Wayne Ngata: Paikea’s arrival in Aotearoa

Wayne Ngata tells the story of Paikea’s arrival in Aotearoa.
22 September, 2013 – Uawa (Tologa Bay), Aotearoa

Translation:
Paikea was our ancestor, and he travelled from his Hawaiki, from his Whangarā, now when he landed at Ahuahu, he followed the coast around, and came upon the people there, and as he came he married here then settled, he married there then settled again, and these women bore his children, it wasn’t until he had gotten to Waiapu, to Te Kaituku, he gazed upon Huturangi, let us just say, the princess of the Nukutere canoe, daughter of Te Whironui and Araiara, now their job their wā planting kūmara, as Paikea came he bought with him the pure rights, and incantations to plant the kūmara, and that was what he did.

However with the coming of Paikea and Huturangi, there also came her parents, the in-laws Te Whironui and Araiara, or Hinearaiara. They came inland and stayed just beyond the Raroa pā, beyond that to Puatai, and then down into Rototahe, and that is where Te Whironui and Te Araiara lived, as said in the famous haka ‘nāna i noho ki Rototahe’. And there they abided, until they died, but Paikea and Huturangi carried on, as they came upon Pākārae, he looked inland and saw what he presumed to be his home, his home of Whangarā, the Whangarā that he had left from in Hawaiki, then he started to reserve the lands and then named them after the settlements and mountains of his homeland of Hawaiki.

And when he went to look for the river Waiomoko. Back home in Hawaiki the Waiomoko river, that runs by Pukehapopo, the mountain of Pukehapopo, but the Waiomoko here at Whangarā was not that river. It was then he figured out that this wasn’t the same place, the Hawaiki that he had left from, so he renamed this place Whangarā-mai-tawhiti, the Whangarā where the Ngāti Konohi people abide …

And when Paikea settled there, his place of learning was situated there, there also stood the place of learning of Irakaiputahi, and of Rongomaituwaho, the son of Paikea, the knowledge within those places of learning came this way with the people, hence by the time of Hingangaroa, he was living right inland at Mangahia, and he situated his house of learning of Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, and named it Te Rawheoro, and the knowledge was shared, knowledge of the manaia, and of the tāwaru, as aspects of discussion for us, indeed for everybody, right up to this very day, these are the aspects of learning from Te Rāwheoro, as it entails the settlement of Hinematioro, from her time right to the time of her grandson Te Kani-a-Takirau, they who lived at Pourewa.