descended from Rangitu, from Rangiroa, from Rangi and from Tane himself.
Na Apa ia koe, na te Apa-rangi-ihiihi na te Apa-rangi i rarapa. "Tukia i whare rangi, ko temai rangi. Te mata kura, ko Apa i te honga." ra koe.	You are from the awe-inspiring spirit, the messenger spirit in a lightning flash. "Pounded out from its heavenly home is the thunder from the sky. This sign at sacred baptism Lightning is Apa descending." You belong to him.

Kāpeka 5. The 12-year-old is introduced to the secrets of fire.
Kāore nei, e tama, ko te wānanga i a taua nei. Tē ai i waiho i Ōkaiure rā ngā pure tawhiti. Te kaunoti hikahika.	O son, is the sacred knowledge we have here. Not just abandoned back there at are the ancient rituals to remove tapu. We have the grooved fireblock here. Fire making
"Te kaunoti a to tipuna, a Tura I haere ai i ka hika i tona ahi. Kimihia e Kura, ko Tū-ma-tere Te Umu ka hoki nga kai ki te	"It is the fireblock of your ancestor, Tura, who went to the lighting his fire. Tura's chant Seek my Treasure, the ritual, so you, The Earth-Oven, can give back

Kāpeka 6. At the wananga - the teenager learns of the power of fire to remove evil
"Te kaunoti a tō tipuna, a Tura I haere ai i Tere-nui-i-ao ka hika i tona ahi. Kimihia e Kura, ko Tū-ma-tere Te Umu ka hoki nga kai ki te ao." Koia i Tūranga-nui, he mata awha, He patu i te tangata kia mate. Na te mau whaiwhaia hoki ra I mānene ai i te ara, Ka mate kongenge, ka mania, ka paheke. Ko te matamata ki te tū-āhu e makutu mai ra, Ko Tama-i-riakina-te-rangi te hekenga o rangi.	"It is the fireblock of your ancestor, Tura, who went to 'Great-floating-world' lighting his fire. May it be sought, my Treasured son, the Keep-going-with-speed fire-making ritual, so you Mr. Earth-Oven, can give back food to the world." Indeed, in there was witchcraft, a weapon that still makes people It is the enemy's wielding of witchcraft Turanganui that repeatedly interrupts our way weakening us, causing us to slip and fall. The seer at the enclosed altar performing witchcraft a 1929 tūāhu is Tama-who-lifted-up-the-sky who descended from the heaavens
Ko Taramuru anake titi kaha mai ra E popoki noa mai ra i runga te rakau: Tērā te tukou a Maui-rangi kei o tuākana. Three lines from this Tuhoe version	Only Taramuru's plantings brings strength when he covers over each plant without restraint: that sweet kumara of Maui-of-the-heavens like your cousins grow. Kūmara

Kāpeka 7. On Kairakau beach - The young man achieves the status of tohunga.
E kai o mata ki te kohu ka tatao I waho o te moana o toka hāpuku, Ko Maunungarara, ko Wharerauaruhe, Ko Ta-kopai-te-rangi, ko te Ara-totara, Te Huawaiparae, koia te korori.	Feast your eyes on the mist that lies called Hinemahanga and Waimatai, and protected by five chiefs including The reefs Te Huawaiparea, quite the

Tena ra, e ta ma, te wā ki to koutou irāmutu tāmaua mai nei ki te ua i te kahu.	is the time for your nephew graduation to be united to the neck of his cloak
E kai o mata ki runga Marokotia. Karokaro i te taturi o to taringa, kia areare ai, mo te whakarongo atu Ki nga kī mai a to tipuna, a Noho-atu, E makamaka mai ra i a taua anake Te Ārai o Tūranga, Te matenga o Hinerakai i turamatia ai, I matakitakina ai, Koia 'Hika-matakitaki.'	Feast your eyes on Remove your wax from your ears to clear them so you can listen to the voices of your ancestors who stayed behind, now addressing us two from the protectiing hills around Gisborne, where died of shame in the torchlight, rudely gazed upon by old men hence the place-name

Kāpeka 8. At Okaiure that evening - a group psychotherapy session
Whiti ke mai koe ki rāinahi nei. Tē ai he mahara, ka mate koe i Awarua;	You crossed the Pacific Ocean only yesterday, without a thought that you might die due to Awarua. from Awarua
Ka manene mai koe kiate wai, Ka ū ana ko Hauraki. Ka pa ko te waha o Tutawirirangi, ‘E tama! Ina ia te kai. Toia ki uta ra, haehaetia ai; Tunuate manawa, ka kainga, ka pau — No Karotimutimu, no Taurangakoau.’	Weakened while in the sea you come ashore at Hauraki and hear the voice of Tutawirirangi ‘O sons! Here is food to eat! Ka Mate! Haul it ashore and cut it up, the heart that is roasted, bitten into, eaten all up is from our totem dolphin near Ahuriri.

Kāpeka 8. A therapeutic rebirth at Okaiure as the morning sun rises.
te waka nui, ka kai ki te kirikiri, Ka kai ki te ponga, Ka kai ki te mamaku, Ka kai ki te ngarara whakawae, Ka kai ki te pananehu," E tama, e!	"But eventually the great canoe will nibble at the sand, gnaw on the ponga log, munch on the mamaku shoot Ka Ora! enjoy the huhu grubs, and savour the young bracken shoots," O son of mine!

Bodies and minds both need healing

In the the late 15th century, Tūpurupuru (Ngati Kahungunu) killed two young nephews because they threatened his chance of becoming the next high chief of the Tūranganui (Gisborne) region. Tūpurupuru was executed after his guilt was confirmed with the aid of a tohunga's skilful "makutu" kite-flying, and his relatives were banished south, with some of them ending up far inland on the Takapau Plains.

Without any seafood in their diet, some of these 'inlanders' would have become deficient in iodine and other nutrients. As a result their thyroid glands did not function properly and they suffered from energy loss and depression. These symptoms were especially bad when enervating winds blew from the north. With the guilt of Tupurupuru's foul deed still on their minds, they blamed their weak condition on witchcraft wafting up from the north.

It seems their leader Ngāpū-o-te-rangi noticed that those who regularly visited the coast or lived there were never affected by this witchcraft. In a discussion with other wise ones, they would have figured out there was something in seafood that kept the weakness makutu at bay, and so they developed a process for curing both the physical weakness and negative emotions of the afflicted.

Those being cured needed to know that the young tohunga being trained up to cure them had received his special powers from Rangi-tu. So to make sure that this healing process would keep working in sucessive generations, the wise ones encapsulated the main points of the process in a chant, and by linking together several old ritual chants with some fatherly advice, plus references to historical and mythical events, they produced this masterpiece.

(1) The first half of the chant let all the weakened and fearful inlanders who had come from the Takapau plains to Okaiure know WHY the young tohunga had the power to cure them.

(2) The second half of the chant explained HOW he was going to do it: – collecting and eating kai-moana cooked by a fire with sacred powers, then, in their drowsy after-dinner state, hypnotically recalling the makutu that weakened them, their feeling of total annihilation, and then a renewal of their energy.

(3) The chant was also a syllabus for the birth-to-adulthood training of sucessive generations of "Heavenly-Earth-Oven" tohunga.

Makutu (witchcraft) was also blamed as the cause of some other illnesseses. So when appropriate herbal remedies were applied – collecting, boiling and applying extracts of kawakawa, manuka, koromiko etc – there would have been similar chants and fire-lighting rituals to ease the patients' minds as well as their bodies.
Traditional healing Rongoā today

You can still get this mate ko-nge-nge today

Just under your throat is your thyroid gland. It secretes two hormones into your bloodstream that make sure the food you eat is burnt up fast enough to keep your body warm, your brain active, your leg muscles pumping and your sexual organs functioning.

Your thyroid hormones need tiny amounts of iodine and selenium to work properly, but many New Zealand soils don't have these elements in them. As a result, food crops grown on those soils lack those elements, and people who only eat food from those crops can feel cold, lack energy and be unable to concentrate. Eating more of the same food doesn't help; it just makes them overweight, and if they become pregnant, the baby's brain may not develop properly and so it spends its life as a cretin.

But the sea is full of iodine and selenium salts, and these are taken in by seaweed, molluscs and fish, especially seaweed-eating reef fish. To keep today's New Zealanders healthy when they can't get this kai-moana, tiny amounts of potassium iodide are added to our bread and salt. If you don't use iodised salt or eat supermarket bread, then follow this advice from our Dept. of Health HERE.

Mutton Birds

For most Maori living inland 400 years ago, iodine deficiency was not a problem: eels migrating from the sea, and tītī chicks fed on herring would have been part of their diet. Also known as the sooty shearwater or mutton bird, the tītī is a seabird that often used to nest in burrows far inland, so that marauding skua gulls wouldn't eat the young chicks while their parents flew out to sea for bellyfuls of small fish that were rich sources of iodine and other minerals.

Inland places like Titi, (Tararua ranges, Nth Taranaki), Ruatiti (Ruapehu, BoP), Ahititi (Ruatahuna, Gisborne, BoP), Titiroawa, Titiroa and Titipua (Southland), Titirangi (Northland, Auckland, Tolaga Bay Gisborne, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay & Marlborough), Puketiti (Ruapehu, East Coast), Mangatiti Stream (Waikato, Ruapehu, East Coast, BoP & Taranaki), Maungatiti (Taranaki), Titinui (BoP), Titihuatahu (Northland), Titiokura (nth of Napier), and Tītīkōpuke (Mt St John, Remuera) tell of breeding grounds over many inland parts of the country.
But not on the Takapau Plains, because flying inland while loaded with fish was too difficult with the prevailing westerly winds blowing from the mountains to the sea.

Then big Norwegian rats arrived with the whaling ships, and they ate all the titi chicks on those mainland nesting sites (except high in the Kaikoura Ranges). By the 1910s, iodine deficiency had become a big problem in many back-country places, and in 1925 the Health Dept introduced iodised salt.

Te Kooti

Te Kooti brilliantly modified Pinepine Te Kura to tell his story of trying to save his people's land from Colonial British land thieves. Te Kooti's Pinepine Te Kura

Sources

Elsdon Best           1905, Maori Medical Lore
                            1924, The Polynesian Method of Generating Fire
                            1925, Maori Agriculture : Methods, Implements & Ceremonial
                      1929, The Whare Kohanga and its Lore
Bruno Bettelheim 1975, The Uses of Enchantment, pages 183-195
T. W. Downes       1929, A tuahu on the Whanganui river
Tiaki Mitira            1975, Takitimu
Apirana Ngata       1948, Nga Moteatea; The Songs, Vol 3.
Henare Potae        1928, The Story of Tawhaki
Percy Smith (ed) 1915, The Lore of the Whare-Wananga
Edward Tregear     1891, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary
John White            1890, Ancient History of the Maori, Vol XIII

If there is any information that could be added, any part that doesn't make sense to you, any bits that don't work, or any mistakes that can be corrected, please email me. Thank you, [email protected]

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