02/12/2025
Mai Pahaoa Ki Whanarua
Te Whānau a Kahurautao raua ko Te Whānau a Rangi-i-runga
Our hapū will continue with the custodial duties according to the kawa and tikanga handed down by our ancestors.
Our hapū is committed to using all available tools, ancient and 21st century, to help maintain a healthy and regenerative moana.
In fulfilling our stewardship responsibilities, we will ensure that appropriate signage continues to be posted and encourage fisheries wānanga to be held, ā whānau, ā hapū, ā iwi. Me kotahi ngā whakaaro a te iwi i raro i ngā tikanga mahinga kai a ngā mātua, tīpuna.
The greatest teachings and practices that I can recall being given by our Mum and aunties were:
That a family or person did not go and help themselves from another family’s cupboard. We shared kaimoana and that was by invitation to our neighbours. When the tides were right our parents went diving and fishing as did the children. Enough for a shared kai and a little koha to take home.
If kai was required usually for hapū or iwi hui, then our pakeke got together and decided which hapū would provide what kai and how much.
In very special cases where for instance a person was ailing and asking for a certain kai from the moana then a representative would make that request “ā kanohi” to the pakeke. It was never denied. The kai was prepared and ready to eat as well. I remember one occasion in particular when a request came for some peke from a certain place, uncooked. All our Mum would say was “he rongoā”. Much later I learned that the warm cooking water was a popular and preferred rongoā for constipation.
We only took kai when it was fat and we only took enough to feed the family including the families who had no divers and the pakeke, especially those living alone. It was reciprocal. Often a gift of veges or a cake arrived the next day. Our favourite were the homemade sweets that one aunty used to make.
High priority was given to selective fishing and gathering. The amount and size was closely supervised as was the place it was taken from. It was indeed our garden and we never visited the same place twice in a diving and or gathering time. We did for pūpū, but it would depend on which variety was most prevalent at a given time. According to the season and the climate. We would find our favourite katangata sunning out of the chill hautonga often a pāua or two. The taapapa was rigorously monitored, and maintained.
Gifts of food were exchanged if a relative from another iwi came for a visit. Our Mum loved paringo and would swoon over a gift of paringo from Ngāti Porou. It’s a custom that is maintained to this day. She would prepare an amazing meal of home cooking including kaimoana of whatever was ready. Usually crayfish. She would go down to her favourite cray holes and get enough for the kai. Back before anyone noticed that she was gone.
I would like to add in yet another aspect of respect and reverence that we were instructed in by our Mum and aunties. I am seeing so many posts about kina shells being left or buried in the sand on beaches and along the river beds and divers being moved on. Where do our whānau think, they will go to? Yes, the next hapū.
First rule, pōha the kina at the beach and burn the kina shells. You don’t need a big fire. Otherwise take them home and make a kina juice for the garden. Better than blood and bone.
Do not eat kina on the rocks and throw the shells back into the water. There are places where eating on the beach even when a diver is in the water it’s a No-No. Know your place of gathering. “Kaua e haere poka noa”. Take your rubbish with you.
There are kaitiaki who guard certain rocks. When they are seen, it’s time to get out. Kua nui. There is one spot where you cannot shout or raise your voice. As children we were never taken to the rocks or beach there. If by chance, we did, we had to wait up under a grove of trees until the divers came ashore and then we came straight home. No picnic.
There is a whānau story that we were told and I in turn have told my children concerning a grand aunt who deliberately disobeyed the rules and paid a heavy price. She is a heroine to my children, she was courageous and brave in that she chose her own punishment, not the hapū.
Other hapū and whānau have rules for their beaches and kapata and I would encourage them to post or erect signs.
Our hapū waters get hammered every year and there are places now, where we can’t even get a kai. It is not always outsiders either, often it is our own. Places like Te Taapapa-a-Piha, Te Kopua, Ohinemango, Motukotare the urupā island, Waikawa, a favourite place, Te Huka and Motumomore urupā islands, Tokatea, Whanarua.
The sooner the access over the urupā, Otamatohirua is closed off the better including in and around the urupā islands of Motupapaka iti and Motupapakanui. Shameful. The answer, whānau help your tamariki to learn and value the practices and mātauranga of their mātua, tīpuna. Akongia, at home, at school, at the marae and family gatherings.
Our hapū would consider being a member of a pan “rahui” in all Apanui waters, lifted at certain times for diving, fishing and gathering. Just a whakaaro.
Because of the lack of respect for our age-old practices our hapū will not hesitate to use the 21st century hotline 0800 4 POACHER and continue to work closely with the fisheries officer and team from Tauranga. We will not save any diver or gatherer from prosecution.
Some of the other steps we intend to take are as follows.
RĀHUI - For re-seeding of a particular species specific to that place/wāhi.
KIA TUPATO – Warning signs reminding divers and gatherers that there are limits on numbers and size of kaimoana. Failure to observe the limits could result in prosecution 0800 4 POACHER or poacher@mpi.govt.nz.
KIA MĀTARA – Divers and gatherers must obtain a permit from our hapū when collecting over the legal limits for hapū and whānau hui.
TIAKINA te MAARA – We intend to limit the permits given out, to hapū members only. The data shows that our area provides kai to a wide-ranging population and hui. We will also encourage landowners and shareholders to post their own guardianship aspirations for whānau users.
KŌRERO ki te WHĀNAU – Encourage whānau to take care of their own patch and instil the art of Asking before Taking into the next generation. We will not hesitate to ring, 0800 4 POACHER.
MANĀKI – We endorse live crayfish capture for two local fishing boats. Both fishermen provide crayfish for hui at our marae (Permits provided).
We refer to the Customary Marine Title (Takutai Moana Act 2011) purpose which is to “recognise the mana tuku iho exercised in the marine and coastal area by iwi, hapū and whānau as tangata whenua” and to “provide for the exercise of customary interests”.
The CMT is a form of legal recognition of the special relationship between iwi, hapū and whānau which we will continue to uphold through our practices of the above responsibilities and the traditional tribal experiences and knowledge.
Our expectation is that despite the changes to the Takutai Moana Act 2011, the current Deed of Settlement will remain unchanged for Te Whānau a Apanui iwi, and that our right to and obligation as the Caretakers of the takutai/moana will not be extinguished, compromised or diminished in any way.
Nā te Whānau,
Inys Calcott - TWAA hapū Chairs rep
