History Returns
Above: The rock art gallery featuring Tony Fomison’s tracings of rock art and a rock art fragment – AROWHENUA
It’s around 5am. One of summer’s warmest nights dissolves into the dawn, prompting the whakanoa, the lifting of tapu, and restriction from taonga that span over 600 years of southern Māori history.
Te Hokinga Mai, featuring Mō Tātou: the Ngāi Tahu Whānui Exhibition from Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, has commenced its homecoming throughout Te Waipounamu. Welcoming and complementing Mō Tātou at the Robert McDougall Gallery, Canterbury Museum, is Mō Kā Uri: Taonga from Canterbury Museum; which presents more than 200 Ngāi Tahu taonga held in museum guardianship. The exhibitions run until 20 June.
Michelle Hippolite (Tainui) is Kaihautū Māori, acting Chief Executive at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. She says of Mō Tātou that the taonga have strengthened the profile of Ngāi Tahu nationally, and built relationships locally.
“To be able to do that from a national perspective helps shape the New Zealand landscape and ambition for the future,” says Hippolite.
Chairman of the Iwi Steering Groups for both exhibitions, Charles Crofts (Ngāi Tūāhuriri) anchored the exhibitions through his role. He says a good part of the success of these exhibitions was the working together of these groups, which were made up of representatives from Papatipu Rūnanga. Crofts said the representatives “selected and ensured safe passage of taonga into the public domain”.
Guided by the Mō Tātou Iwi Steering Committee, Te Papa’s Curator Contemporary Māori and Indigenous, Megan Tamati-Quennell, (Ngāi Tahu, Te Āti Awa) has curated and documented Mō Tātou from its inception.
Tamati-Quennell says while the exhibitions are not overtly momentous, “much development will come from them; for the experts within whānau and hapū, between Papatipu Rūnanga, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and Museums”.
Above: Hīnaki whitebait net – NGĀI TŪĀHURIRI
This resonates with Canterbury Museum Senior Curator of Anthropology Roger Fyfe who says he has “long enjoyed the relationship with Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and Papatipu Rūnanga as they have moved forward”.
Fyfe says the Papatipu Rūnanga/museum collaboration was the only model Canterbury considered using because it made sure the experts on the ground – whakairo (carving), raranga (weaving), whakapapa (geneaology) – were immediately involved with these taonga.
He says there’s a different standing and relationship today between the institutions as a result of taonga from collections “that often touch very personal aspects of people’s histories”.
Ōnuku Rūnanga representative George Waitai Tikao, whose family entrusted many taonga to Canterbury Museum, says the exhibitions have brought “momentum” to the iwi/museum relationship.
“These exhibitions have brought new understanding. It’s what senior staff of the museum always wanted to happen. It has brought an awakening of the asset of the taonga, so they could be viewed by many people, out in the public eye,” he says
Canterbury Museum CEO Anthony Wright describes Te Hokinga Mai as “one of the “greatest exhibitions ever” for the museum.
“It holds a tremendous sense of reverence and celebration; it’s a symbol of our city, of Māori and Pākehā working together and understanding each other.”
It’s a sentiment that Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Kaiwhakahaere Mark Solomon shares. “The taonga being released out of Canterbury Museum re-connect Ngāi Tahu to their own landscape. It helps bring our past alive, and as a result, our relationships with the institutions are as they should be … collaborative.”
For the first of three exhibitions in the South Island, Canterbury Museum, Te Papa and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu have partnered with Papatipu Rūnanga from Te Tai o Poutini (the West Coast), northwards to Kaikōura and south along the eastern seaboard of Waitaha (Canterbury). Represented are Makaawhio, Waewae, Kaikōura, Tūāhuriri, Rāpaki, Wairewa, Ōnuku, Koukourarata, Taumutu and Arowhenua.
The Iwi Steering Group for Mō Kā Uri included Te Whe Phillips (Rāpaki) Maatakiwi Wakefield (Wairewa); George Waitai Tikao (Ōnuku); Peter Ramsden (Koukourarata); Meikura Arahanga (Taumutu); Te Ao Hurae Waaka (Arowhenua); Ben Hutana (Waewae) and Terry Scott (Makaawhio). The exhibition was project managed by Puamiria Parata-Goodall.
An imperative of Mō Kā Uri was to present taonga that have not been shown before. The exhibition naturally extends the dialogue of Mō Tātou through the addition of taonga and discovery of relationship to them by whānau and hapū.
Above left: Tūkōrero – NGĀI TŪĀHURIRI Poutokomanawa from the wharenui Tutekawa, Ngāi Tūāhuriri, Canterbury Museum. Above right: Tikimuri / Opera Cape – TAKAHANGA Tīkumu/mountain daisy leaves. Made by Mrs Titahi, Mangamaunu, Kaikōura 1901.
Designed as an opera cape, Mrs Titahi of Mangamaunu, Kaikōura made the waterproof tīkumu (mountain daisy) garment and small kete of houhi (ribbonwood) as gifts for Queen Mary when she and her husband the Duke of Cornwall and York visited Canterbury on 22 June 1901.
Tīkumu plays a significant role in the earliest occupation of Ngāi Tahu in Te Ahi-kai-kōura-a-Tama-ki-te-rangi (Kaikōura). After Ngāi Tahu defeated Rangitāne at the mouth of the Wairau Bar, many prisoners were captured including a woman called Hinerongo. She was taken to the Ngāi Tahu rakatira, Tūteurutira, who at once recognised her high birth but assumed she was Rangitāne.
Flushed with victory Ngāi Tahu embarked on their journey back to Kura-a-te-au (Tory Channel). After passing Te Kōhaka (Cape Campbell) Hinerongo began to wail. Amid her sobs she said, “Ah! The point of Te Kōhaka. On the other side of that are my people.”
Tūteurutira was then confused about her identity until she explained she was Ngāti Māmoe and had been captured by Rangitāne. He became interested and wanted to go south as he had heard of the mountain Kairuru, renowned for plentiful supplies of tīkumu and taramea, and the spring Haumakariri. Hinerongo promised that if he would return her to Ngāti Māmoe at the Waiautoa (Clarence River) they would be protected. Tūteurutira returned Hinerongo to her people and they were eventually married.
The thin tough fibrous leaves were used for the manufacture of leggings and cloaks and used as protective shields against thorns or the weapons of enemies. The flowers were used for hair ornaments. Both sides of the leaf could be used; the green leaf of tīkumu lasted better without the down.
Tīkumu is listed as a taonga species in the Ngāi Tahu Deed of Settlement.
Meanwhile, the Ngāi Tahu whakataukī Mō Tātou, ā, mō kā uri a muri ake nei; for us and our children after us, overarches and filters through both exhibitions into four key themes that articulate Ngāi Tahu thought and practice. The themes are Toitū te Iwi, Culture; Toitū te Rangatiratanga, Tenacity; Toitū te ao Tūroa, Sustainability and Toitū te pae Tawhiti, Innovation. They provide the exhibition’s organising principles.
Mō Kā Uri starts with Ngāi Tahu origins – of Rapuwai, Hawea, Iwi Tawhito and Whenua Hou. Artist Tony Fomison’s (1939-1990) large crayon on plastic tracings of rock art of the 1960s reflect the Ngāi Tahu link to both early whakapapa and the landscape of Te Waipounamu. The tracings are the only remaining evidence of those drawings because the area was flooded for a sequence of hydro-electric dams.
At the heart of the exhibition is the Whare Tīpuna (ancestral house) where photographic images of Ngāi Tahu tīpuna who have been re-linked with whānau and hapū are displayed. Many are being seen for the first time. However, it is the small, unadorned Ngāi Tahu carving of Tūkōrero, the wife of Tutekawa (Ngāi Tūāhuriri) that best relays a sense of the resolute spirit and vision of these southern people.
Sustainability is reflected in the manuscripts of Waihora and their collection in 1878, which included a petition to Parliament to stop the draining of the lake. There’s uncertainty whether it ever arrived and the lake today is a shadow of what it was. Similarly, the Cam River, reported today to be in the last stages of dying was, 155 years ago, illustrated by artist Charles Haubroe as pristine, and abundant with vegetation.
Ngāi Tahu weaver Ranui Ngarimu is thoughtful about a fragile survivor of this period; a hīnaki whitebait net and the political statement made in the gesture of its Māori maker, alienated from his own tribal lands, gifting the net to a Pākehā friend to use.
Accentuating the relationship between past and present, ancient and new, is typified in the korowai from Koukourarata. Rūnanga member, Peter Ramsden says the korowai is a recent and exciting discovery for whānau and hapū. It is thought to have been made around or before 1843 when the first settlers arrived in Pigeon Bay, Banks Peninsula. The purple, red, yellow, green and blue wool woven into the korowai reflect interest in the newly introduced plied wool fibre, while the inside area is marked by ceremonial red kōkōwai pigment mixed with shark oil. Another example is the tikimuri (opera cape) made from tīkumu mountain daisy, one of Ngāi Tahu’s listed taonga species, while the base tuapapa structure of the garment is made from many strands of plied white wool.
The carved and painted poutokomanawa is a rare example of Ngāi Tahu carving. Recorded as Timuaki Tainui, it stood in the wharenui in Arahura around 1873. Close by in this exhibition, a photographic work, Kaiapoi Monument (1998), by Mark Adams from the series Land of Memories is silent on the walls.
The contemporary art reflects the ideas and concerns of established artists Peter Robinson (Ngāi Tahu); Jacqueline Fraser (Ngāi Tahu); Fiona Pardington (Kāti Māmoe, Ngāi Tahu); Nathan Pohio (Ngāi Tahu); Areta Wilkinson (Irakehu, Ngāi Tahu) and Mark Adams. Their works stand at the farthermost distance from history’s markers yet they are unmistakably part of it; in particular is Peter Robinson’s Lair (2007), and Jacqueline Fraser’s Here’s the Lone Cowboy approaching Belfast with Pinking Shears (correctly).
Meanwhile the Mō Tātou exhibition has been adapted for its southern tour through the Ngāi Tahu takiwā. Reduced in size, the core elements remain. The exhibition includes rare ancient taonga, audio visual displays, contemporary artwork and narrative.
It features a contemporary animation by Ngāi Tahu Communications and multi-media artist Rachael Rakena using both genealogy recorded by Ngāi Tahu rangatira Matiaha Tiramorehu and the motif of kōwhaiwhai to translate to form Rakiihia Tau’s version of the Ngāi Tahu creation story.
The contemporary aspect focuses on people through 18 Papatipu Rūnanga, the tribal structure formed following the passing of the Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Act in 1996.
The tribe’s resolute determination to carry ideas and culture forward are captured in two key elements; one being whakapapa, articulated through taonga related to iwi of Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe and Ngāi Tahu and references to Rapuwai and Hawea. The second element Te Kerēme (The Ngāi Tahu Claim) explores the Ngāi Tahu Claim and Settlement with the Crown using a mix of taonga, graphics and art; and includes a copy of the Crown Apology to Ngāi Tahu whānui.
An interpretive map outlines ten major land sales and detail is further explored in a documentary-style audio visual produced by Sandi Hinerangi Barr and Ngāi Tahu Communications.
Sustainability draws inspiration from the utterance of Rakaihautū, a founding Waitaha ancestor: “He Puna Waimārie, He Puna Hauaitu, He Puna Karikari – The pools of bounty, the pools of frozen water, the pools dug by the hand of man.”
Referring to the abundant resources of Te Waipounamu; of distinctive flora and fauna species, the segment also focuses historically on the intellectual property developed from available resources and represented through the practices of mahinga kai (traditional food gathering) and mahi raranga (weaving).
Kāti Māmoe, Ngāi Tahu artist Fiona Pardington loans a silver gelatinprint, Tuaki, Rāpaki and Temuka – Herries Beatties Collection, Otago Museum (2006) to the exhibition.
Innovation is examined through the juxtaposition between the ancient and the new, the customary and the cutting edge through pounamu and its return to the iwi under the Pounamu Vesting Act of 1997, through te reo, cultural revitalisation and the Waka Reo Strategy – Kotahi Mano Kāika, Kotahi Mano Wawata – A Thousand Homes, A Thousand Dreams.
For Mō Tātou the Iwi Steering Group was Edward Ellison (Ōtākou), Jane Davis (Ōraka Aparima), Piri Sciascia (Awarua), Koa Mantell (Moeraki), Te Ao Hurae Waaka (Arowhenua), Rakiihia Tau (Tūāhuriri) and Maika Mason (Waewae). The project was managed by Vicki Ratana (Ngāi Tahu, Ngā Puhi).
Mō Tātou is due travel to two other centres in Te Waipounamu: Mō Tātou – Southland opens on July 9 and closes on November 14. Mō Tātou – Otago opens December closes in April 2011.
