Nau mai: Discovering the heart of pepeha
Andrew
Tēnā koutou katoa. Ko Andrew tōku ingoa. He kaiārahi ahau ki LEARNZ. Haere mai ki Te Tai Poutini.
Hi everyone. I’m Andrew, the LEARNZ kaiārahi, and welcome to the South Island’s West Coast! And welcome to the field trip Te Wāhi Pounamu. Behind me you can see the Arahura Marae. Come with me as we explore more about the origins and significance of pounamu with Ngāti Waewae.
We've come into Tūhuru, the wharenui here at Arahura Marae.
Ian, this really feels like a special place to be, surrounded by these amazing carvings – love the light work that's capturing the essence of this place. It's beautiful.
We heard from Whetū, from Hokitika Primary, who said her pepeha. What does it mean to you to have a pepeha?
Ian
For me it is – I walk with my awa, I walk with my maunga, I walk with my tūpuna behind me. And every time I say it.
Andrew
So it's almost a way to – it's a way to connect, and it’s a tool of guidance?
Ian
Yes. And with having your pepeha and knowing your pepeha, it gives you a sense of your home and who you are as a person. And it gives you a platform to guide your babies and your mokopunas to the future with as well.
Andrew
So Whetū recited her pepeha. There's other ways to connect with/through pepeha as well, though?
Ian
Yes, there's ways of haka. There's ways of mahi toi. Also to – carvers will put whakapapa in the carvings to also bring out pepeha in their ways of teaching as well.
Andrew
So it's more than just standing up and reciting. It can be displayed and brought out in other ways.
It's a way to introduce yourself. It's a way to connect with whakapapa. It's a form of guidance for you and whānau. And as you said, it can be expressed in a lot of different ways, and one way is through waiata.
So let's hear from the students at Hokitika Primary.
[waiata]
Pepeha – Te Whetu | Tainui, Tūhoe, Te Arawa, Kāi Tahu Pepeha
Kia ora
Ko Tuhua te maunga
Ko Arahura te awa
Ko Tākitimu te waka
Ko Poutini Ngāi Tahu te iwi
Ko Ngāti Waewae te hapū
Ko Pounamu tōku taonga
Ko Te Whetū Mārama tōku ingoa
A kōrero about Poutini by Horiana
Horiana
Kia ora. We are called Poutini Ngāi Tahu, after the taniwha Poutini, who bought Waitaiki – the mother of pounamu – to our land.
This is Poutini. Waitaiki, who Poutini stole and brought her down here from up from Tūhua, the island Tūhua, which is up in Tauranga.
And now looking at the top of the whare, the pounamu carving at the top is Tamaahua, Waitaiki's tāne.
Poutini and Waitaiki: Waitaiki was bathing in the sea at Tūhua. Poutini took her from her home and headed south.
Tamaahua gave chase, using his tekateka.
Poutini lit fires along the way to keep Waitaiki warm. Poutini took Waitaiki up the Arahura awa. Tamaahua was close.
Poutini was worried he’d lose Waitaiki. Poutini turned Waitaiki into his own essence and laid her in the water. Poutini (Tamaahua) found Waitaiki there and cried.
Tamaahua named three mountains to remind Waitaiki of home. Poutini remains on the coast as (a) guardian.
He wāhine, he pounamu – A story about the women of pounamu
Horiana
Nau mai, nau mai, haere mai ki te whenua o Kāti Waewae.
Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora.
Andrew
Kia ora Horiana.
We are at the Arahura awa.
Beautiful day, Taua Horiana. Thanks for putting on the good show. Now this awa is revered. It's a pretty special river for Ngāti Waewae.
Before we talk a bit about that, though, there’s three wāhine that are prominent in the history of Ngāti Waewae; in the kōrero. Tell us about them.
Horiana
Kia ora. So, kōtiro tuatahi, Waitaiki. We are called Poutini Ngāi Tahu, after the taniwha Poutini who brought Waitaiki, the mother of pounamu to our land. And he laid her in our awa. And then he swims up and down the, out there in the waitai – guardian of our people.
Hine-uira-i-waho was a daughter of Kupe. And when he was on his waka with his people, circumnavigating the south – Te Waipounamu – they come along our coastline down here from Tāpokapoka-a-Tāwhaki. And as he came up our coastline, he came into our river to rest and recuperate.
And at that time, our awa was swarming with inanga, whitebait. And they came in and rested there. And his daughter – Hine-uira-i-waho – she set her little net in the river. And to keep her net secure and fastened, she picked up these little kōhatu and placed them on her net. Then she noticed how, very like the colour of whitebait, the mata, that the kōhatu’s were. And so you can see how milky white – if you look at pounamu and see how milky white, whitebait is, it is very like the kōhatu that she put on her net.
Raureka was a Ngāti Wairangi woman who, for whatever reason, was expelled from her tribe. And she and her helper slave, came up our awa and crossed down the mountain pass to the other side of our island. And she came across these group of men who were cutting tī kouka. She came across these men and they took her in and helped her back to health.
And as she recovered, she watched them work. And they were cutting and using this inferior blade. And from under her, under her kākahu she took her little toki, her toki, and she demonstrated the sharpness of her toki. And while she did that she sung this little waiata and the men were not the least bit interested in her waiata. They wanted to know where she came from, what was this little toki that she had, because of the sharpness. They had never seen anything like it.
And she showed them back, when she fully recovered, she showed them the mountain pass and brought Ngāi Tahu – because they were men from Ngāi Tahu. She brought them over here and they beat up on these people, Ngāti Wairangi, and took control of the pounamu, pounamu country.
So if you had the control of pounamu in your possession, it was second to none to hold an edge. Everything else would blunt very quickly. So if you had pounamu in your possession, your toki would stay sharp forever and a day. And she founded that mountain pass, which is known, is known now as Browning Pass. But it had a name before that: it was called Nōti Raureka, the way of Raureka. Those three women. Very significant in our history.
Andrew
Well, kia ora Horiana. Fascinating to hear about those three wāhine and the significance they have in the kōrero of Ngāti Waewae. And um, I’m going to go and catch up with Ian, and he’s going to talk a little bit more about the significance of this awa and pounamu to Ngāti Waewae.
Kia ora.
He waiata nā Raureka: Te kaha o te pounamu | A song from Raureka: The strength of pounamu
Horiana
This is Raureka’s waiata that she sang while she was demonstrating the sharpness of her toki.
[Taku Toki]
Whakaatu rā e taku toki
Ki te kāuru
Koia pānukunuku
E rā e hine
I a pakuraki, e tama e
Nā te hiahia
Nā te koroka, e tama
I a Tāne, e tama
Tāne i ruka
Tāne i raro
Ka rere te maramara e
Ka huaki ki waho
Ka tipu mai i uta
Ka takoto mai i waho
E hura ki te ata
Ko te ata o Tāne e
[Translation]
I stretch forth my axe
To the head of the tree
How it moves
How it resounds, O children!
Because of my desire
For the lofty sons of Tāne
Tāne, towering above me
Tāne, felled and lying at my feet
See how the chips fly from my axe!
Uncovered to the world are the children of Tāne
Once pillared lofty in the forest shades
But now all stripped and prone
Laid bare to the morning light
The light of Tāne
Ko Arahura te awa
..
He taonga whakaritea: The art and industry of pounamu
Andrew
Kia ora e te whānau. We're here at the Waewae Studio, and ko Aaron tēnei. This is Aaron.
Aaron, this is a fascinating place. This is where pounamu stone comes to and is cut up and worked with. I can see lots going on here. There's bits and pieces. There's, you know, things to work with the stone, there’s the workers’ benches – and they're actually on a break at the moment, otherwise there would be lots of noise going on.
But tell us the process of when you get the raw stone into the studio, and what you do with it to produce the pieces that go out for sale.
Aaron
Yeah, so we get the real stone in, ah, we break it down on a saw into slices. We mark out the design that we want to do. We may do five at a time. So it's just quicker and easier and more precise to have a template.
And then from there, we'll cut out those – each design, each pendant.
Andrew
What do you use to cut those bits out?
Aaron
With a diamond saw, which is, yeah, like a trim saw. It's just a smaller version of the bigger saw that we use for cutting the actual stone. But it's just for smaller pieces. So a smaller blade.
From there, grind away the remaining stone that we have to the line, to the outline of the design. And then, use a hand piece with diamond burs on the end of them – with various shapes and sizes, that do various, detailing to the carving.
Andrew
Depending on the carving that you doing?
Aaron
Yes. Yeah. Then we'll go back out onto another machine and take all the grinding marks off it. I guess, so yeah. So it’s got a nicer finish.
And then from there you go and polish.
Andrew
Polish it up.
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew
And then that’s ready?
Aaron
Yeah. Ready to get a binding put on it, a cord on it.
Andrew
So you can hang it around your neck or whatever. And, one of the cool features that all your pieces coming from here have, is a mark of authenticity and a code that you can put into the website, and it traces the whakapapa of that stone and who worked with it and so on.
Aaron
Yes, yes. That's right.
And to show that it’s authentic New Zealand pounamu. Yeah. Which, yeah, is what we have here on the West Coast.
Andrew
That's right. And you want to know that when you're buying a piece of pounamu, that it's actually a piece of pounamu, and not something else that's been passed off as that.
Aaron
Exactly. Yeah, we stand by that. We are the kaitiaki of pounamu in New Zealand, so we’re right behind that, yeah.
Andrew
Yep. And so normally, it's a lot noisier in here. But the workers are on a break at the moment. But normally there's drills going and, you know, these grinders and all that sort of thing. And you see it all around the place in the workstations – that fine white dust that comes off the stone.
Aaron
Yeah. So that is, yeah, just the stone, obviously. And it’s just wet. It’d be dusty if it didn't have water on it.
Andrew
And I see with the... when you're working with the stone that you've always got the water running, is that just because of the friction builds the heat up?
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. And it does. It helps the diamond tip burs, yeah, just cut through the stone much easier. And um, yeah, they just work together. It is a way of going about it.
Andrew
It's a fascinating process. And some of the more intricate designs can take quite some time, can’t they?
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just the basic – like the matau – they can take two and a half hours. They're all sort of around that area. But then the likes of hei tiki, they might be up to 20 hours. Yeah, for a piece like that.
Andrew
That's 20 hours from a skilled technician.
Aaron
Exactly. Yeah. Absolutely. That’s a whole ‘nother level of carving, to be honest.
Andrew
Well it's been fascinating to get a bit of an insight into what you do here at the studio, the Waewae Studio. And just get a bit of an idea about the process of those – that raw stone coming in and then breaking it down into these amazing finished products, like this.
Kia ora. Thanks very much.
Aaron
Kia ora. Thank you.
Te whare whakairo pounamu: A visit to the workshop of Katene
Andrew
Kia ora Katene. Thanks so much for having us here. It's your home studio.
So we're at Katene’s place.
You’ve got a little workshop out the back here; where you work with pounamu. It's pretty cool.
Katene
Cheers bro.
Andrew
It's quite a different scene to, ah, the Waewae studio, where they're producing lots of items of the same shape and style. You've got a small setup here. Tell us about how you got into carving.
Katene
How I got into carving. Basically, when I was 18, I got asked if I um – got asked if I wanted to go to Rotorua and learn to carve from the best; from the best in New Zealand. And I said yes.
And pretty much that was the end of it really. I moved up to Rotorua, studied under Lewis Gardiner for a couple of years. And then, come home and I've been back here on the coast ever since, pretty much just, yeah.
Andrew
What does it mean to you to carry on a tradition that's been going on, you know, for a very long time; and be connected to a stone like pounamu, and work with it? You know, with something that's been through hundreds of years. You know, a taonga.
Katene
It’s pretty special bro, you know. Yeah, it's one of those intergenerational things that you just got to try and keep alive; and keep going and pass onto the next ones aye? Keeping all those old traditions alive. You know, the fossicking and anything to do with pounamu really.
Andrew
Where do you get your ideas or how do you... where does your mahi come from?
Katene
A lot of my mahi, is.. it all comes from traditional forms and styles. It's just, I add my own contemporary twist to it, you know. So I do a lot of, manu forms, a lot of ika forms. Yeah, a lot of sort of soft, natural, sort of forms; that similar stuff from our taiao.
Andrew
Awesome. So you, and you work with – people will commission you to do work for them. And you hear what they want?
Katene
Yep, where they’re from, you know. Their iwi connections. What sort of person they are, what their hobbies, and all that sort of stuff. And then my job from there is to transfer, you know, transfer that into a, ah, how do you put it? Like a taonga I guess.
Andrew
Yeah. Well, I mean, I wear one and, so that must be pretty special to know that you're fashioning something that somebody will, you know, wear and respect and really appreciate for so many years to come. You’re creating lasting things for people. It's a pretty special thing to be involved in.
Katene
Yeah. Like, you know, a lot of the stuff, a lot of the pieces I make, they all have a whakapapa, like us, you know.
When I'm dealing with people like that, I tend to tell them: where the stone’s from, who found it, what part of the awa, what the day was like. All of that, you know, right down to the – where I got the tools to work it. So it’s pretty special to be able to create those, ah, what do you call.. a taonga tuku iho, for people.
Andrew
So there's a story behind it and deeper connections?
Katene
Yeah. Yep.
Andrew
Well, kia ora. that's, you know, it's just so neat to be here and see where you do your mahi and where the magic happens. But um, I appreciate that insight. Kia ora.
Katene
Kia ora.
Pounamu – he taonga tuku iho | Pounamu – an intergenerational treasure
Andrew
We're inside Taua Horiana’s whare. Katene there as well.
Just looking at some of these pieces of pounamu. It's really interesting. There's so many different looks to it, colours to it. And, I mean, for an untrained eye like myself, you know, the outside of that, to me, doesn't look like pounamu. Tell me a bit about some of what we can see here.
Horiana
Well, kia ora Andrew. These are the... these are finished, water-buffed pounamu that have been sitting in the awa and had water running over a lot, for years.
But for our people way back, it was an important implement for them, back then, to fashion tools, nets, hooks, all those sorts of things.
So our river is renowned for the wide range of colour and strength of pounamu. And over the years it has diminished, because of commercial... sales that have come on in my lifetime.
When I was a little girl, there was no sale for pounamu.
Andrew
So, the uses of pounamu has changed over time?
Horiana
So as we become – dare I say it, more ‘civilised’. And, then we were able to use other methods to cut, and to fish, and live by. But I respect, even my old people, it was the centre of their world to have pounamu in their possession.
Andrew
And talking about the different ways of working with the stone, Katene. There's quite a contrast in the way the stone is worked today, compared to how it was in the past.
Katene
Yeah, yeah nah, there’s a huge contrast. Well, it is still labour intensive. But back in the rā, back in the days of old, you know, would have been, either worked by hōanga or by way of knapping with stones like this, like pakohe and that aye? You know, knapping simply use another one to tap off the side, to the shape that you want.
Andrew
Now I notice you've got there, a toki – handle of a toki and hei tiki. And there's a bit of a relationship there.
Katene
Yep, yep. So, you know, back – one of our main tools back in the days of old was a toki. It was used for, you know, carving waka, carving whare, carving weapons. And once the toki blade itself was too short – might’ve been chipped off and, you know, it was too short to be used as a tool anymore. Then it was – that’s when the adornment came about and was fashioned into a hei tiki. And yeah.
So if you look at a lot of old hei tiki, they're still in, they're still in the shape of the toki. Quite, you know, tapered at the top, wide at the bottom. And even to the point where the legs or the puku still have that chafe or that edge where the blade once was.
Andrew
I can see, yeah.
Horiana
Over time, the value and values have changed. It was – it come from a tool, a weapon. And when that was.. they went to the smaller pieces. Then it become an adornment.
Anyone who had pounamu in their possession like, the hapū or the tribe, had huge mana. We had pounamu in our possession and, as owners, it was second to none. Pounamu held an edge. Everything else…
Katene
Everything else chipped away and broke.
Horiana
Once you put an edge on this, it held for ever and a day.
Andrew
Well, kia ora, thank you for sharing the um – your home with us, your whare; and for allowing us to come in and look at some of these beautiful examples of pounamu.
Kia ora.
Horiana
Ka pai.
