Whakapapa korero describe the creation of Whaingaroa as a mighty battle between Taniwha and Taratara – prominent Maunga tupuna of the rohe. This event recorded in geological readings as a violent volcanic eruption, occurring approx 6,000 years ago.  

During this ancient upheaval, the whenua was qouged, scorched, and slashed. Creating the unique rock formations, ranges, ridges, valleys, and riverways we see today. 

So why did the Maunga tupuna battle? What provocation? What grievance?

They battled for what was most precious – Wahine, the holders of Whenua, Whakapapa and Tangata. 

Emiemi the weeping maunga, from across the Pupuke valley bears witness to her whanaunga fighting and to this day weeps. Her tears form the many waterways that flow down to Whaingaroa moana.

Ohakiri (St Pauls) the head of Taratara, flung across the harbor during this battle where it rests today. Taratara bent but not broken, remains in stone with his wahine standing true. And Maunga Taniwha, brewing from the south, the heart of Ngapuhi.

Tohu of past, present and future events. Of both the natural world and human experience.

Tohu of love and loss, peace and war, life and death. Tohu that from destruction comes creation.

Tangata whenua describe a long passing of time before the land cooled and settled. According to whakapapa korero, the first life form to crawl up and out of the cracks in the whenua were the Mokomoko (lizards). They are represented in manaia form, rising from their primeval slumber to inhabit the whenua.

Today, walking ancestral whenua here at Pupuke, Mokomoko scatter around my feet, skin glistening, tongues flickering, eyes flashing.

Basalt rocks are also scattered around me. Once molten lava, cooling as they fell – in all shapes and sizes back to the whenua that ejected them. These toka connect me to origin, in present time, place, and space and are metaphor for the mana whenua o Whaingaroa.

Forged in the heart of a volcanic eruption and scattered across Whaingaroa far and wide. Some scattered further, to big cities and towns, while others even further – to faraway places.

But always their origins (whakapapa) remain rooted in Whaingaroa, with Taratara and his wahine standing true.

Nga mihi aroha