Kaupapa | Our projects
Te Piringa Whatioro rāua ko Te Murare
He tohu, he taonga mō te iwi!
He tūpuna, he kaitiaki te tohorā mai rānō, we have always known our whales to be tūpuna of huge significance, messengers between te ao wairua and te ao kikokiko, kaitiaki who guide, protect and carry our stories across generations.
In 2023, two tohorā were sent to the shores of Turakina Beach (Koitiata), stranding as a tohu and a koha to the hapū of the Ngā Ariki collective and the wider Ngā Wairiki Ngāti Apa iwi. Due to the repressive erasure of mātauranga through colonisation and its heavy impact on our people, practices such as hauhake tohorā and the mātauranga that surrounds this were severely disrupted and, in many cases, lost. These strandings were therefore deeply meaningful, opening opportunity for our people to return to our tikanga, to remember, and to relearn the practices of our ancestors, ngā tikanga a kui mā, a koro mā. Te Piringa Whatioro was the only tohorā with whom we carried out the hauhake tohorā process. Te Murare was laid to rest as he was. He stranded a few weeks after Te Piringa Whatioro and appeared to have undertaken quite a journey.
We were deeply fortunate to receive the expert guidance of our whānau from the far north (Ngāti Wai), who have upheld and maintained these traditions across generations. Their willingness to stand alongside us and guide us through the hauhake tohorā process was an immense gift in itself.
E kore e rawa e mimiti noa ngā mihi o te whatumanawa ki a Ngāti Wai me te whānau whānui o Te Tai Tokerau. Koutou I tae mai ki te āwhina me te ārahi i a mātou i roto i taua wiki, nei rā mātou e mihi ana.
That week united our people under a single kaupapa. The tohorā called our people home reminding us of our responsibilities as kaitiaki, reaffirming the deep importance of our taiao and our relationship with the environment. These tohorā gifted us precious time together to reconnect, to learn, and to walk again in the ways of our tūpuna.
Wānanga
So far we have held one wānanga to bring our people back together again in remembrance of this journey. This wānanga was about reflection, sharing and envisioning the new possibilities for our future as a people. There is still so much to do and so much more to learn, if you want to be a part of this journey we have more wānanga to come so keep your eyes peeled on our socials!
