Exhibition tells history of Tamaterau

Ray Haora, one of the Tamaterau kaumatua featured in the Kaumātua o Tamaterau Life Stories & Photographic Exhibition. Photo / Flash Gordon Photography

The history of the Whangārei Heads settlement of Tamaterau will be on display at a unique exhibition starting next week.

The Kaumātua o Tamaterau Life Stories & Photographic Exhibition will be held at Tamaterau Hall, and the area's history will be seen through photographs of some of its kaumatua and through their stories.

June Pitman of Motumoana Enterprises Ltd, is the creative mind behind this project, and has teamed up with Claire Gordon of Flash Gordon Photography to bring the exhibition to life.

Pitman said Tamaterau is a unique seaside community hugging the shoreline of Te Terenga Paraoa, Whangārei Harbour, gateway to the numerous nooks and crannies that comprise Whangārei Heads.

Back in time the pathway from Whangārei all the way through to Whangārei Heads was heavily occupied by Māori. Numerous papakāinga dotted the coastal skyline including Rangitihi, a visible landmark pā that rises high above Tamaterau rohe. Māori iwi/ hapū lived in relatively close proximity to each other.

Tamaterau was used intensely for gardening and cultivation, kaimoana harvesting, communal gatherings and tribal discussions, traditional Māori practices and rituals, and other daily and seasonal activities. Tamaterau's shoreline was also an important landmark tauranga waka (landing/departure point for waka), and for numerous other vessels that over time would venture up and down the length of Whangārei Harbour.

She said sadly, much of Tamaterau's pre-historic Māori cultural heritage; of Māori occupation pertaining to this area, and pre-treaty early settler engagement with Māori of this area during those times, are largely unknown and untold. A significant proportion of today's landowners and occupants are unaware of Tamaterau's (and indeed the whole of the Whangārei Heads area) rich and interwoven history.

Ray Haora and June Pitman talk while compiling information for the Kaumātua o Tamaterau Life Stories & Photographic Exhibition. Photo / Flash Gordon Photography

However, what does exist is a generational network of kaumātua o Tamaterau, all descendants of Māori whanau who have maintained continuity of occupying, living, cultivating, and farming their ancestral lands in the Tamaterau rohe through the layering's of time pre-colonial to present day.

Living within these whanau are kaumātua ranging in age from early 60s to almost 90 years old, some of whom have lived their entire lives here, some who have returned. They are kaitiaki of a wealth of living taonga - memories, oral histories, verbal and written recollections of times past to present day; kaitiaki of stories viewed through the lenses of their personal adventures and experiences of growing up and living in Tamaterau.

In some cases, descendants of these kaumatua; children and grandchildren, have also been born to whenua at Tamaterau, and are ensuring continuum of this legacy, their birthright. Their stories may also be interwoven into this exhibition.

The early 1800s tuku of land at Tamaterau known as Pakikaikutu to Te Tawera o Ngāti Pūkenga by the tribes of Whāngarei, resulting in descendants of Ngāti Pūkenga maintaining a more than 200 year living presence in Tamaterau. This dictates a strong selection of Ngāti Pūkenga subjects together with subject descendants who whakapapa further back to those ancient tribes strongly connected to Tamaterau.

''In doing so we acknowledge those who once lived in this place long before Ngāti Pūkenga arrived and settled here.''

The exhibition aims to encompass the stories of the kaumātu and descendants, in a balanced approach focusing on recollections of real life story narratives of growing up in the Tamaterau rohe.

''The richness of the stories shared during those times: of lifetimes lived at Tamaterau, are coupled with the realisation that our kaumātua and the next generation of descendants are all getting older. Therefore, it is only a matter of time before these personal recollections are at risk of being lost to our future generations and us forever.''

Kaumātua o Tamaterau Exhibition project aims to capture, portray, and record real-life story narratives held within the mauri (essence) of our Kaumatua – their personal experiences of growing up, living, and learning in Tamaterau.

The exhibition will feature the images and stories shared by members of nga whanau Dickey (Tiki), Haora, Nelson, Pitman, Pohe, Pepi and Solomon (Horomona).

The exhibition will be open to the public from December 9 to December 17.

Reposted from: NZ Herald 4 Dec, 2021

Rosemarie Maier. Photo / Flash Gordon Photography