Te Rarawa has made good on its promise to restore two carved pou, marking the boundaries of the rāhui on the Tauroa Peninsula, west of Ahipara, which were cut down and sawn into pieces in July. They had been erected about 10 years ago in a bid to preserve marine life, particularly pāua, and on Saturday they were reinstated.
The ceremony began before dawn with the unveiling of the repaired, recarved and repainted pou at Otia, Te Rarawa members, guests and representatives from Ahipara Takiwā, the collective of marae with mana whenua in the area, making the journey along the rugged coastline from Ahipara to witness the occasion.
Getting there wasn't easy, even in four-wheel-drive vehicles, navigating rocky headlands and sand soft enough to bury wheels in a flash, even more challenging in pitch dark and with a rapidly rising tide.
The pou, Te Aho and Te Omu, once again mark the rāhui, prohibiting all fishing and gathering of seafood along 1.34 kilometres of coastline and one nautical mile out to sea, to preserve and replenish seafood stocks; 20,000 juvenile pāua were 'planted' there in 2011, in a bid to halt a decline widely regarded as destined to end in extinction.
Te Rarawa chairman Haami Piripi, who led Saturday's ceremony, reiterated that the felling of the original pou had only strengthened the resolve of the iwi and hapū.