Maori History - Lake
Brunner, West Coast New Zealand
    
Maori history
of the Lake Brunner area is sparse. They certainly inhabited this area long
before the first Europeans set foot on the land. Over the past 40
years I've seen numerous examples of their presence, and the
"Kemp Collection" of adzes in the Hokitika Museum
demonstrates what may be found if you are alert to the past, and
interested in Maori history.
Evidence
exists that there were ancient peoples here perhaps thousands of
years BEFORE the Maori, whose occupation is thought to extend back
approximately 1200 years. In terms of occupation of New Zealand,
there were those known as the "Moa Hunters," then the
Moriori, and then the Maori people. It seems a stone-age people
occupied Westland, predating Maori occupation by many centuries. In
his book "Old Westland, Mr E Iveagh Lord writes of the
careful and scientific description of such a discovery given by Sir
Julius von Haast, as follows;
"A partly finished chert adze and its
sandstone sharpener were found by a party of goldminers at Bruce
Bay, South Westland in 1868. The implements were lying on a floor of
pebble-studded clay, with more than 14 ft of strata of humus, sand
and shingle had to be cut through before they were reached. Totara
trees 3 ft in diameter had to be felled before the surface could be
broken, and huge tree trunks prostrate for generations, with
moss-grown mould of others, were scattered about. The area was 500
ft above sea level, with the usual 3 belts of driftwood sand
without vegetation, rush & manuka-covered sand, and low scrub.
It had clearly passed through these 3 stages, and its foot of humus
must have taken centuries of herbage to form before the forest
giants could take root in it. The various accumulations and the
ancient growth of the forest take us back undoubtedly several
thousand years, to a neolithic race who polished their weapons and
had spread so far west and south, to the long unihabited
sounds."
The attraction
to all occupants of Westland has long been greenstone, or pounamu, a
variety of jade. Greenstone wa known to the Moa Hunters, and to the
Moriori. The later Maori occupants were attracted and held here
because of its value. After hundreds of years of trading greenstone,
various Maori tribes engaged in bloody raiding expeditions, and many
battles were fought over this prized stone. Legend has it that the
captives from one such raiding party were held on the Refuge Islands
on Lake Brunner, and then eaten!
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Te Kinga Pa
On a northern headland of
Lake Brunner, near the Refuge Islands, lies the site of an
ancient Maori Pa, or fortified village.
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I believe that
a great deal of work was done in working greenstone, along the lake
shore. In particular, there are places in the shadow of Mt Te Kinga
where I've found splinters and shards of greenstone, adjacent to
sandstone-type boulders, where the tangata-whenua worked so long
ago.
Extract from
W.E.Spencer's thesis "A History of the Buller District."
In 1846 Thomas Brunner found the Maori
at Taramakau using pots and pans for which they had traded
greenstone. He wanted them to guide him across the Alps, but they
had only recently returned from there... and winter was approaching.
The Maoris who acted as guides for
Thomas Brunner during his explorations in 1847 were Ngati
Tumatakokiri, by then almost extinct as a tribe. In 1859 James
MacKay accompanied by his cousin Alexander MacKay (one time
commissioner and Judge of the Native Land Court) again travelled to
Westland, their mission being to purchase from the Maoris all the
lands comprising about seven and a half million acres between
Kahurangi Point and Milford Haven, and extending inland to the
watershed of the East and West coasts.
On this
occasion MacKay elected to travel by the inland, alpine, route, and
when the party reached Lake Sumner they found John Rochfort who had
entered into a contract to survey the southern boundary of the
province of Nelson and to traverse the Buller and Grey Rivers and a
portion of the coastline. The two parties joined forces and
travelled together until Rochfort went on to commence his surveying
operations, traversing the Taramakau River to the Pakihi Plain,
thence to Lake Brunner, and then down the river Arnold to Mawhera Pa
(32); and the Mackays proceeded to Mawhera where negotiations were
begun for the purchase of lands from the natives, who agreed to take
£200 but declined to sell the block of land lying between the Grey
and Hokitika Rivers.
The MacKay's, being thus unable to come to
terms with the Maoris decided to return to Nelson by way of the
Maruia Plain and the Upper Buller. After a desperate struggle during
which they suffered many privations they were forced to return to
Mawhera Pa. They turned to follow the coastline route and at the
Buller they found Rochfort and the cutter `Supply', which Rochfort
and MacKay had chartered in Nelson to bring provisions to the Grey,
but which owing to bad weather had been forced to land her
provisions at the Buller (33).
{Bracked numbers are to sources of
reference at the bottom of each chapter.} (32) and (33)Rochfort,
John. : A Brief Account of an Expedition to the West Coast"
Nelson Examiner 20 December 1859.
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This is a part of the only record about early Maori occupation of
Lake Brunner.
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Sample of "A HISTORY OF THE BULLER
DISTRICT" by W. E. Spencer.
Chapter One: MAORI OCCUPATION
When Judge (James) MacKay of the Maori
Land Court, and Mr G. J. Roberts, Commissioner of Crown Lands for
Westland took notes during the latter years of the nineteenth
century, of the history of the Maori occupation of the West Coast,
they found that despite the isolation for several hundred years of
the Poutini Ngai Tahu Maori, as the Maori living on the West Coast
were called, they had the same stories of the coming of the canoes
as are common to the Maori people throughout New Zealand.
There are
certain Maori traditions to do with the West Coast that can be
noted. On Bishop's Peninsula in the Nelson Province there is a
beach, Mautau-a-Maui, which commemorates the exploits of the hero
Maui. According to tradition Kupe and Ngahue circumnavigated the
South Island during the ninth century. A Ngai Tahu elaboration of
this tradition has it that Ngahue was driven from his home in
Hawaiki by a woman and chased across the sea by Poutiri, the sea
dragon. As he approached Aotearoa, the mountain Aorangi beckoned to
him and instructed him to proceed to the north. He fled on until he
arrived at the mouth of the Arahura River which he entered. Poutiri
pursued him but failed to negotiate a fearful rapid in the river,
and he and his boat sank and were changed into greenstone.
Ngahue
settled at Arahura for a time and came to appreciate the valuable
qualities of the greenstone. When he was ready to return to Hawaiki
he quarried as much of the greenstone as he could conveniently carry
in his canoe and took it with him. His people were at war; and he
persuaded them to emigrate. With axes made from the green-stone they
felled the seven trees from which they made the canoes which carried
the people from Hawaiki to Aotearoa in the great migration.
Also during
the ninth century, according to tradition Rakaihautu arrived in the
Uruao canoe, bringing with him the first of the Waitaha tribe.
Rakaihautu decided near Nelson that his son should cruise around the
coast line while he traveled south by an overland route. He had
occasion to dig some holes on the way and the holes dug by the great
ko of Rakaihautu filled with water and became the lakes Rotoroa and
Rotoiti. The Waitaha people who arrived in New Zealand on the Arawa
canoe, and from the Hawea tribe of the Waitaki watershed are
descendants, and number Rakaihautu among their ancestors (1).
After the
fourteenth century following upon the arrival of the canoes of the
~Great Migration~ (2), the Maoris gradually spread over most of the
North Island. Tribal wars drove the weaker tribes south in search of
places where they could live in peace. One such tribe was the Ngati
Wairangi, Kahungunu people, who arrived in the Nelson district about
1550 under their chief Tawhirikakahu, and who, finding the Waitaha
people in occupation there, moved on to Westland where they settled,
around Arahura. They were followed in point of time by a tribe named
Pohea, from the Wanganui district, who settled near Nelson where
they built a large pa, called ~Matangi-awhea~.
The Ngati
Tumatokiri were the next to arrive. Judge (James) MacKay reports
that they are said to come originally from the Taupo District (3).
They occupied the shore of Tasman Bay and Massacre Bay and were
generally in possession of the West Coast as far south as the Buller
River. It is supposed that it was members of this tribe that
attacked Abel Tasman's sailors on the 18 December 1642 at Massacre
Bay.
E. Kehu and E. Pikiwati, the Maoris who
acted as guides for Thomas Brunner during his explorations in 1847
were Ngati Tumatakokiri, by then almost extinct as a tribe.
For
generations the Ngai Wairangi were isolated and they lived in the
peace which they sought when they first migrated from the North
Island. They discovered, or re-discovered the greenstone deposits
first worked by Ngahue, and became efficient greenstone workers.
There was some trade in the greenstone via Karamea and north-west
Nelson with the tribes in the Cook Strait area; but there was no
communication with the large settlements of Ngai Tahu and Ngati
Mamoe on the east coast.
The peace enjoyed by the Ngati Wairangi
was broken by contact with the Ngai Tahu. The Ngai Tahu tribe had
crossed the Cook Strait because there had been friction with the
Ngati Kahungunu of the Wairarapa. The Ngai Tahu tribe had found
kindred people in the Waimea district of Nelson and had spread from
there to establish themselves in southern Marlborough and
Canterbury. Tradition records the first meeting of Ngati Wairangi
and Ngai Tahu, about 1700.
A mad woman
called Raureka lived among the Ngati Wairangi. One day she left
home, wandered up the bed of the Hokitika River and accidentally
discovered a pass through the alps, now known as Browning Pass. She
continued on until she met a party of Ngai Tahu Maoris shaping a
canoe, in the vicinity of Geraldine. She commented on the bluntness
of their tools and produced a piece of greenstone for comparison.
The Ngai Tahu people were impressed with the superior qualities of
the greenstone and persuade Raureka to lead them to her country,
which she did. Trading began between the two tribes and greenstone
subsequently came into general use throughout the Kaikoura and
Canterbury districts in the manufacture of tools and weapons.
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Our gratitude for this information goes to Robert Porter, supplied
with the greatest courtesy.
(Ex Westport Resident for 27 years who has been given permission to
transmit this document freely in any media by the writer.)
NB: Comments since received
(26/06/2006) from Irian Scott
Regarding the Maori history section: The Waitaha of
Rakaihautu are NOT connected to the Te Arawa waka traditions
of Waitaha who was a son of Hei. These people are not the
same. Rakaihautu and his son Rakihouia made land-fall at
Whakatu circa.850a.d by generation assessments.
The Hawea branch or hapu of Rakaihautu is correct but
nothing to do with Ngati Kahungunu or Ngai Tahu, There is
however some Kati Mamoe affiliations. Kati Wairaki (`Wairangi)
are also NOT from Ngati Kahungunu. Whether these people were
actually connected with Lake Hawea is uncertain, but my
tipuna resided there until about 1835 and can count Kati
Hawea amongst some of their descent lines. The Kati Hawea
were considered to be, according to Herries-Beattie, a very
aristocratic or rakatira branch of Waitaha later combined
with Kati Mamoe.
Your date for Ngai Tahu contact with Kati Wairaki is
however approx.correct, circa.1700.
Maori History
- Lake Brunner, West Coast New Zealand
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