TALKBACK The Editor, NZ TODAY, P. 0. Box 8673, Symonds Street, Auckland, Fax 09 369 5422, Email |istened with much interestto your theories, this does bear foo for human history, but one not yet fully programme about the Waipoua Forest, thought. WHAT ARE THEY HIDING IN _ understood, The best book available at in particular the Vilage held within the WAIPOUA? And why? Many have tried presentis “On the Road ofthe Winds” forest. Are you aware that there isa to find out and | doubt we will ever by Patrick Vinton Kirch. Although widely held belif that oC supported know the truth inourifetime fever. _it isa bitexpensive and primarily bythe governments) are slowly but K3 Allan scholarly work itis very easy to read surely dismanting any sign ofthis KAMO David Stiles. B.A., P.G. Dip. Arts. vilage? ‘Anthropology Laboratory The reason fortis is that history Itisimportantto point out that there University of Otago about New Zealand would have to be are around 55,000 archaeological re-written and the Treaty of Waitangi sites in New Zealand, and very few Your approach and attitude toward the would become null and void, resources to take care of them all Weipoua forest stone ruins isthe most you talk to many older Maorifrom Sometimes allthat can be done is sane thing I've heard about itn ages Poutu, Dargavill Kaihu,Tutamoe, and to record the site and hope that By adopting a stance of ignoring the other WestCoast Maariin Northland natural processes and wisdom from issue DoC is merely providing fuel there is a strong boli that Maori people will provide some protection. for outlandish claims lke the Celts, actually came to NZ on Spanish Ships Restricting access tofoottraffic and Egyptians, Phoenicians - including asslaves and notin a great migration keeping animals off sitesi effective __Sindbad the Sailor (Wiseman, 1998) of Waka as we are lead to believe as well. Cattle and sheep cause major had arrived in New Zealand. On Given the factthat Waka can't sallow destruction one hand the Weaipous ruins can be without the crews wearing lif jackets _Itis not wellknown that disturbing __seen asa local matter but onthe because of everyday tipovers this an archaeological site without consent other hand they are part and parcel probably makes a lat of sense is ikly to resuttin a fine of upto ofa largerissue involving the pre- ‘Some recent history wil ell you ‘$60,000 and the courts ae increasing _Polynesian/pre-Tasman discovery of that Waka were far larger and had willing to use this, particularly against NZ debate whichis fascinating but joutriggers. Where are these Waka? developers who lke to take short-cuts. fraught with conflicting personalities Ihave never, until recent times, seen It would be dangerous for me to and 8 complicated mish-mash of drawings of Waka that are much ceomment on te stone works you Whats meant tobe evidence, And different than our modern perception of mention because lhave nat seen them, there are those who keep churning them. Where did they store allthe food However, prehistoric stone works are out the mish-mash of complexity in required by the many rowers.Then common n Tait the Cook Islands ‘order to give themselves credibility for there were the families who came with and throughout Eastern Polynesia, the what thy say. have been a forensic them. Something as big as this surely area that Maori migrated from to New anthropologist for 36 years. would have been preserved or atleast Zealand My Maori skeletal data runs to almost kept bing built Itwould be unwise to say they did not 3,000 samples. Thats very good Ina village in Spain there also exists bring the sks with them. ‘sample which ranges throughout NZ the only Pohutukawa tree in the world The beautiful tools that Maori and includes Northland outside NZ. No one is sure howit ‘manufactured indicate they had very Never, never, never have come gotthere. My ex-wife's great, great good stone-working sil. across any old skeletal remains, grandmother's name was Katerina In my own area of (relative) expertise, from anywhere in NZ, that could not Turora. Katerina isnot a Maoriname the reason Maoriare regarded as the _be identified as Polynesian. If, inthe sitis Spanish end itis wellknown _firstsetles on these islands s that Waipoua forest, NZ was settled by fact as you go through her whakapapa we have found no evidence of anyone _ such a large numberof people before that there is Spanish init in @ number before them. You willnotice the word the Polynesians arrived in NZ then af places. Noone knows where that “settlement”. Itis quite possible thet somewhere, at sometime, evidence Spanish came from as itappeers inthe explorers from, say, Now Caledonia, _of ther skeletal remains would be \Whakapapa before the whalers arrived, arrived on these shores previous tothe evident. ‘And my exis Ngai Tahu the South Eastorn Polynesians, but there is no | doubt whether anyone else has Island tribe. So did the Spanish actualy evidence that thay sattlod here. examined as much Maori skeletal ‘discover the South Island as well The story ofthe exploration of the material as Ihave and atnotime have ‘As much as | hate conspiracy Pacific one ofthe mostfascinating in _| ever discovered, from Northland