Pānui #007
Tēnā koutou ngā uri o Ngāti Paoa
Paoa e! Me toka tūmoana tātou. Ahakoa te nui o ngā haumātakataka e pēhi nei i a tātou, kia mataara, kia māia, kia manawanui e te iwi.
The year has begun with extreme weather events. Our thoughts go to the whānau, hapū, and communities who have been impacted by the recent floods and cyclone Gabrielle.
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Paoa in the Community
E Tipu e Rea Whānau Services, our Ngāti Paoa Iwi Trust Accredited Health and Social Service, is working with Awataha Marae to provide the North Shore Community with flood and cyclone recovery work. The E Tipu e Rea Whānau Services have cooked kai for whānau and volunteers and distributed blankets, kai boxes and other household items to whānau impacted by the floods and the cyclone. E Tipu e Rea Whānau Services also helped welcome Prime Minister Chris Hipkins to Awataha to view the support given to the community first-hand. E Tipu e Rea Whānau Services look forward to a continued relationship with Awataha and ensuring that through our work, the community continues to be reminded of the significant connection that Ngāti Paoa has with the whenua.
At Awataha Marae, Cindy Kawana, E Tipu e Rea Whānau Services Kaitautoko Team Manager, and Shanan Halbert, Labour MP for Northcote.
Ngāti Paoa continues to promote wāhine leadership with new Chair
Ngāti Paoa welcomes Herearoha Skipper (Ngāti Kapu/Horowhenua/Ngāti Hura) to the role of Board Chair.
Herearoha has been a trustee since 2020, she was supported unanimously to the role of board Chair. She brings governance experience from a number of boards and was an instrumental member of the senior leadership team at Waikato University.
She has led the environmental portfolio for Ngāti Paoa, successfully implementing a rāhui over Waiheke with the support of iwi, community and government agencies. She replaces Tania Tarawa who has stepped down.
The board wishes to thank Tania Tarawa for her leadership over the past year. Tania Tarawa (Te Uri Karaka/ Ngāti Maniapoto) has led our board through a difficult period. We were fortunate to have such a talented wahine, with a huge skill set and a steady hand to steer our waka through the final stages of settlement. Nei rā te mihi manahou ki a ia.
Appointment of a Chief Executive for the Ngāti Paoa Iwi Trust
John Hutton is pakehā, descending from ancestors who emigrated from England in the 1850s and later. John has a background in the Treaty sector, with a good understanding of New Zealand history and how government works. John graduated from the University of Auckland in 1995 with a Masters of Arts in Anthropology, having written a thesis under Anne Salmond on the relationship between the Crown and mana whenua of Hauraki in the 1860s (including Ngāti Paoa). From then John worked for various iwi, the Waitangi Tribunal, the Office of Treaty Settlements (now Te Arawhiti), and Auckland Council. John has a long standing relationship with the central North Island iwi Ngāti Whare, having lived in Minginui and worked for Ngāti Whare periodically through the 2000s. More recently, during his time with Auckland Council, John was instrumental in establishing the co- governed Kaipara Moana Remediation Programme, which receives $100 million from the Crown (and $20 million from councils) to address long-standing environmental issues in the Kaipara. This mahi reflects John’s interest in sustainable development and how Māori communities work with the natural environment. John lives in Onehunga with his partner and their son.
Ngāti Paoa Claims Settlement Bill introduced
Ngāti Paoa Claims Settlement Bill introduced
Many will recall the significant hui we had at Wharekawa Marae on 20 March 2021 when we collectively signed the Ngāti Paoa Deed of Settlement. We are very happy to report that on 16 December 2022 the Ngāti Paoa Claims Settlement Bill was introduced into Parliament by the Hon Andrew Little, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations. Introduction is the first step in the parliamentary process needed to finalise the Ngāti Paoa Treaty settlement in legislation. This was the process that we spoke of at the AGM at Kerepeehi Marae in September and advised that we hoped to have the Bill introduced be the end of the year.
The next step will be the "first reading" of the Bill, after which the Bill will be considered by the Māori Affairs Committee. When we know a date for the first reading we will let you know.
If you want to read the Bill and track its progress, you can follow this link: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_130341/ngati-paoa-claims-settlement-bill
The introduction of the Bill is significant for all Ngāti Paoa. It provides certainty that our Treaty settlement is on track and gives us confidence in the future of the Ngāti Paoa Iwi Trust as the representative body for Ngāti Paoa.
Please note that this is the first step in the process, the time from introduction to passing of the bill into law can be up to two years while it makes its way through the parliamentary process. We will keep people informed of the progress and will share information as we receive it.
Since December 2023, there has been no update or new information to share.
Me He Kuaka Reo o te Kāinga
Ngāti Paoa Iwi Trust wish all the tauira (students) well as they begin their te reo journey.
Me He Kuaka Reo o te Kāinga offers kanohi-ki-te-kanohi and online programmes which will empower whānau through language, culture and identity. In that light, our programme focuses on creating Māori speaking kāinga through learning and teaching te reo Māori and tikanga that relates to whānau specific activities that occur mainly in the home.
For more information or to sign up, go to the NPIT website:
Ko te kai a te rangatira, he kōrero
This Pānui concludes with text from the Ngāti Paoa deed of settlement giving Ngāti Paoa kōrero about places and ancestors.
The below is from the "Statement of Ngāti Paoa values" for Te Haupa Island Scenic Reserve. When settlement legislation is passed, the reserve will receive an "Overlay Classification" which requires the Department of Conservation to have particular regard to Ngāti Paoa values when managing the reserve. Given the recent turbulent weather, it is good to be reminded of how Te Haupa got his name
Te Haupa Island Scenic Reserve
Te Haupa was the son of Te Mahia of Te Uri o Pou, Ngāi Tai and Ngāti Paoa descent, and Mahora who was of Ngāti Paoa, Ngāti Mahuta and Ngāti Tamaterā descent. He was the eldest of three brothers and two sisters, and was born at Waitakaruru around the middle of the eighteenth century in the middle of a great “marangai” (an easterly gale) that tore and ripped away (Haupa) at the land and sea.
Te Haupa Island was named to commemorate the great chief, Te Haupa – Te Upoko Ariki Toihau o Ngāti Paoa. Te Haupa Island is located at the mouth of the Mahurangi Harbour where the waters were highly favoured for shark fishing. Te Haupa and his people regularly occupied this and other nearby islands at times during the fishing seasons. Members of other tribes also gathered here to fish during the shark season and it was a time when fierce competition for resources led to insults and sometimes death.
In January 1815 a missionary visited Hauraki in the brig Active. The “celebrated chief” Te Haupa and his son went on board. Te Haupa invited the missionary’s party to visit his village but this visit was prevented by the weather. The missionary said of Te Haupa “He was a man much esteemed as well as feared and possessed of very great power, one of the strongest and best made men I ever saw” – and this was at a time when Te Haupa was in his mid to late 60s.
One of those aboard the Active, a travelling businessman, was in awe of Te Haupa as he was received on board and described his meeting with Te Haupa thus:
“This chief ... was in his person the finest and most venerable looking old man I ever beheld; in stature he rose above the tallest of his countrymen; and his strength, though impaired with age, was yet extraordinary. In his countenance there was a thoughtful seriousness that bespoke him of a meditative cast of mind; and in his deportment a solemn gravity, which even more than his high rank, served to distinguish him from the others....Shoupa (Te Haupa).... was by far the most considerable chief we had yet met with; his authority reaching from this place as far as Bream Bay. .... Contrary to the usual practise of the (arikis), he always commanded his warriors in person, and was accounted, not withstanding his advanced age, one of the bravest men in New Zealand; his name being formidable all over the northern part of the island.”
Te Haupa’s passing occurred when an influenza epidemic ravaged the coastlines of Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. He was laid to rest at Karaka Taupō, Kawakawa Bay in a tomb. Puakitawhiti wrote a lament for Te Haupa which was reproduced in Ngā Mōteatea: The Songs by A.T. Ngata and Pei Te Hurinui Jones and translated thus:
Was it the Gods who caused your death?
Was it proud men? Was it the Incantations of thy foes?
Was it the prayers of Rikiriki uttered by hundreds of people?
O sire thy sins were great, wherefore confusion overtook thee,
The sun has fallen from its height and the heavens are bowed
Sit ye there my people, ye may die in peace, for by his arm the land found rest
And all the weapons in the houses lie untouched!
Thou were great and at thy bidding many tribes arose
Far distant some, and some around thy home
And who will gather these together now?
Alas, there is no leader!
O my heart, my beauteous Rata tree which shaded with its branched many,
And caused them to be stately in their place,
Lo, the mighty has gone forth and left his cave. Go in peace! Go.
And with thee greatness goes, and influence
For there are none, -no, not even one is found to take thy place!
Lie there in solitude ye forest trees
For who shall say that thy canoes will ever float upon the deep?
But tis enough thy axe had touched that tree,
And all the people with thy son Hamu will thy work complete
And then the stately pine will sweep across the wave to southern shores.
In a valedictory address on the occasion of Governor Grey's departure in 1855, Te Kahukoti, Te Haupa's son, wrote:
“My ancestors and fathers are no strangers to Kings and Queens. My ancestor Te Haupa visited King George, and Te Rauroha also, my own father and he afterwards sent a letter to King George's son.”
and later:
“The captains of the ships that arrived in New Zealand in olden times sought out my fathers. They left them as presents scarlet garments, some with fringes, axes also, peaches and potatoes. At this time we first saw European axes. Our own axes were made of greenstone. With these we used to fell trees, and dub the canoes, but the trees were split with ordinary stones. When my ancestors and fathers received these axes, the news was heard at the Bay of Islands, it was heard at Waikato, it was heard at Tauranga, Rotorua and Taupo; and the chiefs of those places came to get axes for Te Haupa alone possessed these treasures. 'Twas then that Te Rauangaanga came to my mother, who was his sister, and axes and red garments were given to him, which he took to his place, potatoes also and peach stones.”
Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any written evidence that Te Haupa visited King George. It is possible that he sailed on the return voyage of the Royal Admiral but the ship's log for the return voyage, which may have confirmed this, is unfortunately missing.
Is your whanau registered?
Iwi members of Ngāti Pāoa, who are 18 years or over can enroll on the NPIT register (with valid mobile, postal address, and email details). As a registered member of the Ngāti Pāoa Iwi Trust, you are able to have your say on how the Iwi Trust activates, empowers, and protects our whakapapa.
To register with Ngāti Pāoa Iwi Trust online visit:
https://www.ngatipaoaiwi.co.nz/tribal-registration.html
