Picton youth come of age

Tu Tangata, Issue 6, 1 June 1982, Page 33

Picton youth come of age

The Arapawa Tu Tangata Club is firmly established. A successful weekend wananga (conference) has ensured this. The main question now is: “When can we have our next hui?”

Members of the youth club have absolutely besieged one of the club’s trustees, Mr Peter Jones, with this question, he says. And a second hui, or wananga, may be held this year but not until after the opening of the new Waikawa Marae building. The first major event for the new Tu Tangata Club, the wananga was organised mainly by the young people themselves, with Mr Jones and Queen

Pictured in front of the meeting house on Ngapuwaiwaha marae, Taumaraunui are the students of the mid-week language class. The class uses the rakau method of teaching with Ani Henry (front row third from left) the person behind setting up the lessons. The meeting house is well-used by the community and was opened in 1975 by the then Minister of Maori Affairs, Matiu Rata. The history of the house is an interesting one. Prior to 1975 there was frequent use of Ngapuwaiwaha marae for meetings, church services, conferences and educational and sporting purposes, and it was decided to build a new meeting house. From an initial fundraising target of SIO,OOO in twelve months, the sum of $12,000 was raised in ten months, due to generous support from the community. The main design in the exterior carving carried out by George Anderson, is. the rope design which is peculiar to the Whanganui River tribes using the

Charlotte College’s Maori studies teacher, Mr Tamati Cairns. Even the welcome ceremony featured the young people. Their whaikorero (speeches) welcomed the visitors, and they sang a kinaki after each speech.

First time This was the first time in Picton that young people were to the fore in a marae ceremony.

cheveron cut. The design is largely accentuated on the Maihi and front central post, symbolic of the binding rope of the ancestress Hine-ngakau. The only trained and professional carver on the project was Louis Kereopa of Ngati Tuwharetoa, a graduate of the N.Z. Maori Arts and Craft Institute, Rotorua. He graduated under the well-known East Coast carver John Taiapa. For the fourth succussive year, Ngapuwaiwaha marae, Taumarunui, was the venue for the annual ecumenical church service organised by the Taumarunui Ministers’ Fraternal. This year about 350 Maori and European worshipped together, representing all the major denominations. The congregation assembled in front of the Hinengakau wharepuni in the open air after a wero and mihi had been accorded the guest speaker, Ven Archdeacon Tiki Raumati, Hamilton, and Rev Rau Anderson, Otorohanga. Following the service the whole congregation sat down to lunch in the Rangikapuia dining room on the marae.

The roles were appropriately reversed, with the older people right behind them. That first act set the scene for the weekend a weekend which attracted more and more young people. On the first night, about 40 slept at the Union Parish hall where the wananga was held. The next night there were about 60. By the end of the hui, more than 100 young people had attended. And that does not include all the 150 at the Saturday evening disco, which raised almost S2OO for Tu Tangata Club funds. “The kids did all the work, except

cooking,” Mr Jones said. Credit “Everything went so well, and it all boils down to the kids. We have to give them a lot of the credit. “They all worked in well. I was really surprised. There were no fights, no nothing,” Mr Jones said. The cooking was done by groups of adults, and the food was excellent. A group of adults also lived-in during the weekend Tamati and Jane Cairns, Peter and Yvonne Jones, Wavell Adcock, Ngaro Aldridge, Hine Stanley. Basil Fischer and the Rev. Richard Lawrence. “It was a big, loving family atmosphere by the end of the weekend. They all stayed and cleaned up. They did not want it to finish”, Mr Jones said. Themes One of the main themes of the wananga was drugs, drink and bodily care. A film on alcohol and drug abuse was screened by one of the speakers, Mr Raymond Alexander. Then a panel of Sergeant John Ongaro, Mr Ross Elliffe, Mr Basil Fischer and Mr Gordon McConnell answered questions on the theme. After the film and the discussion, some of the young people were seriously thinking about giving up beer, one of them said. And most of the kids were put right off having anything to do with drugs. The other main theme of the wananga was Maori culture. Mr Turi Elkington, formerly of D’Urville Island, talked about legends of the Sounds; Mr Cairns on language; Mr Island Love on Marae protocol; and Mr Chris Pokijnr taught songs, poi and haka. Mrs Kath Love and Mrs Kath Hemi talked on the roles of Maori women. Acknowledgement: The Picton Paper.