Nga Purakau o Te Arawa

Stories of  Te Arawa 

In Aotearoa, ngā pūrākau (creation narratives) are an ancient form of transmitting and creating shared meaning through storytelling.

These creation stories provide a way of looking at our world and environment through a Māori lens. They stand as a model for individual and collective identity, behaviour and aspirations.
Te Arawa ancestors have rich pūrākau, which help us understand origins that are embedded with wisdom and universal lessons to navigate through many of life’s transitions. In these pūrākau, heroines and heroes act as exemplars of human potential, insight and understanding.

I share, with permission, three of the purakau of Te Arawa:

Hatupatu and Kurangaituku

I a Hātupatu e mahi manu ana i te ngahere, ka kite ia i tētehi mea tino rerekē. He wahine e tino rite nei ki te manu. He parirau i ōna ringa, he maikuku roa i ōna matimati, kāore hoki ōna ngutu tangata, heoi, he ngutu manu roa kē i whakamahi ai ia hei tao ki te mahi manu.

Hatupatu was spending the day alone in the forest hunting for birds when he came across a very unusual scene. A short distance away, Hatupatu saw a strange woman with wings on her arms and claws where her fingers should be.  Instead of soft lips, the woman had a mouth like a bird’s beak and was busily using it as a spear to catch birds.

To read the full story go to the Great Te Arawa Stories website: www.gtas.nz.

Maggie Papakura on porch of 'Rauru' house. c.1904. Photograph by Arthur James Iles (b.1870, d.1943). Rotorua Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa (CP-182)

The above photograph is of Nelson's Carved House 'Rauru" at Whakarewarewa before he sold it in 1910. 

A journalist wrote the following about this carved house:

Captain Nelson has been able to construct a carved house which is certain to create a considerable amount of antiquarian interest.

 The journalist continues:

The single door and window with their frames are beautifully carved and unlike the other wood are coloured black. On the heavy sliding door consisting of a single Kauri slab, is depicted the grotesque and fearful image of the witch Kurangaituku... the window upon which appears the figure of her husband. (Auckland Star, 1906.)

'Rauru' can be visited today at the Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg.

A little more about Hatupatu

Hatupatu's story does not begin and end with his near fatal experience with Kurangaituku, it seems he was also known as a conservationist, he is described here by Don Stafford: 

Hatupatu lived on Mokoia Island with his parents, but he often travelled across to Rotoiti and Maketu. “He always wore a tupare and often if he liked a place, he would pluck a twig from it and plant it there. That’s what he did here at Ngaukawakawa”

Another tale told is of Hatupatu’s attempt to bring snapper and acclimatise some seventy he had netted at Maketu in Lake Rotorua, sadly though only one snapper survived the trip: 

It was immediately released into the water, whereupon (tradition says) it swam out into the lake, circled Mokoia Island once and returned to the point of its release, beached itself then died’ (Stafford 1999, p.42)

Hatupatu's historic landmark rock on the Taupo Putaruru Highway. Evening post (Newspaper. 1865-2002): Photographic negatives and prints of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref: EP/1958/1863-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23247524

The travels of Kahumatamoemoe and Ihenga

Ko Kahumatamomoe te tama a te rangatira o te waka o Te Arawa, a Tamatekapua.  I ū rāua tahi ko tāna irāmutu, ko Īhenga mā runga i te waka rā ki uta i Maketū.

Nōna e takahi ana i te nuku o te whenua ki tuawhenua, nā Īhenga ngā moana o Te Rotoiti-i-kitea-ai-e-Īhenga me Te Rotorua-nui-a-Kahumatamomoe i tapa i mua i tana wehenga ki te kite i ōna tuākana, i a Taramainuku rātau ko Warenga ko Huarere i noho ai i Te Tai Tokerau.

 

Kahumatamomoe was the son of Tamatekapua, captain of the Arawa waka. He arrived on the waka at Maketū, with his nephew Īhenga.

 

On his journey inland, Kahumatamomoe named Te Rotoiti-i-kitea-ai-e-Īhenga (Lake Rotoiti) and Te Rotorua-nui-a-Kahumatamomoe (Lake Rotorua) before heading off to visit Īhenga’s older brothers, Taramainuku, Warenga and Huarere, who lived in the far north.

To read the full story go to the Great Te Arawa Stories website: www.gtas.nz.

Rāwiri Taonui, 'Ngā waewae tapu – Māori exploration - Te Arawa explorers', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/map/14143/kahumatamomoe-and-ihengas-journeys (accessed 14 March 2023)

Ihenga and the patupaiarehe

I ngā rā o tuawhakarere, ko Te Tūāhu-a-te-Atua i te tihi o Ngongotahā te kāinga o tētehi iwi porehu.  E ai ki te kōrero, he iwi ira atua i mau ai i a rātau te mana atua, ka mutu, i mōhio whānuihia te iwi rā e kīia nei ko te Patupaiarehe.

Long ago the summit of Ngongotahā called Te Tūāhu a te Atua (The Altar of the God) was the home of a mysterious people called the Patupaiarehe. They were thought to be an iwi atua or people of supernatural powers. To some they were known as the ‘fairy people’.

To read the full story go to the Great Te Arawa Stories website: www.gtas.nz.

In the following image of a 1913 survey map the Fairy Spring is clearly marked.

Land  Information New  Zealand (LINZ) and licensed by LINZ for re -use under the  Creative Commons  Attribution 4.0  International licence.

This post was written by Alison

Sources:

Stafford, D. M. (Donald Murray). (1999).  Pakiwaitara: Te Arawa stories of Rotorua. Reed.
Hatupatu and Kurangaituku. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2023, from https://www.gtas.nz
Travels of Kahumatamoemoe and Ihenga (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2023 from
https://www.gtas.nz
Ihenga and the patupaiarehe (n.d.). Retrieved 14 March, 2020 from https://www.gtas.nz
New carved house at Whakarewarewa (1906, January 15).  Auckland Star. 
Institute of Cadastral Surveying Inc. (1913) [Survey plan of part of Rotohokahoka D North No.2A Block]. [Map] Retrieved April 19, 2023 from Cadastral Index.