Associate Professor of History at Canterbury University and Director of the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre, Te Maire Tau has authored another book. This time he has edited the story of Natanahira Waruwarutu,  who was a child when Te Rauparaha and his Ngāti Toa warriors captured  Kaiapoi Pā, just north of modern-day Christchurch, in 1832. The early years of Waruwarutu’s life, recounted in this new book in the original Māori text and a parallel translation, were turbulent ones for the Māori communities of Waitaha (Canterbury) and Akaroa.

Ōtākou leaders set aside Moeraki, north of Dunedin, for Kaiapoi refugees and Waruwarutu moved between the two places until he died in 1895. Before his death, he gave scibe, Thomas Green (also a Ngāi Tahu elder)a substantial body of material that now defines modern understanding of the traditional history of Ngāi Tahu. As Te Maire Tau states in his introduction to the book, this manuscript has a history of its own.

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Roger Fyfe is passionate about taonga and as the senior curator of Anthropology at Canterbury Museum, he’s relieved that Māori treasures in the museum collections have fared well, despite 17 months of earthquakes and aftershocks. Of the 15,000 items on display in the museum at the time of the February 22nd quake, only 180 were damaged and none of those were Māori taonga. “It’s almost as if Rūaumoko was selective in his retributions,” he says.

Fyfe joined Canterbury Museum as an ethnologist and Asian decorative arts expert in 1992 after his time as deputy director of Taranaki Museum, where he worked with Māori taonga.
“I had years of learning in Taranaki where we had eight iwi represented in the museum. A lot of kaumātua put me right about things as I learned my way.
“I’ve always enjoyed working with Māori pieces because they relate to an indigenous community. They’re ‘alive’and there will be hands today that whakapapa back to to the hands that made these original taonga all those years ago. That you can express that in DNA terms is enormously powerful.”

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I’ve been adding to my personal collection of old Māori books and I found a couple of beauties at a market on the weekend. I really enjoy looking back on photographs of early Māori life, noting how much has changed in recent times. At the same time, I have been loading up my book bag with interesting finds from Christchurch Library. This is one of my favourite reads from a recent visit.

The book, “Maori” was published by AH & AW Reed in 1967 and features photographs by Dutch-born Ans Westra, who developed a strong relationship with Māori throughout the country; with text by social psychologist, James Ritchie.

There’s a delightful simplicity to the whole production that drew me in from the first page. Westra’s photographs cover every aspect of mid-twentieth century Māori life, from children scampering through the cook house, or falling asleep in a parent’s arms to the intermarriage of Māori and Pakeha, the workplace and adjusting to life in the city. There’s a rawness to the images – an honesty and immediacy that transcends the decades that have elapsed since their taking, making them as relevant today as they were then – with differences. And it’s those differences that make me smile – sometimes happily, sometimes ruefully.

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While Ngāi Tahu’s official Waitangi Day celebrations were held at Bluff’s Te Rau Aroha Marae this year, a relaxed day also celebrated the 1840 signing of the Treaty of Waitangi 172 years ago at Kaiapoi’s Trousselot Park. Locals marked the day with a light-hearted re-enactment of the signing of the Treaty of Tuahiwi, followed by cultural performances from Dave Brennan’s Pounamu Ngāi Tahu and acts by local entertainers. Here are a few photos from the day:

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Voyage to Antarctica with Irene Schroder, Ramonda Te Maiharoa and Dian Munt.

We are now experiencing typical Ross Sea weather- heavy swell, wandering
ice, waves frequently breaking over the bow, spray often reaching the
bridge. We are heading for the historic bases of Scott’s Terra Nova
(1910-1913) expedition, and Shackleton’s Nimrod (1907-09) expedition.

Friday morning and the sea is calm, no wind and open clear water as we round
Ross Island and make our way into McMurdo Sound. Our position is 77degrees
38′South 166 degrees 24′East, the boat is anchored off shore, and we have a
short ride in the zodiacs to a black sandy beach of crushed lava, for our
visit to Scott’s Terra Nova Hut on Cape Evans.

Spirit of Enderby is the first of this summer’s tourist boats to
successfully negotiate the pack ice. Mount Erebus, with its occasional puff
of steam, makes a dramatic backdrop to Scott’s hut, the base camp for the
British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition. It is overwhelming to enter this
hut, home base for the 25 members of this tragic exhibition. Their
scientific research was most successful, but overshadowing that is the
tragic death of Scott and his four man team on their return journey from the
South Pole. The hut offers a rare chance to acknowledge the bravery of these
men and admire their tenacity. A surprise is waiting for us: Falcon Scott,
grandson of Scott, has travelled from England to be here in his
grandfather’s hut 100 years after that momentous expedition.

The line of tents and the containers housing the workshops for the current
restoration programme sit at odds with this wonderful historic landscape.
Saturday 28th January we are finally able to land and make the 20 minute
walk to Shackleton’s Cape Royds hut. Erected in 1908, it is smaller than
Scott’s Terra Nova hut and is wired into the ground. Inside both huts it is
as if time has stood still for 100 years: the presence of Scott, Shackleton
and their brave and valiant men is pervasive. I feel very humble and
privileged to be here.

This is the trip of a lifetime.

Irene Schroder
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