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See below for English translation
Nō te wehenga o Ngai Te Arawa i Hāwaiki Tawhitiareare ka haria e rātau ētehi tino kura nui.
Me te tini hoki o ngā take i haria ai e rātau ēnei taonga. Tuatahi ake pea hai hoa haere māna, tuarua kia tiakina rātau, tuatoru hai whakaū i te māuri ora o te kāinga oroko ki te whenua hou.
Ko ētehi o ngā tino taonga kai te kaha kōrerongia tonungia e tātau. Ko Hauhaukiterangi tētehi. He toki rangatira, e ai ki a Timi Te Pō kai Matawhāura tēnei taonga.
Ko Tūtāuru anō tētehi. He toki, ā nō mātau te whiwhi me te waimarie nui kai te whare pupuri taonga o Te Arawa i ēnei rā e noho ana.
Ko Matuatonga he pōwhatu tapu, he atua nui i kawea mai e ngā tohunga ki tēnei whenua hai māuri. Kai te kitea tonutia tana tuarua e tū matahao nā ki te Motutapu. Ko tana hoa haere ko Itupawa he atua nui tēnei. Ko tana kaupapa he kahu tapa. E mea ana ngā kaumātua nā Hongi Hika ake tēnei taonga i rāweke i tahuna ki te ahi. Ka pau ki te kāpura. Ko Kaukaumatua he kuru pounamu nā Ngāhue tonu i orooro hai pī whakamautaringa, ka heke ki a Tamatekapua nā wai rā ki āna tama tokorua kātahi nā ka heke iho ki Te Heuheu te ariki nui o Ngāti Tūwharetoa, ā, ki tana tamahine. Nōna e kaukau ana i te moana o Taupō ka taka i tana kaki ka ngaro i ngā wai ehuehu.
Ko te ia o tēnei tātai kōrero itiiiti nei e hāngai pū ana ki tētehi pōwhatu orooro.
He taonga i utaina ki runga ki tō tatau waka hourua, whaihoki, ka hāria mai e ngā tūpuna ki Hāwaiki Tahutahu.
Ka ū te waka ki Maketu ka uta ētehi, ka noho iti ētehi ka rewa anō te waka ka hoea te moana e Ngātoroirangi me tana pahi. E pēnei ana pea ki a tātau i ēnei rā e hakoke kau ana i te whenua, ka kitea he wāhi hou, ka karangangia ngā ngakau o Ngai Te Arawa e te whenua kia kāuria ngā wai. Ka ū ki uta ki tētehi wāhi kāore e tino tawhiti atu i Matata. Kai reira te awa iti he wai Māori. Kai te puku o te whenua te puna, wheoi ka rere te wai ka puta ki te moana nui. Ka utaina te pōwhatu orooro nei ki te pūkākī o Mimiha.
Kāore i kōrerongia te tikanga o te ingoa Mimiha. Engari ko Mimiha pōwhatu e rite tahi nei ki a Hinetuahoanga te mana. Ka tiakina rawatia ēnei pōwhatu e ngā iwi.
E kī ana ngā kaumātua whatu ngarongaro te tangata rārangi tū ana ngā māunga, engari hoki a Mimiha, mau tonu ki te whenua. He pōwhatu i kaha oroorongia e ngā whakatupuranga e ngā tini tohunga. Te Arawa mai, Mataatua mai.
Me te tikanga hoki kia kāua e patua ngā tohunga e mahi ana. He ahakoa he hoariri, he ahakoa he ito. Inā te mana nui o tēnei pōwhatu. Ka tae tātau ki te riri o te Kāwanatanga ki a tātau te Māori.
Ka warea ngā tūpuna ki te pupuri whenua ka whakarerea e rātau ngā mahi a Rongo.
Tae ki te rautau hou kua whakahuringia te āhuatanga o te whenua, nā te mea kua raupatungia ngā iwi o te takutai kua riro hoki i te Kāwanatanga he whenua mātotoru ko tēnei takiwā tētehi o aua kura nui.
Nā wai rā kua timatangia e te Kāwanatanga ki te mahi rori, ka kitea te pōwhatu nei, ka rāwekengia te pōwhatu e te heahea, tērā anō tētehi kōrero i pāhungia te pōwhatu e ngā tangata mahi rori.
Kua roa tēnei kōrero pōhēhē e taiawhiotia nā, engari rā e te iwi, anei te take o tēnei tuhinga. He pānuitanga nāku ki a tātau katoa, kai te whare pūpuri taonga o Tamaki Paenga hira, kai te taumata tuarua o te whare tēnei pōwhatu e noho puku ana.
He mana nui, he wehi whakaharahara otīā he hokinga maharatanga ki ngā tūpuna o nehe rā.
When the ancestors of Te Arawa departed from the shores of Hāwaiki Tawhitiareare, they carried many tangible gifts to accompany them aboard their vessel, which would also offer them protection from the unpredictable elements and lastly, would assist them to re-establish their group safely in the new land that awaited them.
Their respective holders carried the sacred adzes Hauhaukiterangi/ Hauhauterangi and Tūtauru.
Hauhaukiterangi was reportedly buried upon the mountain Matawhāura, whilst Tūtauru can today still be seen in the Arawa collection of taonga that sit with the local Museum.
Matuatonga, we have discovered, was carried here, and its replica sits upon the island of Mokoia.
An unusual travel companion to Matuatonga was Itupawa. Itupawa travelled to these shores in the form of a tapa cloth. This atua was destroyed in the year 1823 when Hongi Hika travelled with his warriors to avenge the death of Te Pae-o-te-rangi. Kaukaumatua, we have heard, was either lost in Lake Taupō by the descendants of the Te Heuheu whānau just recently in the past 100 years.
Such an item to behold it was fashioned from a block of greenstone discovered by Ngahue, worn by Tamatekapua and handed to his son. It would eventually pass down into the safekeeping of the Heuheu lineage, chiefs of Ngāti Tuwharetoa.
The focus of this short kōrero revolves around a sand sharpening block that was said to have been transported to this land from Hāwaiki Tahitiareare.
When the Te Arawa waka made its way skirting along the coastline of the Bay of Plenty, it berthed for a short while at present-day Maketu before Ngātoroirangi, and his entourage refloated it.
Then, they continued their journey east towards the present-day township of Whakatāne. As the vessel was travelling along the coastline, like the many travellers today who skirt the coastline, the desire to stop for a look around was always rewarding.
On one particular stop undertaken by the explorers, they decided to offload the sharpening block. This action occurred near the township of Matata.
Mimiha was the name of the sand block, and the powhatu was placed at the mouth of a freshwater stream that still runs from inland into the ocean named Mimiha.
Mimiha, like Hinetuahoanga and other famous sandstones, was jealously protected.
The taonga was used for hundreds of generations to prepare the famous onewa—pounamu and other useful pōwhatu important to the Te Arawa and Mataatua people.
Surprisingly despite the tension sometimes between the Arawa and their near relations who occupied the shoreline, there was a mutual understanding not to carry warfare, nor shed blood near the site or to bring a such unwarranted nuisance to those who were heading to and from the site.
It was long thought by the later descendants of the area and the wider Te Arawa community that the sandstone was destroyed while laying the road that connected Whakatāne to the other smaller and developing towns to the west.
There were rumours that the pōwhatu was either blown up to make way for the road or viciously attacked by some Goth, as was reported in an early newspaper of the 1900s. However, what should be known is that the taonga lies today in the Auckland Museum, located on the second floor, not too far from the poutokomanawa of the great whare Kawatapuarangi.
An item of great prestige and integrity and one of the few tangible items that connect us to our past.
'This decision has not been made lightly'.