5/26/2018 Spiritual bond to first people | Otago Daily Times Online News

Friday, 6 February 2009

Spiritual bond to first people

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Regions (/regions) >  Regions (/regions/queenstown-lakes)

Queenstown is now considered one of the

world's best resort destinations and almost every
month receives accolades for its natural beauty
and pure atmosphere.
But while most of people from around the world
see it as a youthful town, Lake Wakatipu and its
surrounding area have always been recognised
as a place with a greater than usual spiritual
meaning for the first people to discover it - Maori.
In Queenstown today members of Kiwi Haka, the
cultural performance group which performs most
days at the Skyline complex on Bob's Peak, will
take time out to share the day with friends and
whanau and celebrate the day which marks the
bicultural agreement between Maori and Pakeha
to share the land.
To mark New Zealand's 169th Waitangi Day,
Queenstown Times looks at the historic
importance of Wakatipu to Maori.
The Wakatipu basin or Whakatipu-wai-maori was
first discovered on the earliest expedition into the
Southern Lakes region by the tupuna Rakaihautu Members of Queenstown's Kiwi Haka Maori cultural
and his party from the Uruao waka. performance group (from left) Liz Davis, Emere
Leitch-Munro, Neil Sarich and Sammy-Jo Matete are
Rakaihautu is traditionally credited with creating looking forward to meeting friends and whanau, and
the great waterways of the interior of the the celebrating their culture. Photo by Felicity Wolfe.
South Island with his ko (spade).
Hapu from around Otago and Southland would return to Wakatipu each summer - the area held
plentiful food and was an accessway to pounamu in the remote valleys west of Glenorchy.
A permanent settlement, Tahuna - meaning shallow bay - was near modern Queenstown, and Te
Kirikiri Pa was located where Queenstown Gardens' centre now lies.
Ngati Mamoe had kaika [villages], O Te Roto near Kawarau Falls and Takerehaka near Kingston.
The Ngati Mamoe chief Tu Wiri Roa had a daughter, Haki Te Kura, remembered for swimming 3km
across the lake from Tahuna.
The area was also considered an important source of hukawai [pure meltwater].
Ngai Tahu's Treaty of Waitangi Deed of Settlement says: "The mauri of Whakatipu-wai-maori
represents the essence that binds the physical and spiritual elements of all things together,
generating and upholding all life.
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown-lakes/spiritual-bond-first-people 1/4
5/26/2018 Spiritual bond to first people | Otago Daily Times Online News

All elements of the natural environment possess a life force and all forms of life are related.
Mauri is a critical element of the spiritual relationship of Ngai Tahu Whanui with the lake."
•Source: Ngai Tahu's Deed of Settlement of its Treaty of Waitangi claim.
 

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