In Ngāti Mutunga (1820 – 2019)
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Nā te kōti i tatari: The inconsistent treatment of tikanga taurima (whāngai) in Ngāti Mutunga (1820 – 2019) Matiu Payne A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy At the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand 1 August, 2019. Acknowledgements He kura tangihia, he maimai aroha. Mākū ana te whenua i te roimata, i te auētanga o te whakaaro o te hunga kua whetūrangitia. Kei te mārama taku titiro atu ki maunga Taranaki ki maunga Pipitarawai me ō rāua taketake, ngā takotoranga whakamutunga o ōku huānga, o ōku kaumātua i riro atu ki te pō. Ko Joe Tapara, ko Charlene Tapara, ko Bob Goomes, ko Teresa Goomes rātou i ū ki ngā kaupapa Ngāti Mutunga ki Wharekauri. Ko rātou anō hoki ngā whenū o tōku korowai whakaruruhau i runga i tēnei huarahi mātauranga. Nō reira e ōku raukura, e ōku rauhuia, otirā e te rau o tītapu. E moe, e moe, e okioki. Mā ngā parirau whānui o te kākākura koutou e tauawhi i runga i tō koutou huarahi. Haere, haere, haere atu rā. Many supportive Ngāti Mutunga kaumātua have passed away during the course of this thesis. I spent many hours in discussion, with their warm company, and encouragement. Their knowledge of Ngāti Mutunga history and experiences were invaluable. I wish to acknowledge Uncle Joe and Aunty Goog (Charlene) Tapara, Aunty Teresa Goomes and Uncle Bob Goomes without whom the journey to completion of this PhD Thesis would have been arduous. In my own whānau, Aunty Linda Grennell and Uncle Graeme Grennell have joined our tūpuna (ancestors) throughout the duration of this thesis. Having grown up in Koukourarata (Port Levy) on Banks Peninsula I gained second- hand accounts of Ngāti Mutunga papakāinga life. Koukourarata is a Kāi Tahu papakainga where my infant Ngāti Mutunga/Kāi Tahu grandmother moved to when just one year old. Our Ngāti Mutunga whānau has resided there since 1919. Koukourarata, along with Rāpaki, Wairewa, Arowhenua, and Tuahiwi, are Kāi Tahu communities where many Ngāti Mutunga people intermarried and resided following the effects of land confiscations, and colonisation. Because of this association, Ngāti Mutunga whānau, including my own, often identified more strongly with their Kāi Tahu kin. My secondhand accounts of Ngāti Mutunga life were sourced from my grandmother’s elder siblings who remembered fragments of information about their father’s people. Whānau manuscripts written by elder tūpuna also spoke of our Ngāti Mutunga heritage and whakapapa. My first-hand contact with Ngāti Mutunga iwi (outside of Te Waipounamu) came as an 18-year-old returning to Urenui in north Taranaki. I attended the investiture ceremony for Matarena Rau-Kupa (Aunty Marj) with the Queens Honour medal acknowledging her achievement of the rank of Member of the Order of the British Empire i Matiu Payne ID: 9610042 (MBE) in 1995. Aunty Marj, was raised in the same pā and household with my Ngāti Mutunga kuia, Roimata Wi Tamihana. I corresponded with Aunty Marj prior to my Urenui visit and she was integral in realigning my strong Kāi Tahu identity and including Ngāti Mutunga in my conscious identity. At the same investiture hui, Uncle Bill Tuuta, took me to Ōkoki pā and showed me my kuia’s final resting place in an unmarked grave. Uncle Bill had helped bury her in 1956. Following these events, I came into more regular contact with Ngāti Mutunga people. It soon became clear to me that our whānau, while somewhat separated from customary Ngāti Mutunga places and connections continued to live aspects of Ngāti Mutunga tikanga (customs). The key identifier of this type of behaviour was found in tikanga taurima. Our whānau has always known taurima relatives. Taurima is a practice that is completely normal and natural for us, as it was for many Ngāti Mutunga whānau. In our whānau we have known taurima relatives in every generation as far back as the whānau memory allows (at least 5 generations). I continue this tikanga with my wife. We have three sons, two of whom are taurima to us. New Zealand society and systems treat our taurima children differently to our biological son. This dynamic confused me in the early years of their development. While investigating the reasons for this differing treatment, it quickly became apparent that systematic issues in New Zealand prejudiced the treatment of taurima children. Those systematic issues are the genesis of this thesis. This thesis builds upon my Master’s research which focused on the inconsistent treatment of taurima in whānau land succession with a focus on one historical case study.1 At the inception of this doctoral research, this thesis sought to consider the inconsistencies in my own lived experience of taurima. However, during the course of this study my research paramaters broadened to include all types of inconsistent treatment of taurima amongst Ngāti Mutunga, not just in land succession, although this remains a large contributor to the overall research. This broadening of research occurred as my own understanding of legislative impact on tikanga taurima evolved. Despite this, it is clear that our colonial history had a significant impact on tikanga taurima. New Zealand’s colonisation has encouraged a fundamental competition amongst Ngāti Mutunga people, particularly when land titles were individualized, and succession cases began after 1870. The viability of Ngāti Mutunga’s land estate was made ineffectual by 1 Matiu Payne (2013). Do selectively superior whāngai succession rights exist for Māori Land? Unpublished Masters Research Report, Dunedin:University of Otago. ii Matiu Payne ID: 9610042 virtue of fragmented shareholdings that were so small that decision making became, at times, impossible. This dynamic created frustration and resentment amongst iwi owners and exacerbated land management issues. Inter-whānau and intra-whānau competition and conflict, trace their roots back to the conditions designed during the 1860s land tenure reforms that followed confiscation of Ngāti Mutunga land in Taranaki. In acknowledging all who assisted me in this research journey it is appropriate to acknowledge the University of Otago who saw within me an opportunity to support this study with their Māori PhD scholarship. The University also provided me with two exceptionally supportive and knowledgeable supervisors in Professor Lachy Paterson and Dr. Paerau Warbrick. Supervision is crucial to the completion of doctoral study and I am grateful that both men were agreeable to this task from the outset of my post-graduate journey. Financial support was also provided to me by Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu with their Kā Pūtea grants from 2016 to 2019, and their part-time PhD Scholarships in 2018 and 2019. I wish to also thank the Parinīnihi ki Waitōtara Incorporation for financial grants in 2018 and 2019, the Ngāti Maniapoto Fisheries Trust for their financial support in 2018 and 2019, Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Mutunga for their iwi education grant in 2019, and Te Rūnanga o Koukourarata for an education grant in 2019. Every contribution made the completion of this study possible and I thank you all. In 2014 in Hawai’i, and 2017 in Toronto, Canada, I attended and presented aspects of my study at the World Indigenous People’s Conference’s on Education. On both occasions I shared information amongst other indigenous peoples. This process allowed consolidation of my arguments while also helping me to understand the impacts upon taurima by colonising influences, internationally. In 2016, I attended the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Conference in Perth. This experience contrasted with that of the WIPCE conferences but was equally as valuable in sharpening the content of my arguments contained in this thesis. By the time of my presentation of a related subject at the He Tuhinga nō Neherā conference in Dunedin November 2018, my practice in presenting at these previous conferences allowed me to more confidently explain taurima dynamics to my peers. It is especially important to me that I acknowledge all Ngāti Mutunga people who agreed to take part in interviews with me around this subject. In order to maintain confidentiality most cannot be named beyond their identifier as Ngāti Mutunga people. Their lived experiences provided real life qualifications for many situations that could be gleaned iii Matiu Payne ID: 9610042 from the literature and conversely, illuminated situations that caused me to look deeper into the literature for reasons why Ngāti Mutunga people experienced the circumstances they did. One noteable exception to the need for confidentiality is my Aunt, Teripa Lewis. Teripa was taurima to my grandparents. She is also the only mokopuna of my grandmother’s eldest sibling, Airini Gopas (nee Grennell). Teripa’s experiences were given with an openness and aroha that I had not previously experienced within my immediate whānau. Teripa’s experience is unique in that she was raised as the youngest child of the youngest child of the whānau, yet in birth order, she was the eldest child of the eldest child. Her experiences in life reflected the tensions Māori often face around birth order and its corresponding hierarchy. I wish to acknowledge my Aunt, and her wife, Donna, for the support they have shown me in the completion of this kaupapa and for the honesty, frankness, and aroha with which they have provided their support. Tēnā kōrua. I wish to acknowledge those key people who have assisted me with all manner of activities without which many of the arguments could not have been built in this thesis. I would especially like to thank Dr. Dione Payne (wife and editor extraordinaire), Hine Stewart-Waenga of Ngāti Kinohaku, the staffs of the Māori Land Court, nationally, and especially Bronwyn Te Wekepiri (nee Hika) in Wanganui, Rev. Maurice Manawaroa Gray, J.P., Kaye Gray, Mary Grennell Hall, Francis & Jolene Grace, Jamie Tuuta, and staff of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa who assisted my PhD Thesis journey professionally and academically.