Author(s): Parehau Richards

Māori History

He Tīpuna Whakahirahira (2004) records a collective memory of the Whakaruruhau Project - the carving of ancestral poupou erected at the Te Whānau-a-Apanui Area School in 1985 to commemorate the school's centenary (1875-1975). During the early 1980s kaumātua and scholars decided which ancestors and which oral traditions should be carved to represent each of the 13 Te Whānau-a-Apanui subtribes. Roka Paora encouraged and guided her granddaughter, Parehau Richards, to use their tribal language to write. They used the structure of Roka's waiata, 'Marumaru', to show their passion to embrace, to extend, and to pass down the scholarship of their ancestors in an iwi-centric, Apanui way.

He pukapuka reo-o-Te Whānau-a-Apanui tēnei e akiaki ana i ngā urī, "ki te ako i ngā kōrero a o tātou tīpuna i roto i te reo, kia kore rawa e ngaro. Mā tātou katoa te reo me ōna tikanga e ora ai. Ki te ako tātou i ēnei taonga a o tātou tīpuna ka mōhio tātou ko wai tātou i roto i tēnei ao hurihuri" (p. 43).