TE KARAKA

The iron will of Heather Skipworth

Crossing the finish line at IronMāori is more about the massive feeling of achievement than the numbers on the stopwatch. Nobody knows this more than the event creator, Heather Skipworth. Kaituhi Matt Philp talks to this woman of steel as she prepares to bring IronMāori to the Ngāi Tahu takiwā.

Haka!

Maani Stirling started kapa haka as a seven-year-old because his dad John told him to. “Me and all my brothers had to do it, but not all of us carried on.” Is it a passion, this love for kapa haka? “It’s something that I do, that I am,” he says. “It’s in the blood.”

Historic visit to Te Waipounamu for Haunui waka

   When Haunui sails down the east coast of Te Waipounamu this month, it will be  the first time in hundreds of years that an ocean-going waka hourua has been in  these waters, apart from a two-day wānanga in 2010. After completing a 25,000 nautical mile voyage as part of the seven-strong fleet  for Te…

Pounamu mana

“It gives the mana back to the stone — that’s what we’re aiming for,” says Ngāti Waewae rūnanga chairman and general manager of the newly-formed Waewae Pounamu, Francois Tumahai. He is talking about Poutini Ngāi Tahu and West Coast miners signing up to a ground-breaking agreement to return pounamu to Ngāi Tahu and deter the illegal black market trade in New Zealand greenstone. Kaituhi Rob Tipa reports.

Kaikōura marine vision realised

Customary tools are a critical part of the Kaikōura Marine Strategy. Kaituhi Mark Revington reports.

Keri Hulme’s tidal tracks

I love walking tidelines. My footprints are evanescent — there at low tide, gone the next tide. Such is the life of footprints. Mostly. I learned as a child that there were fossilised footprints in Aotearoa New Zealand — birds (especially moa) and crustaceans mainly. Because I love my feet (broad and sturdy Polynesian, with…

Between the lines

Ngāi Tahu historian Angela Wanhalla spent five years researching marriage between Māori and Pakeha in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was surprised by the diversity of relationships and liberal views. Kaituhi Rob Tipa reports

Hooked

Greg Summerton left school at 16 to go fishing. Now he is founder and owner of New Zealand’s largest privately-owned long line fishing company and sits on the board of Ngāi Tahu Seafoods. Kaituhi Mark Revington reports.

Kōhūhū, a striking show stopper

Kōhūhū rates as one of the show stoppers of our native bush with its explosion of striking new growth glowing like a beacon of spring, writes Rob Tipa.

Ironically, it is probably better known to gardeners and landscapers by its tongue-twister of a botanical name: Pittosporum tenuifolium. It is also known as kōhūkōhū and black matipo in some historical references, but the latter is apparently incorrect.

Walking into a new world

On a sunny Sunday morning at the top of the Port Hills, a young girl stands flanked by her parents. She looks up for reassurance and her mum offers a warm smile of encouragement. With new confidence, she turns to a group of peers and starts to recite her pepeha. The lineage that she repeats…