Planting a legacy

WORDS: DENISE IRVINE

The mana and legacy of Whakaotirangi, experimental gardener and scientist, continues to resonate in the landscape almost 700 years on

When Whakaotirangi stepped ashore from the great waka Tainui at Kāwhia Harbour, she carried a kete of precious kūmara and taro tubers from her tropical Pacific homeland of Hawaiki.

Whakaotirangi was the principal wife of Hoturoa, captain of the waka Tainui, and she had safeguarded the tubers and some other plants on the long, eventful sea voyage.

She subsequently moved north from Kāwhia, over the hill to Aotea Harbour, where she established extensive gardens with the contents of her kete. The tranquil inlet she chose was named Hawaiki Iti, in honour of the homeland, and gardens were also planted at nearby Pākarikari.

Nearly 700 years later, the mana and legacy of Whakaotirangi, experimental gardener and scientist, resonate through the Aotea kaitiaki of Ngāti Patupō and Ngāti Te Wehi, and all Tainui descendants. In 2017, Whakaotirangi was selected as one of the 150 women celebrated by the Royal Society Te Apārangi for contributing to knowledge in Aotearoa New Zealand.

And earlier this year, Hawaiki Iti, her onceabundant Aotea garden, was recognised and listed as a wāhi tapu site with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, acknowledging its cultural and spiritual importance to Māori.

Diane Bradshaw of Ngāti Te Wehi says Hawaiki Iti is central to Aotea Harbour’s unique identity in Aotearoa New Zealand.

“The ‘footprint’ of our ancestress Whakaotirangi, her life and culture, provides a direct connection to the tūpuna of the Tainui and Aotea waka. The adaptation of tropical food plants to our temperate climate must have been a major challenge, and this landscape retains her legacy today.”

Pita Te Ngaru of Ngāti Patupō describes Whakaotirangi as “the mother of a nation”: “If it wasn’t for her growing the kūmara and taro at Aotea, would we have survived as well as we did? In her small kete there may have been 10 kūmara tubers, and from these she created a massive garden and dished them [kūmara plants] out all over the place.”

Pita describes how Whakaotirangi would have known when it was the right time to plant.

“She would have looked at the bird life here, the sea, the bush, to judge the seasons.”

He says the soil at Aotea would have been very different from the soil in the tropical homeland. There would have been much experimentation by this

talented gardener and scientist, who generously shared her knowledge and plants across the Tainui rohe.

The descendants of Whakaotirangi cherish her legacy. They want her work to be celebrated and understood by generations to come. It is hoped that the wāhi tapu listing will play a part in this.

The application came after hui more than two years ago at Mōkai Kāinga marae, near Hawaiki Iti, led by kaumātua Nick Tuwhangai. It was supported by Ngāti Patupō and Ngāti Te Wehi representatives, including Pita Te Ngaru, Chris Tuaupiki, Polly Uerata, Maxine Moana-Tuwhangai and Diane Bradshaw.

The listing report was researched and written by Isaac McIvor, a PhD candidate in Te Pua Wānanga ki te Ao Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato. He worked in consultation with Xavier Forde, who was at that time Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga team leader for listing Māori heritage sites.

Isaac has whānau connections to Ngāti Patupō. He learned about Hawaiki Iti and he and Pita Te Ngaru talked about what a wāhi tapu listing might mean for it; the mahi grew from there.

The 56.7-hectare site encompasses the extensive Hawaiki Iti swamp and the Kowiwi Stream. These days it is hard to imagine the bountiful gardens of Whakaotirangi: there are remnant clumps of wildling taro, and other natural resources such as harakeke, raupō, wātakirihi and ponga fern. Of the legendary kūmara there is no trace.

There are also archaeological remains in the form of pā, storage pits, ovens and middens, indicating the communities the land once supported. Some links endure: Diane Bradshaw says Hawaiki Iti taro is a delicacy served annually at the poukai at Ookapu marae of Ngāti Te Wehi.

Hawaiki Iti has long been part of a privately owned farm and it has felt the impacts of farming activity, forestation and erosion. For local iwi and hapū, the wāhi tapu listing offers greater opportunities for the protection of, consultation on and commitment to the wellbeing of the whenua.

Pita is particularly concerned about the area’s water quality and the depletion of taro stocks. This has spurred his support for the listing. He says about three or four years ago – using an informal arrangement of harvesting by local whānau – he went to Hawaiki Iti with his cousin, Maxine Moana-Tuwhangai, to look for taro. There was not a lot to be found, in marked contrast to its abundance in the late 1970s when he had harvested it as a child for his grandmother.

“This land has been growing taro and other resources for almost 700 years, and it could be gone in five minutes. We’ve eaten the taro and the watākirihi; our mokopuna may only ever hear stories about it. I don’t want that to happen. "We don’t want to buy the land back, or claim it back, we want to protect it. It is about exercising our kaitiakitanga, our guardianship.”

He says the aim is to work with the owner and see how whānau can clean up the blackberry, preserve the area, preserve what is left of the taro and talk to surrounding farmers about how everyone can work together to improve the water quality. A trust could be established to care for the wāhi tapu, he says.

Pita recalls his grandfather, Te Huia Te Ngaru, telling him how Hawaiki Iti was named – the story passing through many generations.

Whakaotirangi was living separately from her husband Hoturoa, who was elsewhere with his junior wife. When Whakaotirangi planted her kūmara gardens at Aotea, she wanted to show the flourishing crops to Hoturoa, but she knew he wouldn’t come if she simply sent for him. So she asked their son to visit him, and to say that she was near death: “E Hotu, kua tata mate a Te Oti. Oh Hotu, Te Oti is about to pass away”.

Hoturoa felt aroha for Whakaotirangi, so he went to visit her. When he arrived, he looked out upon the land and saw the huge kūmara crop that his principal wife had created in his absence. Overcome with emotion, he fell to his knees. It rekindled his love of Whakaotirangi, and they resolved their difficulties. It was at this place that their mauri came together again. What Hoturoa saw reminded him of his tropical homeland and he named the area Hawaiki Iti – Small Hawaiki.

The dream now, in 2021, is to repopulate Hawaiki Iti with taro and teach younger generations how to replant it, sustain it and make it flourish again. And honour the legacy of the remarkable Whakaotirangi.

hapū: sub-tribe harakeke: flax kaitiaki: guardians kete: woven basket mauri: life force, essence poukai: a series of annual visits by the Māori King to Kiingitanga marae raupō: bullrush rohe: region, territory tūpuna: ancestors wātakirihi: watercress whenua: land