First-time travellers covered their eyes when they crossed those waters.
In one tradition, Tāmairangi did not have to.
That is where this story begins: with a woman who was allowed to look.
Karen and Dad, this brings two of our earlier stories together.
In "The Reddened Current", I brought Kupe and the old people onto the road with me. That was a piece of imaginative storytelling. This time I want to stay with a tradition recorded about the actual places, and a woman whose name we have already met.
Ngā Whatu. The Brothers Islands. Out in Cook Strait.
In the account shared by historian Dr Peter Meihana on the Heritage Trail of Kupe, the islands are the eyes of Te Wheke-o-Muturangi, the great octopus Kupe pursued and overcame. Kupe left the creature at Whekenui and cast its eyes into the sea.
The same account describes first-time travellers shielding their eyes from the islands with kawakawa leaves. It records Tāmairangi as the one person exempt from that restriction.
There are different accounts of Kupe. This is the tradition Dr Meihana shares, and that is how I want to pass it on.
You may remember Tāmairangi from "The Woman Who Sang for Her Life".
Before her capture, before she asked to sing, she was already a woman of standing.
Angela Ballara's biography describes a woman whose influence extended from Porirua to Cape Palliser and into the northern South Island. She had grown up on Arapawa Island. Her connections included Ngāti Ira and Ngāti Kuia.
She was held to be so tapu that male attendants carried her on a litter. On public occasions she wore fine new cloaks and carried a carved taiaha.
I keep coming back to those details: the cloaks, the taiaha, the attendants carrying her. They help me see the woman before the capture.
Then came invasion, flight and capture. Her waiata moved Te Rangihaeata to offer protection to her and her family. That is the part we have already shared.
I do not know what she felt when she looked towards those rocks. I have no words of hers to give you from that crossing.
What we do have is the tradition about her and the record of her standing among her people. I think we owe her both.
If we remember somebody only at the moment they were frightened, we can lose sight of the person they were before it happened.
She had mana before she needed mercy.
When I look at a map of Cook Strait, I want to remember those things too: the names, the ways of travelling, the places people treated with care.
Ngā Whatu is still recognised as wāhi tapu, a sacred place, on the Heritage New Zealand list.
If you catch sight of Ngā Whatu on a crossing, perhaps Tāmairangi will come to mind: a woman whose story began long before the day she sang for her life.
Where this comes from
Heritage Trail of Kupe, with Dr Peter Meihana. See "The Eyes of Te Wheke" for the tradition about the islands, kawakawa leaves and Tāmairangi:
Heritage Trail of Kupe
Angela Ballara, "Tāmairangi", Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Her life, mana and waiata:
Tāmairangi, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
Heritage New Zealand, Ngā Whatu, list entry 7737. A sacred place; no public landing access:
Ngā Whatu list entry
Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal on Kupe and the different traditions:
Kupe traditions, Te Ara
Tāmairangi is a person in the history being shared here. This story does not claim she is our family ancestor. The traditions are attributed above; the reflections are part of this telling.
The pictures
Picture 1: Brothers Island Lighthouse, photographed in 2008 by Andrew McMillan (Karora). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; the 2024 file has levels adjusted by Giantflightlessbirds. This shows the place in modern times, not a scene from Tāmairangi's life.
Brothers Island Lighthouse
Picture 2: Location of the Brothers Islands, an extract from LINZ Chart NZ 46, via Wikimedia Commons. New Zealand Hydrographic Authority / LINZ, CC BY-SA 4.0. Reproduced unchanged for historical orientation, not navigation.
The Brothers, Chart NZ 46
CC BY-SA 4.0 licence
Follow the connected stories
My earlier imaginative story, The Reddened Current:
The Reddened Current
The Woman Who Sang for Her Life:
The Woman Who Sang for Her Life
Our latest Waitohi lead, From Cook Strait to the Other Side of the World:
From Cook Strait to the Other Side of the World
The full account, The Chief Who Would Not Get Off the Ship, in Aotearoa New Zealand History:
The Chief Who Would Not Get Off the Ship
#Waitohi #CookStrait #AotearoaHistory
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