I whānau mai ahau otiā i pākeketia i Te Whakarewarewa, he pou-arahi tūruhi tōku māmā. Tērā tētehi wāhanga o te raumati i puta hoki ai ahau hai pou-arahi tūruhi ākonga, ka nui te hākoakoa o taku ngākau. He mōhio kē nōku he kāinga motuhēnga a Te Whakarewarewa.
Nō te pā katoa taku whānau, he whānau ruku-kapa, ā, e tika ana te ingoa poipoi nei ki runga ki a mātou ko te iwi Whaka blondes.
He hokinga maumāharatanga nōku e itiiti ai, e pōwaiwai ana te pā, kī pai ki ngā whānau Māori, nō mua mai i te hūnukutanga o ngā whānau ki ngā kāinga i whakatūria ai e te kāwanatanga o taua wā ki Ōwhata ki Fordlands hoki.
Nā Mita Taupopoki ngā tūruhi i whakaaraara i te tau kotahi mano, e waru rau, e ono tekau mā waru. Ko te wāhi ataahua rawa atu i taua taima ko Ōtukapuarangi me Te Tarata engari i tanumia katoatia tēnei whakamiharotanga i te hū nui o Rotomahana i te tau kotahi mano, e waru rau, e waru tekau mā ono. Ngaro katoa.
Nō mātou e tamariki ana ko te hītōria he mea kōrerongia e ngā pakeke anake, he mōhio kē nō mātou, ā, nō Te Whakarewarewa mātou, ka oti! Ko Wāhiao te tupuna whare, ko Papawharanui te whare o te ora i tū pātata ana ki ngā "top baths' ki te wāhi e kīa nei ko te rāhui.
Nā te mamao me ngā kāhē kai rākau i kōerongia ai ngā pātū o Papawharanui ka hinga ki raro. Ka whakatūngia te whare ora hou ko Te Rau Aroha ki tētehi taha o te awa o Puarenga āhua tata iti nei ki te hōtera o Geyser.
Ka whakahono atu ai ki te kaha o te mamao mō ngā pouaka kōhua kai, waihoki e whai wai wera hoki ai mātou. Ka paripari mai ngā pahi tūruhi i ngā wāhanga o te tau. Hai te wāhanga o te raumati ka puta mai ngā kaipuke Pākehā me te tini o ngā tangata.
I ora mātou i ngā mahi tūruhi, ora rangatira nei. Ko ētehi o mātou he pou-arahi tūruhi, he hoko kame, ko ētehi anō hoki i tu ki te whakangāhau, ā, he kapa haka te mahi ki te Concert Chambers ki te tāone ki ētehi atu o ngā hōtera o te takiwā.
Whai mahi hoki ai ngā tamariki, he ruku kapa, ki a mātou ko taua mahi he, 'rattling' he ruku wai me te kapo atu i ngā kapa e ngaro nei i te oneone o Puarenga. Ko ngā tamariki ware ki te ruku, ka ora i ngā mahi tonotono a ngā pakeke, ka puta mai hai karere mā ngā toa o te kāinga, waihoki he hoko kai mā ngā mango-ruku kapa o te Puarenga. Ae, kua whakahuri te ao ināianei, ā hāpori nei, ā tōrangapū hoki.
Nō reira anei tātou i tēnei rangi.
Hai te Rātahi ka tīmatangia ngā rongo kōrero kia whai māramatanga ai ko wai o tātou e whai pānga pū ai ki Te Whakarewarewa mai i Te Roto-a-Tamaheke( ko te puna tuku wai tēnei ki Te Hīrere) tae atu ki Te Puia me te whenua o Arikikapakapa. Anei ngā rōpū tohe: Ko Ngāti Wāhiao-Tūhourangi ko Donna Hall he rōia nō Te Whanganui-a-Tara te tumu, e toru hoki ngā hapū koromātua o Ngāti Whakaue – ko Ngāti Hurungaterangi, ko Ngāti Taeotū me Ngāti Te Kahu ki Pukeroa-Ōruawhata.
Ka tu ngā whakawā ki te aroaro o Hon Robert Fisher, QC, tētehi tiati nui whakaharahara. Tokorua hoki ngā mātanga ka noho ki te pae ko Dr Robyn Anderson he mātanga mā te taraipūnara o Waitangi me Dr Robert Joseph, he mātanga mātauranga Māori.
Kua whakaritea kia rima ngā rangi ki Te Whakarewarewa tēnei kaupapa e āta kōrerongia. Ka oti kia tekau o ngā rangi ki te marae o Hurungaterangi ki Ngāpuna. Kāore anō kia whakaritea tētehi taima whakawā mā Pukeroa Ōruawhata.
E ai ki te tuku kōrero a Ngāti Wāhiao, he kotahi anake tō rātou pā taunaha engari kua kotahi tekau mā whitu o ngā whakatupuranga rātou ki te whenua e kōrerongia nei. Nā ngā waiariki i whai wai wera ai ngā kāinga, hai wai kaukau, hai wai kōhua kai, engari nā tēnei āhuatanga anō , ara, ko te wera o te whenua e kore ai e kaha te iwi ki te tukituki whenua ki te whakatō, ki te whakatupu kai.
Nā reira i wehe atu ai rātou ki whenua kē.( Kai Parekārangi ngā waerenga ko tō mātou whānau te mea whakamutunga ki te mahi kai i Parekārangi, kai te āhua kotahi mano, e iwa rau, e ono tekau, taua takiwā tonu).
Ko te Pukeroa-Ōruawhata te pōraka tuatahi i whakawāngia ai e te kōti whenua Māori i te tau kotahi mano, e waru rau, e waru tekau mā tahi. He rahi hoki taua pōraka whenua kai te hauāuru o Te Whakarewarewa kai roto hoki i tēnei pōraka ko Arikikapakapa me tētehi wāhi nui o te tāone o Rotorua.
He nui rawa atu ngā hapa me ngā mahi heahea i puta mai, i mana hoki ai te whakatāunga a Te Kōti.
Me te mea hoki, kua oti kē te whakatau a te kōti i mua i te timatatanga o te kēhi. Kua mana kē whakatau a te tiati nui a Francis Fenton me Ngāti Whakaue he whakataunga kokohu.
Ka hokonga te whenua e te Karauna i Ngāti Whakaue e whakaaraara tāone ai rātou. Whoi anō, tuatahi rawa me tuku e te Kōti whenua te mana o te pōraka ki a Ngāti Whakaue e whakatutuki ai tēnei whāinga pae tawhiti. Ara, ko te whakaaraara tāone. Ka whakapiri taha tata te tiati noho me tiati Fenton, nā tiati Fenton te whakahau ki te whoatu te mana whenua ki a Ngāti Whakaue, he ahakoa ngā taunakitanga hohonu, kōrero tūturu a Ngāti Wāhiao-Tūhourangi e whai take ai rātou ki tēnei pōraka.
I te tau kotahi mano, e waru rau, e waru tekau mā rua, ka huri te hiahia o te kōti whenua ki Rotomahana-Parekarangi, he whenua ururua ki te hiwa, ā, e takoto noa ki te tokerau o te hāpua o Te Whakarewarewa, he ahakoa te whakatau a te kōti tāna e kī ai me tuku e rātou tētehi mana itiiti ki a Ngāti Whakaue, ka tukuna katoatia ngā whenua pātata o te hāpua o Te Whakarewarewa ki a rātou, ki a Ngāti Whakaue.
E mea ana ngā whakaaro o taua taima he ahakoa kāore ō rātou pānga tūturu ki te whenua, pai kē kia tukuna noatia.
I te tau kotahi mano, e waru rau, e waru tekau mā toru, ka tīmatangia ai te kōti whenua tētehi kaupapa e mana tūturu ai ngā kēremi ā toto nei ki ngā whenua, waihoki ki te hāpua o Te Whakarewarewa.
Ka tau ana te pūehu o te tuku whenua e te kōti ki a Ngāti Whakaue, ka huri kau atu a Ngāti Whakaue ki te hoko i ō rātou whenua hou ki te Kārauna. Engari a Ngāti Wāhiao i kaha puritia e rātou ngā pīhi whenua o ngā tupuna kāore rātou i hakeke ki ngā whakawhiu a te Kārauna.
He ahakoa e noho mana kore nei a Ngāti Wāhiao ka nōhia te hāpua e ngā uri. Tae rawa te whakatūwheratanga o te Māori Arts & Crafts Institute (MACI) i te tau kotahi mano, e iwa rau, e ono tekau mā toru.
Ā, ka waihangatia tētehi piriti tuarua kia uru atu ai ngā tangata ki te hāpua i te tau kotahi mano, e iwa rau, e ono tekau mā rima, kāore i tūara kurī tētehi o rātou, kāore hoki i hamama te waha o tētehi. Nā Ngāti Wāhiao te IP ki te whakahaere kaupapa tūruhi ki runga ki tēnei whenua, ka hoko putuputu kē a MACI i a Ngāti Wāhiao, hai pou mahi māna, hai pou arahi māna.
Tae rawa ki te tau kotahi mano, e iwa rau, e iwa tekau mā whitu ka whakahuri ngā kaupapa me te āhuatanga mahi, ka kīa tētehi kēti he mea whakatū e tētehi kia noho haumaru ai te iwi.
Koia tēnei te timatatanga o te whakarewarewatanga o te pūehu, koropupū ake ana ngā waiparu, pōhutu kau ai ngā ngāwhā i tēnei mahi tautauhea, herea rawatia ngā ringaringa o te iwi e noho kore mahi nei, ko te wā tuatahi rawa tēnei e oti ai a Ngāti Wāhiao te arahi tūruhi ki runga i ō rātou whenua ki roto hoki i te hāpua o Te Whakarewarewa.
He tika te hamamatanga a te iwi moroki noa nei.
I was born and raised at Whakarewarewa, my mother was a guide and for one special summer I was a junior guide.
I always knew Whaka was a special place. Our extended whanau are pa kids, penny divers. Whaka blondes.
More than half a century ago when I was a child, it was bustling, full of families. That was before the young families were moved out to the State Housing subdivisions at Owhata and Fordlands.
Under the auspices of chief Mita Taupopoki Ngati Wahiao began its tourism operations in 1868. Their Tuhourangi whanaunga had a thriving tourism business at the Pink and White Terraces which were destroyed in the Tarawera Eruption in 1886.
When we were kids, history was something old people talked about.
As far as us Whaka kids were concerned we were Tuhourangi. Our tupuna whare was Wahiao, our dining room Papawharanui which stood near the "top baths" in the rahui.
When the steam and sulphur eroded Papawhara, a new dining room, Te Rau Aroha, was built on the other side of the Puarenga Stream, backing onto the Geyser Hotel. We hooked up to their steam bore for our cooking boxes and hot water.
SCENES from the Whakarewarewa village and thermal valley as it is today.
Tourists came and went with the seasons. In high summer cruise ship passengers added to the usual run of tourists. Tourism provided us with a good standard of living, from guiding and the sale of souvenirs, to concert parties entertaining visitors at the Concert Chambers in town or at hotels.
The kids made money diving for coins in the river, or by "rattling" which was diving and scooping through the sand on the bottom for coins missed earlier.
Kids who weren't that good at rattling or diving could make money by running messages and going to the shop to buy food for the shark rattlers.
The social and political landscape has changed out of sight since then. And so to the present day.
On Monday begins hearings on who has beneficial entitlement to the Whakarewarewa Thermal Valley, from Te Roto-a-Tamaheke (this supplies water to the Hirere) to Te Puia and Arikikapakapa.
The parties are: ■Ngati Wahiao Tuhourangi led by Wahiao descendant and Wellington lawyer Donna Hall ■Three koromatua hapū of Ngati Whakaue — Hurungaterangi, Taeotu and Te Kahu ■Pukeroa Oruawhata
The hearings will be before an arbitration panel chaired by a former High Court judge, the Hon Robert Fisher, QC. The panellists are Dr Robyn Anderson of the Waitangi Tribunal and Maori academic Dr Robert Joseph.
Five days beginning Monday have been set down for hearings at Whakarewarewa.
That is to be followed by 10 days at Hurunga Te Rangi Marae at Ngapuna. The time and place for the Pukeroa Oruawhata hearing have yet to be advised.
The Ngati Wahiao submission says the hapū has only one pa and had occupied the lands for at least 17 generations. While the area provided free hot water to cook and bathe, the geothermal activity made it unsuitable for growing crops so the hapū was forced to go to other lands for these purposes. (We used to have maara kai at Parekarangi. Our family were the last to have gardens there. That would have been in the early 1960s.)
The first block determined by the Native Land Court was Pukeroa Oruawhata in 1881. This was a large block of land to the west of the Whakarewarewa Valley including the Arikikapakapa lands and the lands that now make up Rotorua city.
There were many flaws with the procedure and with the reasoning of the Court, but the outcome was decided before it began.
Before the case started, the Chief Judge of the Native Land Court, Francis Fenton, reached an agreement with Ngāti Whakaue for the Crown to buy most of the block from Ngāti Whakaue for the establishment of the Rotorua township.
It was a deal that could only be executed if the Court awarded the block to Ngāti Whakaue.
The presiding judge stayed in contact with Fenton, and Fenton directed him to make a decision awarding the land to Ngāti Whakaue despite evidence that Ngāti Wāhiao Tūhourangi had a well-founded claim.
In 1882, the Native Land Court turned its attention to the Rotomahana Parekarangi, the land to the east of and north of the Whakarewarewa Valley. While the Court held that Ngāti Whakaue only deserved a minority interest in those lands, it awarded it the lands immediately adjacent to the Whakarewarewa Valley.
This was expressly stated not to reflect a traditional right to those particular lands, but to be merely done for convenience.
In 1883, the Native Land Court started a process to determine the ownership of land that included the Whakarewarewa Valley. Rapidly after the ownership of the Valley was settled by the Court, most of the parcels awarded to Ngāti Whakaue were sold to the Crown.
Meanwhile, Ngāti Wāhiao clung on to almost all of the parcels awarded to it despite pressure from the Crown to sell. Despite having lost title to the land Ngati Wahiao continued to occupy the valley.
Even when the Māori Arts and Crafts Institute (MACI) opened in 1963 and a second bridge into the Valley was built (in 1965), little was initially changed.
The IP related to tourism in the valley was exclusively held by Ngāti Wāhiao. MACI therefore exclusively hired Ngāti Wāhiao guides to do guiding from the Institute. Ngāti Wāhiao also continued to offer guiding around the Valley from the Village.
It was not until 1997 that this changed. A gate supposedly built for night-time safety reasons, was locked. For the first time, Ngāti Wāhiao was unable to guide around the valley from its Village.
The protests were immediate and loud and continue to this day.
