HEI’S TAPU
Sacred Burial Place In Danger TRIBE LODGES APPEAL Hukehuke, at Whitianga, one of the most historical burial grounds of New Zealand, has suffered from the depredations of sawmillers. Maoris were recently moved to take the bones of some of their ancestors to a safer place. For Hei, the tohunga who guided the paddles of the Arawa canoe from Tahiti to New Zealand, is believed to be buried in Hukehuke. The fears for the ground of the Ngati-Hei tribe, descended from the tohunga, were explained in an appeal to the Akarana Maori Association last evening from Mr. Alfred L. Lee, of Mercury Bay. He understood the area in which the cemetery was situated was to be subdivided. This would mean the obliteration of tapu land. As the present ownership of the area is uncertain, the association will attempt to discover details of the titles. The Native Department will be communicated with in an effort to save an historical spot.
Hukehuke is near to “Whitianga-a-Kupe”—the point where Kupe, the Tahitian discoverer of New Zealand, landed 700 years ago and crossed a stream. To the Ngati-Hei, Hukehuke has double significance.
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Bibliographic details
Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 761, 6 September 1929, Page 16
Word Count
189HEI’S TAPU Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 761, 6 September 1929, Page 16
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