Kinship Ties Reaffirmed

Mana (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 5, 1 September 1977, Page 3

Kinship Ties Reaffirmed

MAORI

In an earlier edition of MANA (18th August 1977) there was a report on the visit of 140 Maoris to Auckland, en route to Rarotonga. Before leaving Mr Phil Aspinall, the trip organiser, had described the main reason lor the trip as being “to affirm historical links and traditional kinship ties.” These links had been re-established in 1934, after a gap of hundreds of years, when a group was invited from Rarotonga to open a newly-completed meeting house in Tokomaru Bay. This house, named Te Hono Ki Rarotonga, had been carved by graduates from the first school of carving to be established in this centyr. The Rarotongan group was led by one of their ariki, Tinirau.

The group which travelled to Rarotonga this year contained people who had been present at the opening of Te Hono Ki Rarotonga as well as grandchildren and great grandchildren of Wiremu Potae who, with Sir Apirana Ngata, had been responsible for inviting the original group from Rarotonga. Members of this year's party came from different parts of New Zealand, but they were almost

all descendants of the Takitimu canoe with the majority having close links with Tokomaru Bay. During our stay in Rarotonga we stayed in the Takitimu area. We were split into three groups on arrival and billeted on three marae; Matavera, Ngatangiia and Titikaveca. The Ngatangiia group stayed directly opposite the site from which the Takitimu canoe had set out on its historic journey to Aotearoa. On this site seven coconut palms have been planted to commemorate the departure of the seven canoes from Rarotonga. One of the many highlights of our trip was a moving ceremony in which seven stones representing the seven canoes were

dedicated on the lawned area, leading to the beach. We

named one of the stones Takitimu and it is intended that the others will be named when descendants .of those canoes visit Rarotonga. We were in Rarotonga during the ‘Constitution 12' celebrations, which marked twelve years of independence for the Cook Islands. The Culture Group who made up part of our group performed one night and provided a marked contract to the hulas and action songs of groups from Rarotonga and the outer islands. The hulas we saw on stage also procided a great contrast to the hulas many of our members attempted to perform in the seclusion of our maraes. There were so many

by Syd Jackson other highlights that they cannot all be described in the space available. However, the following impressions remain with us - - the real chance our relations in the Cook Islands have to make their own decisions and decide their own destinies - the pleasure of being in a situation where Maoris are the overwhelming majority the joy at seeing the smallest of children speaking Maori and of hearing our language being spoken constantly - the overwhelming hospitality, love and generosity that we were shown during our stay - their delight at having us with them - the amazing quantities of delicious foods they put on for us - the happiness we all felt at being together - their present dependence economically on New Zealand - Phil Aspinall playing rugby There will doubtless be other visits between the two families of Takitimu, but for those who had the honour of going on this trip nothing will evermatch this one. You will be able to share some of our expe-riences and delights in a film which has been directed and produced by Eruera Nia. Eruera, incidentally, is a great-grandson of Tinirau the ariki who led the 1934 group to ’l'okomaru Bay. He hopes the film will be ready in November and it is intended that some of our group will take him and the film back to Rarotonga.