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TE RURU BRINGS COMMUNITY TOGETHER
A new name for a Parininihi ki Waitotara (PKW) farm brought a community together on a South Taranaki marae in celebration and friendship.
Te Ruru is now the new name of the 298-hectare PKW farm in Ōhangai District, gifted by the people of Tūwhakaehu, hapū of Ngāti Ruanui. The property was known previously as Farm 2.
PKW collaborated with the people of Meremere Marae to identify the new moniker for the dairy farm located in their tribal area.
“It has been an aspiration of PKW to be able to give our farms Māori names, so the purchase of land next to this farm gave us the opportunity to extend it and rename it,” says Mitchell Ritai, General Manager Shareholder Engagement. “One of our core strategies is to promote history, culture and identity, and this is one way we are aiming to achieve this strategy.”
“PKW are fortunate to have been hosted by Meremere for some of our events and activities over the last six months, including a meeting we had with leaders from Waikato as well as a staff wānanga so our farmers could learn about the importance of local wāhi tapu and history.”
“We are pleased that Meremere has embraced this relationship and grateful of the support from Te Poihi,” he added.
Te Poihi Campbell from Tūwhakaehuled the discussions among the maraewhānau about the new name.
“The name has meanings of guardianship, of protection and it also gives recognition to our links to Parihaka,” he says. “We have a saying that says ‘ko te ruru taipō te kaitiaki o tai awatea’ which talks about the ruru being a spiritual bird that is the significant guardian of this area.”
“When you come to our marae, you will see the eyes of the ruru on the two amo of our meeting house.”
Te Poihi said that after speaking with kuia at the marae about a name, the manu ruru came to mind straight away.
“The word ruru in the commonly used phrase ‘whakaruruhau’ also means protector, ‘ he explains. “At Parihaka there was also a council house that belonged to Tohu Kākahi which was called Tapuae Haruru.”
“The people of our marae have a strong history with our whanaunga in Parihaka, so the name serves to remind us, and our future generations, of who we are.”
Te Poihi said Meremere was acknowledged by many others in Taranaki as the spiritual marae of the rohe.
“The ruru, our kaitiaki, resides in the spiritual world and can’t be seen during the day. The kaitiaki works diligently and quietly but it is still and always there.”
And working ‘diligently and quietly’ is the approach Tūwhakaehu are taking to bring their community closer together.
“Our people have been here forever. We see people come and go, we see our neighbours drive past but we don’t know them, so having a ceremony to announce the new name gave us an opportunity to bring the wider community together for the first time to our marae,” says Te Poihi.
Since the closure of the local school five years ago, there has been a need to create a new space where the community can gather.
“I ended up knocking at the doors of all 30 neighbours to invite them to the ceremony because seeing a friendly face would have been more effective than sending them a letter,” adds Te Poihi “I was surprised to learn that most of them didn’t know each other, had never met one another before.”
“Our neighbours come from all backgrounds and cultures - Canada, the Philippines, England and Holland.”
“The great majority of them came to the ceremony at our marae, not only because they were interested in the new name for the farm, but to meet their neighbours and it was great to see our marae bring them all together for the first time.”
Te Poihi said the people of the marae were grateful to PKW for the opportunity to name the whenua.
“We are very pleased that PKW were open to helping us achieve our aspirations to make our marae a space for everyone in our community - Māori and non-Māori,” he says.
“There have been kaupapa that have been divisive in Taranaki, especially in recent years.”
“But in small communities like ours there are pockets of people trying to come together for common causes.”
“Our neighbours care for the health and wellbeing of the land, the maunga and waterways, which came across very clearly when we got to talk with them at the ceremony.”
“Everyone wants clean water and healthy bird populations.”
Those common causes are now allowing the people of Meremere Marae to build a rapport and relationship with others in the community.
“We are working together and along the way we are becoming closer and starting to care about each other more.”
“We are in a new post settlement age. And it does help that we have a younger community willing to open themselves to a new world view and be kaitiaki for this area.”
The ceremony also gave PKW and the people of the marae the opportunity to acknowledge the previous owner of the farm, Jo Williams.
“We wanted to ensure a special place had been given to Jo in the ceremony, so it was good to see her and her whanau there to plant something permanent on the land before leaving,” says Te Poihi.
Above: PKW and Williams whānau come together at Te Ruru.
“Jo spent more than 30 years of her life on the farm and we were so pleased to see that she was happy that the land had gone back to tangata whenua.”
PKW took over the ownership of the farm on July 1 this year.
