Three years and a sterling fundraising effort, after their former building was closed and condemned by the Westland District Council due to earthquake safety concerns the new Westland Hokitika RSA was officially opened and rededicated at a dawn ceremony held on Saturday 26 February led by RSA Chaplain and Upoko rūnanga Pīhopa Richard Wallace.
We have had a long relationship with the RSA who had been kaitiaki of a plaque honoring two brothers who left Mahitahi to fight in WWI, never to return. The plaque was returned to us and now features as part of our memorial window in our whare Kaipō, where we hold our Annual ANZAC Day Service.
In recognition of our relationship with the RSA we gifted in aroha a kōhatu mauri pounamu – Ka maumahara tonu tātou ki a rātou. One of a cache of pounamu we extracted from the Cascade Plateau following the passing of the Ngāi Tahu Pounamu Vesting Act 1997. Named Kā roimata o Totoweka Tears of Totoweka by our people, it is a physical expression of sorrow, pain and the heavy impact of the war not only on our hapū but all Kāi Tahu. To acknowledge the heavy toll, pieces of “Kā roimata o Totoweka” were gifted to each papatipu rūnaka along with a taoka roimata (Tear drop pendant). In completing the gifting of these pieces, a symbolic “trail of tears” throughout Te Waipounamu, which commemorated all Kāi Tahu war dead, was created. Today, the trail, He Ara Roimata, encircles the South Island and northward connecting to the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Wellington (pounamu crosses) and to “Tears on Greenstone-Roimata Pounamu” Memorial Wall. On the morning, another link was unveiled and added to the trail – Ka maumahara tātou ki a rātou.
Kōhatu mauri pounamu at the RSA opening.