Mangaokewa Reserve
Storyboards capturing moments of cultural significance to local hapu Ngāti Rōrā are open to the community following a blessing late last month.
After weather hampered attempts to officially open and bless the Mangaokewa Cultural Walkway Storyboards for eight months, Ngāti Rōrā joined with the community to welcome each of the nine storyboard sites lining the walkway between Mōtakiora and Mangaokewa Reserve in Te Kūiti.
The storyboards tell of the cultural heritage of Ngāti Rōrā through stories captured in Te Reo Māori and English in text, audio, photos and video.
Isiah Wallace
Descendant of Rōrā and Waitomo District councillor Isaiah Wallace hoped the storyboards would connect people to the history and places that have shaped the area.
“All of our stories carry a big impact, because it’s shaped the Te Kūiti we know today,” he said.
“For us as mokopuna of our tupuna and the sites of significance that’s been identified through Waitomo District Council will help our whanau understand and protect our wāhi tapu.
“All of us that live in Te Kūiti can find some connection and some history to these sites that we travel past every day, but don’t know the korero.
“These story boards will be a good connector for our community and people that come and visit,” he said.
The storyboard project has been a three-year partnership between Waitomo District Council and Ngāti Rōrā and included an upgrade of the walking track through Te Kūiti.
The track forms part of the Te Araroa Trail, incorporating Mōtakiora and Brook Park, and follows the stream from Te Kumi Road through to the existing river track.
The first storyboard sits atop Mōtakiora at the site of Rōrā’s Pā in the 1600s, where he killed Tuatini for having an affair with his wife Kuramōnehu – and was himself killed the next day by Ngāti Hia in retaliation.
Subsequently, the pā was abandoned and remains a wāhi tapu (sacred site) for Rōrā’s descendants.
Further details of Rōrā’s life, as well as the significance of Mōtakiora as a fortified pā site, are told on the second storyboard at the foot of Mōtakiora,
The third story is of Ngāti Rōrā’s treasured home Te Tokanganui a Noho – how it was made and gifted by Māori prophet Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Tūruki in the 1870s for sheltering he and his followers for more than a decade, the different sites it has been located and its different names over 154 years.
Site four is at the He Wāhi Herenga Waka or the waka landing site, which was an industrial and travel hub along the Mangaokewa Stream through the 18th and 19th centuries.
Near the original and second dwellings of Te Tokanganui a Noho is the site of fifth and sixth storyboards, which go into more detail about the ancient marae’s history.
The storyboard overlooking the area known as Taupiri o Te Rangi tells of the site where Rōrā was born and raised by his father Maniapoto and mother Paparauwhare to become an esteemed warrior.
Tumutumu marks the eighth storyboard site and describes the hill as an important Maniapoto pā belonging to Paruparu, the son of Tūtaemārō and grandson of Rōrā, its significance through history and its fertile soil known for growing wheat.
The final stop is the Mangaokewa Reserve, the final resting place of tribal ancestors and where the storyboards tell of the Mangaokewa Stream’s importance to ancient trade, travel and as a plentiful food supply of eel and fish.
