Our Stories - Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu

He Whakaaro
Our Stories, Our Voice

A story is told at a certain point in time, [but] it has been told across generations. These stories are therefore made up of the wisdom of generations, and will continue to be told and retold into the future.

Ka hao te Rakatahi
Trumped?

I’m worried about where America is heading. I thought the baby boomers were meant to bequeath to the next generation a world better than the one they were handed.

Whenua

Tūtakahikura is the beach immediately south of the old kaik on the Moeraki peninsula. In the late 19th century it was home to one of the largest Ngāi Tahu settlements on the east coast of Te Waipounamu.

Restoring kai sovereignty

Manaia Cunningham spreads his arms wide to encompass the harbour and surrounding land at Koukourārata on Banks Peninsula. “This harbour has its own unique microclimate and gardening has always been in the whakapapa of this hapū,” says Manaia (Ngāti Irakehu, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mutunga).

Raro Timu, Raro Take

Kelly was awarded two prestigious scholarships – one from the Health Research Council and the other from the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre – to complete her doctorate, tentatively titled Raro Timu, Raro Take – Conception, Creation and Customs Pertaining to Waitaha, Ngāti Māmoe and Kāi Tahu Birthing Traditions, through the University of Canterbury.

Mātauranga Ahurea
The value of Cultural Intelligence

There is a natural tendency to emphasise Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Emotional Quotient (EQ) as being the key indicators of successful leaders and collectively, successful organisations. These are traditionally used in staff recruitment and employment processes. IQ is a good indicator of how a person processes data and EQ provides some scope for assessing a person’s ability to deal with people. Julia, however, believes that used alone they are insufficient indicators of success in a globalised setting.

Te Rangitaki a Te Ranui
Eat noodles, find husband…

I have been learning Chinese for about two months now…and perhaps one of the most useful things I have learnt is how to say: “I don’t understand.”

Settlement Stalwart

Ōtākou upoko Kuao Langsbury (80) is one of the unsung heroes behind the tribe’s successful Ngāi Tahu Claim that was finally settled by the Crown in 1998, 158 years after the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. Kaituhi Rob Tipa recently caught up with Kuao at his Dunedin home. “I always said I’d never get involved…

Haerenga
Three weeks in Te Rua o te Moko

Nā Nic Low. The morning was hot, but Auntie Jane Davis and three other Ōraka-Aparima tāua, Betty Rickus, Vera Gleeson, and Rangimaria Suddaby, walked the beach wrapped head to foot as if battling a blizzard. Which they were: a blizzard of namunamu. Each fought off their own personal storm cloud of sandflies as they scanned…

Breaking the silence

They believe his care was not adequate, and that spiritually-based, Māori-focused treatment would have helped him immensely. Since Nicky’s death, they have doggedly pursued legal avenues to find some justice.