Āraiteuru ki uta, Āraiteuru ki tai, Āraiteuru te waka e tau nei. Tīhei mauri ora!
From 4-7 October we held Manawa Hou ki Kāti Huirapa ki Puketeraki. Although Ranginui spent most of the time ensuring we knew how much he loved our beautiful hākui, Papatūānuku, our whānau made the most of it. On the first night we split into our groups and learned about the journeys of our tūpuna all the way from Hawaiki to Kaiapoi. Through sharing their stories: our two pōua (Graeme Pepper and Matapura Ellison) bought us back home and shared how our tūpuna settled around Te Tai o Āraiteuru. Each group did a wonderful job of retelling the stories and coming up with creative ways of recreating their kōrero through a visual timeline, waiata, whakaari (drama), stomping and games.
Te taiao (the environment) was a big focus for our wānaka and through being in our beautiful environment, we learnt about who we are as Māori, as Ngāi Tahu and as Kāti Huirapa ki Puketeraki and our role as kaitiaki. Day two was a big day out in our taiao. We walked down to Huirapa as a whānau with rangatahi flying our Āraiteuru flag up high with pride as we made our way to Huriawa Pā. As we walked around our pā, Waiariki shared the kōrero about our tūpuna and also tikanga currently in place to ensure the survival of our taiao. Through the guidance of hākoro, Brendan Flack, we learned how to gather rimurapa and make pōhā. Rongomai Parata-Taiapa and Tom Macfarlane, along with rangatahi helped finish the pōhā off by adding the tuaki and kūtai our rangatahi had gathered, stitching them up and cooking them for our whānau hākari.
With the help of Suzi Flack, Jenny Smith, Savannah Flack, Brendan Flack and Tom MacFarlane, we then headed over to the Waikouaiti awa by waka and stand-up paddleboards to do some planting. It was there that our rangatahi planted around 200 plants.
After rewarding ourselves with a swim over at Waikouaiti beach we headed back to the marae, arriving with our kai ready and waiting. Everybody was exhausted!
Day three was all about hosting our whānau. We split the rangatahi into two groups, tāne and wāhine. Our tāne did the hāngī preparation and set up our whare tupuna, Huirapa. While our wāhine had some mana wahine time with their hākui and tuākana through kōrero, raranga and helping prepare the wharekai for the hākari. There were a couple of tāne who spent time preparing to be our kaikōrero and wāhine were practicing their karanga and pao (with the calm guidance of Tawini White). The pōwhiri was led by our tēina who did a wonderful job. The hākari was a night full of manaakitanga, laughter and fun. It was a proud moment for all of us.
To our rangatahi – our rangatira mō āpōpō; throughout our wānanga, you showed great leadership, manaakitanga, whakawhanaungatanga and kaitiakitanga. Thank you for making this Manawa Hou what it was.
A huge mihi to all of our tuākana; our whānau is so lucky to have you as our future leaders. Thank you to the whānau from Ngāti Waewae – Tihou Messenger-Weepu (who did a great job ensuring the voices of our rangatahi were being heard and made sure they upheld their responsibilities) and Whaea Missy Campbell.
To Donelle Manihera and Rangimarie Mules, thank you for always being there and helping us make this experience a success. To our awesome ringawera Puawai Parata and her team (Nikki Hunter, Kiri Parata-Noema, Claudia Kettink), thank you for the delicious kai. Finally, to Waiariki, our tuakana and teina, we were very fortunate to have him lead this wānanga and share his knowledge through kōrero, waiata and haka.
Kai time for our Manawa Hou rōpū.
Preparing the hāngī for the hākari.
Rangatahi planting one of 200 plants by the Waikouaiti awa.
Wāhine weaving harakeke.