NZFS Patere * Poia Atu Taku Poi

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Erenora was a relative of Te Rauparaha and a descendant of Kawhia's Turongo and Heretaunga's Mahinarangi, whose son Raukawa founded Ngati Raukawa that united east and west coast tribes.

She was beautiful and highly talented, with a classic education to suit her high status and also a grounding in English culture from a mission school at Foxton. Consequently she was courted by many high-ranking Maori and Pakeha men.

Some women criticized her non-Victorian attiude to sex, so she composed this patere to restore her reputation.
All the high-ranking men she mentioned were linked to her, thus proving her high birth and status.

This song has been sung in every district to emphasize points made on the tribal courtyard, with the orator adding or substituting appropriate names to suit the occasion. The song has also preserved information about whakapapa, tribal landmarks, and the rangatira of different areas.

These are Erenora's original lyrics, according to Lucy Jacob, Erenora's granddaughter, who accompanied her to hui.

Poia atu taku poi,
Wania atu taku poi^a
Ngā pikitanga ki Otairi^b
Papatairite atu ki Patea^c
Ka tirotiro ki Te Onetapu^d
Ka rangā^e tonu ki Taupo,
Ko Te Rohu, ko Te Rerehau.¹
E whae mā! kia rite mai te whakaaro
Ki ōku haere ruahine² ki konei.

Nunumi tonu mai, he iti taku iti,
Ehara i muri nei.
Nō tua whakarere nō aku kaumātua.
I whiua ki Heretaunga
Ko Puororangi, ko Tarapuhi

Swing out my poi,
Skim away my poi^a
Up the hill-slopes behind Hunterville^b
away across to Mokai Patea^c
Look around at Desert Road's summit^d
And hasten^e to Taupo,
ToTe Rohu and Te Rereha.¹
Hey ladies! Get ready to think
about my wise women's journey here.

Fading away, I'm a lowly one indeed;
But I'm not of recent origin:
very far back are my ancestors.
Placed in Hawkes Bay
were Puororangi and Tarapuhi

Ka rawe rā māua ko taku tara
Ki te hāpai ewe
ki ngā whenua³
Tāpapa ana i te hiwi
ki Horohoro⁴.
Kia mātai tonu au ki Tarawera⁵
Ko Te Hemahema⁶

Ka rere tītaha te rere a taku poi,
E oma ana i te tai pōuri
ki Rotorua,
Ko Parehokotoru, ko Te Apoapo,
ko Ngatoro⁷

Kei whea te rā ka hāpainga mai?
Kei Tauranga: Tupaea.⁸
Ko te mea rā e wawatatia nei
E māua ko taku poi.

Tīehutia i te wai ki Hauraki,
ko Te Rangitāmoe, Ko Hapai, ko Taraia⁹
Tū tonu mai Tauaiti¹⁰
Pīkautia i te hiwi ki Mahurangi¹¹
Ko Te Aohau, ko Tiaho.¹²

Ka taupatupatu te rere a taku poi
Ngā ia tuku ki Waikato
Ko Kĩngi Potatau, ko Te Paea¹³
Ko Matutaera¹⁴ e tāoro nei
I te nuku o te whenua.
Hei mana mō Niu Tireni
Pōtaea!

It pleases me and my sexual mound
that I could be the placenta carrier
for the potential creators of more placentas.³
I lie prone on the ridge
of Horohoro⁴, south of Rotorua
to gaze longingly of Mt. Tarawera⁵
Te Hemahema!⁶

Side-ways my poi now flies
Escaping the depressing tide of memories
at Rotorua,
Parehokotoru, Te Apoapo,
and Ngatoro!⁷ .

Where does the sun rise?
Ah yes, at Tauranga. Tupaea!⁸
the one who brings day-dreams
to me and my emotions.

Splashed in the waters of Hauraki,
Te Rangitāmoe, Hapai and Taraia!⁹
Still standing by is Tauaiti!¹⁰
I walk, burdened, up the hill at Mahurangi¹¹
Te Aohau and Tiaho!¹²

And now my poi swings wildly,
in the current to Waikato
where the influence of King Potatau, Te Paea¹³
and Matutaera¹⁴ is spread
over the whole extent of the land
making the prestige of New Zealand
their head-covering!

Notes

a. Taku poi. Her swinging poi represents her emotional attraction towards certain men, an attraction kept well under control by her hand holding its string.

b. Otairi, Inland Patea and Onetapu are all significant tribal boundaries. Otairi is a settlement on a river flat halfway up the Turakina river valley. Erenora's family home was near the mouth of the Rangitikei River, and the old track Kotae-iri (raised riverflats) took the route from her home up the river on the raised riverflats used by today's State Highway One from Bulls to Hunterville, then nor-east to Otairi and across a saddle to the Mangamahu to join the track Upokongaro up the ridge to Karioi (my childhood was at Mangamahu and I have traversed all these tracks. Many of them became packhorse tracks for colonial settlers, then farm roads)

c. Mokai Patea. The route from Karioi to Lake Taupo is directly north across the Rangipo Desert, while the Mokai Patea region, centered at Moawhango, is 30 km east! However the Ngati Tama people around Moawhango are associated with Tuwharetoa and Ngati Rakawa.

d. Onetapu, the Forbidden Sands, is the site of a boundary pou, Ma-pou-riki, or Te Roro-o-Tai-ariki. This place commemorates where Tai-te-ariki got his brains (roro) battered out in about 1300 AD. Tai was the son of Whiro, whose people settled the Murimotu area south of Mt Ruapehu. More here. Tai became an ariki in Rarotonga and got killed in a boundary dispute with Maori from south of Taupo. It was too cold to live up on the Rangipo desert, but the Taupo people had been harvesting and preserving some of the innumerable kiwi, weka, moa, titi, kakapo etc on the Murimotu tussock lands (Army Training Area) south of Onetapu for winter food. More here.

e. Ranga is borrowed from the English word 'run'.

1. Te Rohu was the daughter of Te Heuheu Tukino and was afflicted with leprosy. Te Rerehau had been abandoned by her husband. Apparently these were two of the women who had criticized Erenora's sexual freedom.

2. Ruahine was the granddaughter of Turi, captain of the Aotea waka. She was regarded as a very wise woman.

3. Hapai ewe ki nga whenua is a retort for the allegation that she had not disposed of her afterbirth before she had taken another man. Her use of the word 'whenua' is clever wordplay, as it can mean both the lands where high-ranking Ngati Raukawa men have courted her, and the high-ranking men who could have potentially produced more afterbirths for her.

4. Horohoro. Erenora was of Ngati Raukawa, and Horohoro is a plateau south-west of Rotorua.It was settled by Ngati Wairangi, Ngati Whaita and Ngati Tuara, all of them her sub-tribes.

5. Tarawera is just above Rotorua. The tribes there were Ngati Taoi and Tuhourangi.

6. Te Hemahemaa was chief of the Tuhourangi tribe.

7. Parehokotoru, Te Apoapo, Ngatoro. I think they were 3 notable Rotorua women who had also criticized Erenora.

8. Tupaea was a great Ngai Te Rangi chief at Tauranga.

9. Hapai and Taraia were Hauraki high chiefs.

10. Tauaiti was of the Ngati Raukawa and Waikato tribes.

11. Mahurangi was a settle in the Hauraki district.

12. Te Aohau and Tiaho. These two Hauraki chiefs also belonged to Ngati Raukawa.

13. Te Paea was the daughter of King Potatau.

14. Matutaera Tawhiao was the son of King Potatau and the second Maori king.

Verses added later

These two similar versions have apparently come from Ngati Kahungunu sources.

The verses above are slightly changed in the Kahungunu version here.

Hoki mai rā, e poi, E oma ana i te takutai one Ki Te Mahia, ki a Ngati Awa. Kia tū mai taku Ariki¹⁵ki te tonga Kia taoroa te hiwi maunga Ka tawhio ki Porangahau¹⁶ Ka tū tonu tenā, nō te Kurutangiwai Makere iho i a Pare. Hei whakamutunga mō aku haere ruahine Ki te muri, ki te tonga E poi ē!	Let's go back now, O poi Run along the sandy beach to Mahia peninsula, to Ngati Awa. May my sacred leader¹⁵ take his stand in the south so that by ascending the range of hills encircling Porangahau¹⁶ he takes his stand there on account of the greenstone pendant dropped off by Pare. And that brings an end to my wise woman's journey to the north, to the south, O my poi!
Hoki mai rā, e poi, Kia kawea koe ngā one roa Ki Te Mahia, ki a Ngati Awa. E tu; mai ra he ariki mai te tonga Ko Karaitiana¹⁵ Taoroa te hiwi maunga Ka tawhio ki Porangahau.¹⁶ Tēnā anō taku kuru tangiwai I makere iho i a Pare, Hei whakamutunga mō aku haere ruahine Ki te muri, ki te tonga E poi ë!	Let's go back now, O poi Let me carry you down the long beaches to Mahia peninsula, to Ngati Awa. Stop; over there's a high chief in the south, Karaitiana!¹⁵ Fly straight down the range of hills encircling Porangahau.¹⁶ Still there is my greenstone ornament dropped off by Pare thus bringing an end to my wise woman's journey to the north, to the south, O my poi!

Elsdon Best collected a Tuhoe version that began with this prelude.

Tohi rā te rere a taku poi,
Ka tū kei Horotiu ko Wi Tako,
Te tangata rā i hoki mai
Ngā rūma e waru.
Whakatūia te whare ko Raka
Ka rauna rā te rere a Wi Tako,
Ka tiapu rā i ngā hiwi maunga ki Ota
Kei Pukawa ko Te Heuheu,
Tōna maunga ko Tongariro, e.

Enchanted is the flight of my poi,
pausing at Horotiu with Wi Tako,¹⁷
the person who returned from
The eight-bedroom mansion in Lower Hutt
The house built there was Raka.
Around and about flies Wi Tako,
Leaping over the high hills at Otairi.
Te Heuheu lives at Pukawa:
his mountain is Tongariro.

15. Karaitiana Takamoana was a veteran of the Musket Wars and the East Coast Land Wars, the founding father of the modern Ngāti Kahungunu iwi, and MP for Eastern Maori from 1871 until his death in 1879.

16. Porangahau is on the east coast, directly opposite Erenora's west coast family home. I could find no details about the mysterious Pare. Nor could I figure out what this section refers to. Was it Karaitiana's home village? If you know, email me, and I'll add the details to this section.

17. Wiremu Tako Ngātata,

(Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Ruanui) a.k.a. Wī Tako, was born c.1800 at Pukeariki pā, Taranaki. In the 1830s his people migrated south to Kumutoto, now the Wellington wharf area. He was involved in a highly dubious transaction through which the NZ Company claimed to have purchased the whole region. He became a Methodist, then a Catholic, and regularly spoke out against warlike talk.

In the 1850s he moved to a 17-roomed house at Taita and built an elaborately carved storehouse called Nuku Tewhatewha to show his support for a Māori king. As wars between the Maori King and the Colonists broke out, Wī Tako tried to fill the role of mediator, and he began shuttling back and forth from Taita to a house at Horotiu (just north of Hamilton) for discussions with the King. In 1872 he was appointed to the Legislative Council, one of the first Māori to be a member. He died in 1887.

Erenora's father

Nepia Taratoa (c.1797 - 1867) was from the Ngati Raukawa tribe and a relative of Te Rauparaha. He settled in the Rangitikei area after migrating south with Te Whatanui and others in the early 1800s. He gained control over his domain through battles and negotiations, including a strategic marriage to the local Ngati Apa chieftainess, Te Pikinga, that prevented future conflicts. Despite occasional disputes, Taratoa remained a prominent chief. He resided with his second wife Pareautohe and their children Pataka, Nepia, Erenora and Atareti on the south side of the Rangitikei River at Maramahoea, halfway between Tangimoana and today's SH1. More here

Erenora Trask

Erenora was born in 1820 and in her 20s she apparently attended the school of George Duncan, a Presbyterian minister at Te Awahou (Foxton).

In 1856 Thomas Ulysses Cook opened a hotel at Te Awahou. He had a Maori wife, Meretini, a granddaughter of Te Rauparaha, so the hotel was a great meeting place for the Maori people for both trading and recreation. Mr Cook employed a baker there, George Enoch Trask (Tarahi) who was born in Somerset, England in 1834.

In about 1856, through her liaison with the 21-year-old George Trask, the 36-year-old Erenora had a son whom she named Winiata Pataka Trask, the founder of the well-respected Winiata family of Horowhenua. Her father refused to allow Erenora to formally marry 'Tarahi,' but they had another child, Hinepuororangi Trask, and then in 1864, when Erenora was in her 40s, the 30-year-old Trask formally married the 20-year old Sarah Ann Barnett (b. 1844) who gave him 12 more children.

Kaore Hoki Koia Te Rangi Nei
Puhiwahine c.1855

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The highly talented Puhiwahine (Maniopoto, Tuwharetoa) was born in Taumarunui just four years before Erenora, and had romances similar to Erenora in her teenage years and twenties before marrying Germany-born John Gotty, (Johann Goethe) a Whanganui hotel-keeper. Over at the Putiki marae, she kept the women there entertained with her singing. This song takes us on a similar journey to Erenora's, but it is a more light-hearted song about past escapades and erotic day-dreams. Read more about her here.

Kaore hoki koia te rangi nei, Whakawairuhi rawa i ahau! Taku tinana kau te noho nei, Aku mahara kei te purei atu. Ka pikitia te pikinga i Herepu, Taiheke tonu ko Paripari, Taurakuraku ki a Tanirau Kauaka i ara, na Kataraina! Ka tika tonu, ē, taku haere, Ōrahiri - ko koe, Anatipa! Kei riria mai e Huriana, Ka nui rahi rawa te whakama!	Never before such a day as this, It makes me feel so listless! Only my body remains here, My thoughts go playing away. I'll climb the hill at Herepu, near Te Kuiti Then down to Paripari And scratch with Tanirau - Oh don't do that, he's Kataraina's! So on my way I go To Ōrahiri - ah there you are Anatipa! I'd better not, or Huriana will be angry And great would be the shame.
Ahu tonu atu au ko Waipa - Kei Rangitoto, ko koe ra Eruera! Mere Tuhipo, he wawata kau atu Te mea ra nãna i tuatahi. Ka hitimitia mai e Marata! Me ranga tonu te wake ki Kihikihi, Kei reira tika hoki Maniapoto, Ko Rahurahu, ko Raureti. Ka ranga tonu te wake ki Kawhia, Kei Ahuahu hoki ko Te Poihipi- Engari terā, kua moe maua Riterite rawa hoki ki te marena!	Oh I'll go to Waipā At the Rangitoto hills you are there, Eruera! Mere Tuhipo, I'm only daydreaming About the one that was my first lover. Now Marata will hit me! I must keep on walking to Kihikihi, And there make for Maniapoto, Rahurahu and Raureti. I'll keep on walking to Kawhia, For at Ahuahu there's Te Poihipi another lover He was the one, we lived together Just as if we were truly married!
Ka hoki muri mai taku haere, Ka tomokia te whare o Ripeka Ehara, e kui, he tahakura nāku Tauawhi-po au ko Reihana! Ka mutu hoki au ki te tai raro, Ka hoki mai au ki Tuhua, Ka noho au te kei o taku waka, Ka tukutuku ngã ia ki Paparoa. Kei raro iti atu ko Töpine Tirohia kautia ake tērā, E wehi ana au, he rangatira - Kaore i ara, he koroheke!	On my way back now (canoeing down the Whanganui) I shall enter Ripeka's house Not really, madam, just a dream of mine Cuddling in the night with Reihana. I now depart \the northern plains, and come back to Tuhua sitting at the stern of my canoe, Going down the rapids at Paparoa Topine lives just below there, one can only look up at him, I fear him, because he's of high rank No, really it's because he's so old!
Konihi tonu te tere a taku waka, Ka ū ana ko Waipakura, Tauawhiawhi ki a Te Tahana Matarorangi, kei riri mai koe! Ahu tonu ake au ko te papara, Taurakuraku ki a Meiha Keepa E kui, Makere, kei riri noa koe. Kua kino koe, kua nui o he! Kei te pīti hoki i Whanganui, Ma Te Oti Kati au e pēhi mai - "Pi owha, ko we, ko homa, Piri pi koaeata! Hu toro iu, kamu mai perehi?" Hei ha, hei ha, hei!	How swiftly moves my canoe now until I land at Waipākura. to have a big cuddle with Te Tahana. Now Matarorangi, don't you be angry! I'll keep on going to the pub, for a bit of slap and tickle with Major Kemp. Don't be too angry Makere, You've been bad too, bigtime! Now to the beach at Whanganui, And my son George Te Oti Gotty will hold me down "Be off, go'way, go home, Please be quiet! Who told you, come to my place?" Hei ha, hei ha, hei!

You can find a lot more about this song by clicking here

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Published by John Archer on the NZFS website August 2023