The death of Moki the peninsula maori

Tu Tangata, Issue 31, 1 August 1986, Page 60

The death of Moki the peninsula maori

na Buddy Mikaere

□ NGA RA 0 MUA

EARLIER articles on the Banks Peninsula Maoris have related the battles won by the invading Kai Tahu under their chiefs Moki and Whakuku. This article describes the reason Kai Tahu came to Banks Peninsula.

T" he trouble began in intra-tribal feuding. About 300 years ago a Wairarapa chief named Tu-ahu-riri was attacked by his relation Hika-oro-roa. Among the attackers were Tu-te-kawa and his nephew Turuki.

Turuki was spoiling for the fight, and put himself at the head of the force. But Hika-oro-roa was angry that a man of no standing should dare to usurp chiefly privilege in this way, and publicly shamed him.

Turuki seethed with resentment, and with his uncle Tu-te-kawa made a plan to withdraw their family contingent from Hika-oro-roa’s force and make their own separate attack on Tu-ahu-riri’s fort. As a particular insult to Hika-oro-roa, however, Tu-te-kawa warned Tu-ahu-riri secretly beforehand of the attack. As a result, Tu-ahu-riri fled over the palisade and disappeared.

Tu-te-kawa’s men silently withdrew from Hika-oro-roa’s camp to the other side of the fort and waited for the day. They attacked at dawn. Tu-te-kawa raced to Tu-ahu-riri’s house and killed his two wives, though they pleaded for their lives. Their husband Tu-ahu-riri was, meanwhile, hiding alone in the forest, helpless and unarmed.

Tu-te-kawa had spared Tu-ahu-riri’s life according to the custom of kaikaiwaiu, or ‘drinking milk’, which expresses a close degree of relationship. Under this custom a person might warn relatives of danger, even though he was one of the force which was preparing to attack them.

In return, Tu-ahu-riri saved Tu-te-kawa’s life. When the victorious canoes were leaving, he came to the edge of the forest and called Tu-te-kawa to give him back his maro, or kilt, and his weapons. Tu-te-kawa threw them ashore, and Tu-ahu-riri said to him: ‘O Tu, keep out to sea, or keep in shore, rather keep in shore’.

Then Tu-ahu-riri, who was a powerful tohunga , or priest, conjured up a fierce storm, and almost the whole of the conquerors’ fleet was drowned in the seas of Raukawa, or Cook Strait. But Tu-te-kawa survived, because he had hugged the coastline.

Because Tu-te-kawa had not only outmanoeuvred Hika-oro-roa but also killed two high-ranking women, he was afraid to return home. He settled instead

in the South Island among his Kati Mamoe relatives at Waihora, or Lake Ellesmere. He built a village called Waikakahi, ‘The waters of kakahi’, which was a freshwater shellfish. The village lay near the Akaroa highway, close to Birdlings Flat. The lake was full of fish, and Tu-te-kawa lived in peace.

But Tu-ahu-riri’s son was Moki, and Moki never forgot that Tu-te-kawa had shamed his father by choosing to let him escape when he could have killed him, and had also killed his mother.

When Moki heard where Tu-te-kawa was living he attacked Banks Peninsula, destroying the principal Kati Mamoe fortress at Long Bay. Then he set out for Waikakahi and Tu-te-kawa. Moki was bent on revenge, but his father Tu-ahu-riri had told him and his brothers that if they found Tu-te-kawa, they were to spare his life.

Tu-te-kawa was by then an old man. His family knew that Moki’s force was coming and pleaded with him to leave his village, but he refused. ‘What will become of the basket of flat fish spread open here’, he said, in a plaintive allusion to the great lake which had sustained him.

On the day the Kai Tahu force arrived, the village at Lake Ellesmere was almost deserted; the people were out eeling, and only the old chief and his daughter-in-law were at home. Tu-te-kawa was lying helpless on his mats in a corner of his house, huddled with his back to the fire for warmth.

Remembering their father’s instruction, Moki and his brothers hesitated to kill him. The chief Whakuku had no such constraints: he threw his tao, or spear, through the window and killed Tu-te-kawa where he lay.

Moki’s force occupied the village and waited for the return of Kati Mamoe from their eeling grounds. But Kati Mamoe’s chief, Tu-te-kawa’s son Te Rakitamau, saw the smoke of many cooking

fires rising from the village and warned his people to stay away.

When night fell Te Rakitamau slipped silently into the village and found the sentries and all the soldiers asleep. He crept into the house where Moki was sleeping and laid his chiefly dog skin cloak over Moki’s knees. Then he left, after instructing his wife to give Moki this message: ‘Your life was in my hands but I gave it back to you.’

By this gesture the score was nearly evened: Tu-te-kawa had once spared Moki’s father’s life when he was at his mercy, but killed his wives. Now Moki’s men had killed Tu-te-kawa but Tu-te-kawa’s son had spared Moki. This payment and repayment is an illustration of the forces at work to maintain a balance of power between rival factions within a tribe so that society was in a state of equilibrium and therefore, peace. The long history of warfare in Maori society must be placed in the context of a system of thought which accepted the sacrifice of the individual without qualm, in the interests of achieving an overall balance.

The next morning Moki and Te Rakitamau made peace. While Te Rakitamau became Moki’s vassal, he was wary enough to ignore Moki’s instruction to live at Kaiapoi, and instead went to Paturiki, now Longbeach, near Ashburton.

Late last century Tu-te-kawa’s village, Waikakahi, was the location of ‘Wascoes Inn’, or the Birdlings Flat Hotel. This was a change station at which fresh horses were hitched to coaches on the Christchurch-Akaroa run. Archaeological investigations of the site have shown that the village was spread over an area of about three hectares.

After their victory at Waikakahi, Moki’s party ranged over Banks Peninsula claiming land for themselves. The rule of ownership was that a chief was entitled to as much land as he could walk over before meeting another claimant.

But Moki himself was fated never to join in the spoils of victory. While on a raid further south he inadvertently insulted two women in a joke. The women reported the insult to two powerful tohunga, who laid a strong curse on Moki.

Moki was unable to resist the power of the curse, and the great chief dwindled into death. His last wish was that he be buried on a mountaintop at Kaikoura where his spirit could gaze northwards to his kainga ake, or true home, at far

awayTuranga (Gisborne). Moki’s followers tried to fulfil his dying wish. They set out on their journey to Kaikoura with his body on a stretcher, but the remains became so putrid that they stopped under the mountain, lit a fire, and cremated them.

The men carried Moki’s head back to Pekapeka, or Woodend, for the tribe to mourn the leader who established Kai Tahu’s mana, or power, in the Canterbury area.

According to Kai Tahu history, Moki’s fate also brought about the deaths of his father, his brother and his half-brother, together with a number of other Kai Tahu chiefs. The history’s emphasis on wiping out Moki’s powerful connections suggests that it was recorded by a rival group, which was concerned to establish its own claim to South Island prominence over those of the hapu, or clan, to which Moki and his family belonged.

When Moki’s father, Tu-ahu-riri, and his brother Hamua heard the news of his death they set out for the South Island from Hataitai, in present day Wellington. Ignoring advice to take a double canoe, and failing to make the proper karakia, or prayers, to protect them from storms, the whole party drowned in Cook Strait.

Meanwhile, Moki’s half brother Tanetiki had also drowned while on an expedition to the West Coast in search of greenstone. Tane-tiki’s party came into conflict with the two tohunga who had been responsible for the death of Moki. These tohunga, forewarned of the expeditions approach, sent a storm to force the party to turn back towards the east. Tane-tiki and his men persevered and built mokihi, or flax rafts, to speed their journey. Some of these overturned in rapids and Tane-tiki and most of his company were drowned.

One other brother survived in the South Island, but because the traditions are concerned to play down the power of Tu-ahu-riri’s sons, they are careful to stress that he gave up the life of a warrior.

This brother was called Tu-rakau-tahi. He was badly wounded while campaigning in the south, and carried back to Kaiapoi, close to death. Tu-rakau-tahi had his weapons hung up in front of his eyes. Gazing upon them, he vowed that if only he might recover he would never fight again.

The people gathered for his tan gi, or funeral, decided that the only thing that might cure Tu-rakau-tahi was hinu tangata, or the fat of men. Word was sent north to where there was fighting, and some of the victims were cooked and their fat collected and sent to Kaiapoi. The melted fat was poured in the wounds, and Tu-rakau-tahi recovered. True to his word, he never fought again. He is credited with building the famous pa at Kaiapoi.

... IN the beginning there was nothing. Then there was the Night... Then in the darkness of the night a curl began to form. It grew, curled and twirled until at last came the Dawn ... And with the Dawn, out of the womb of darkness itself evolved the primeval parents: there in the twilight was Ranginui, the skyfather, there in the twilight was Papatuanuku, the earthmother. Clasped in each others arms, they were very happy, they produced many children. Ranginui and Papatuanuku were content but not so their offspring. They wanted to move around and escape the twilight. The succeeded in separating Rangi and Papa. The cruely separated parents wept at the parting, Rangi s tears falling to earth as rain and the mist rising from Papa up to Rangi... This whakapapa provided the inspiration for a Taupo woman to design a set of wall hangings. Fientje Allis-van rossum saw the forms as a dialogue between shapes derived from Maori design and her own forms and symbols.

“Using the Maori creation legend and art as a starting point, the work then assumes a more general nature, a universal message: my view of life and relationships.” She says Embrace deals with the union of all kind. It shows the union of opposites in complement, not as contrast, one cannot be without the other, one exists only by the grace of the other. (Love-hate, day-night, male-female, positive-negative, union-separation, life-death.)

Separation is the separation of all kind, voluntary or involuntary. Although turned away from each other the two members of the design are still linked through lines which continue from one into the other - in life through common past, shared experiences and emotional bonds. The design is open-ended, both members can form new unions. The artist has plans to use the designs on greeting cards, inquiries can be made to 28 Ewing Grove, Acacia Bay, Taupo.