Our Stories - Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu

He Kōrerorero
He Pūoro

They don’t look like much, to an undiscerning eye.

Some rocks and bits of wood, a few bones… cordage, and vegetable matter that is not wood.

Ahakoa He Iti, He Pounamu: Pounamu stamina

When Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio held its first paperless executive meeting, the room reverberated with laughter and puzzling queries as members tried to come to terms with their new Acer Iconica tablets.

Keri Hulme (keree hewm) n, v, adj.; Kāi Tahu (Puketeraki, Ōraka-Aparima, Arowhenua, Taumutu, Waihōpai), Ōkarito (38 years), The Bone People. Whakapapa, flags, whiskey, wind, water, praying mantis. Congenial neighbours (Judith and Bill; and Andris up the hill), takaroa, twenty-seven thousand (books), walking sticks, pounamu, Moeraki (soon). Words, rhythm, circumpreambulation, 1972 crown land section (ballot), octagon…

Manawa Kāi Tahu
Te Kurī o Tūtekohi

Within a few generations after Tahu Pōtiki and Porourangi began living on the East Coast, their descendants were intermarrying with the local Ngāti Ira people and also with the children and grandchildren of Kahungunu, who were more recent arrivals to the Tai Rāwhiti district.

Kai
Makaawhio’s Helen Rasmussen

Helen Rasmussen has cooked so many whitebait patties she could probably do it blindfolded. Beating eggs, stirring in “a shake” of flour, folding in the whitebait, and cooking up a batch of crisp, golden patties is all in a day’s work at the Grumpy Cow Cafe at the Haast Food Centre.

Toi Iho
Free Spirit

Taiaroa Royal turns 51 this July while performing with leading Māori contemporary dance company Atamira Dance Collective at the Festival for Pacific Arts in the Solomon Islands. That is more than half a century on the clock for a man often described as a legendary dancer.

Hei Mahi Māra
Mātauranga Māori Māra Kai

I have been involved with the ‘Building Māori Organic Land Use Project’ with Te Atawhai o Te Ao, an independent Māori research organisation. The project focused on interviewing a wide range of Māori with experience in māra kai to identify the traditional mātauranga and kaitiakitanga basis to Māori organics.

He Aitaka a Tāne
Sheltering toetoe

Toetoe are our largest native grasses. They are hardy, abundant and commonly found anywhere from swamps and riverbanks to sand dunes, forest margins and dry hillsides between sea level and the subalpine zones of Aotearoa.

He Whakaaro
The wages of colonisation

In December 2010 the National-led coalition government announced a dramatic change in the way state housing is to be delivered.

Reviews

It’s a little unclear who the intended audience is for several recent books of essays by predominantly academic authors from Huia Publishers. The books are textbooks possibly, for while they all have interesting topics, they are not exactly bedside reading. This volume is entirely by Māori Massey University academic staff.