Posts Tagged ‘Rob Tipa’

Environmental watchdogs

Edward Ellison says there is no question the Ngāi Tahu voice has been heard loud and clear by the authorities, and by the chemical companies themselves. He is confident the applicants know what is required of them to meet the expectations of tangata whenua in future.

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Wharariki easily mistaken for versatile cousin

Although they are widely known as flaxes, wharariki and harakeke are actually lilies. The two species are usually found in different environments, but do cross-breed and hybridise. Horticulturists have bred many coloured ornamental forms that are widely used in landscaping, and some well-known cultivars used by weavers are hybrids.

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A handsome climber

Kōhia is a handsome climber found high in the canopy of the tallest trees of our native forests, and is perhaps better known to most of us as New Zealand passion vine, passion flower, or passion fruit.

Fortune favours the brave

Kimi Ākau (the Shotover River) holds a special place in the hearts of the Ellison whānau, thanks to the courage of one of their tupuna, who virtually made his fortune on this wild high country river in a single day.

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Tussocks offer unlikely shelter in a storm

Before human settlement of Aotearoa, the dominant cover of higher alpine grasslands was large snow tussocks of the Chionochloa family. At lower altitudes, sub-alpine grasslands were primarily dominated by short or low tussocks (less than 50 cm), including a taonga species for Ngāi Tahu – silver tussock (Poa cita) – and hard tussock (Festuca novae-zelandiae).

Compelling evidence

A prehistoric tōtara waka excavated from a sand dune at Papanui Inlet in October is believed to be close to 500 years old, and is the first waka unearthed on the Otago Peninsula. It is the second-oldest waka ever found in Aotearoa, after the Anaweka waka, found near Nelson in 2012, and thought to be more than 600 years old.

Tāngata whenua from Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou, archaeologists, and historians are excited by the significance of this discovery because the waka was built with stone tools more than 200 years before Europeans landed on these shores. Most waka displayed in museum collections today were built with steel tools after the period of first European contact.

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The binding powers of Akatorotoro are easily overlooked

Akatorotoro is a Ngāi Tahu taonga plant that is easily overlooked in the bush, because of its habit of clambering all over its neighbours on its climb into the forest canopy.

Its thin young vines, when green and pliable, are strong and extremely durable, a primary natural resource used by Māori for all manner of lashings and bindings. Sometimes vines were selected, trimmed, and steamed in an umu to make them more pliable, as the lashings dried hard and rigid.

Master Carvers
redefine the faces of Ngāi Tahu

With the revival of Ngāi Tahu language and culture and the reconstruction of whare tipuna throughout the motu in recent years, these craftsmen have been given artistic license to express themselves through a combination of historical research and contemporary design.
As West Coast master carver Fayne Robinson explains it, “Today’s contemporary is tomorrow’s tradition.”

The science of strandings

The tragic stranding of nine orca in western Southland earlier this year prompted a blueprint for customary recovery. Kaituhi Rob Tipa investigates. The mass stranding of a pod of nine orca on an isolated beach in Te Waewae Bay in western Southland in February was a rare event that may have a positive outcome for…

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Sniffing out toatoa

nā Rob Tipa The most distinctive feature of toatoa is the fact that it has no true leaves. Instead this shrub or small forest tree has flattened leathery branchlets that look more like the leaves of celery – hardly a feature befitting a member of the chiefly podocarp family. Three species of this ancient genus…