New cultural centre's Tainui connection

A FRENCH Polynesian couple visited the tribes of Rereahu and Maniapoto and  Oparure Pā on November 17, sharing plans for a new cultural centre to be built near the launching place of the Tainui waka.  

Tilly Smith and Maliani Manutahi are from the island of Raiatea, which is 45 minutes from Tahiti by air. Its population is 15,000.

They are travelling around the Pacific – to Aotearoa New Zealand, Hawaii, Rarotonga and Rapanui among other places – visiting whānau to share about the project and get involved.

“We want to create the cultural centre ... but we don’t want to make it alone.

“We must first create a Pacific community,” Tilly said.

The couple recently started a cultural association, Tahitumu, to support the cultural centre project.  

“It is named after one of our ancestors,” Maliani said.

Above all, they want to make connections with others.

“We need to share, exchange, and get support,” Tilly said.

“It’s not our cultural centre, it’s all of our cultural centre.”

They will start building the centre in January; it is expected to occupy a 3ha site 5km from Raiatea’s sacred site, Taputapuatea.

Whaea Hīrere Moana from Centennial Park School, who had brought the couple to Oparure, explained the connection with Tainui.  

“Taputapuatea is a sacred place where our waka left from, to come to Aotearoa, where they had their karakia and their protocols before the migration. Many of the waka left from Taputapuatea, and Tainui was one of them,” Hīrere said.

The new centre will be a hub for indigenous culture on the island, teaching te Reo Mā‘ohi, which is the indigenous language of Raiatea, Tahiti and the other French Polynesian islands.  

Students will also study traditional navigation – to be taught by indigenous relations who are expert in canoe building, as well as the different cultural arts.

As far as possible, students will learn outside the classroom in open spaces.  

Both Tilly and Maliani are teachers, and they want to start working with younger students as the centre’s first priority. Pupils will be aged from five to around 10 years old and be later joined by teens up to around 16 years old.  

“It’s very important to work with young people because we want them to be trained and to have jobs.

She said the French-run school system in Raiatea had not succeeded with the island’s young people – who tended to leave school around the age of 14.  

“They stay at home with no job, no qualifications, nothing.”

Language education was a key part of the kaupapa.  

In Raiatea, all of the kaumātua generation speak the Tahitian language fluently – but young people have not always taken it up. The couple’s four sons had not spoken a great deal as younger people, although they were now asking to learn, aged in their early 20s.  

The couple believe that the education system should require students to learn their reo and be examined in it.  

“They should need it to succeed at school. If they had a big exam they’d change their mind,” Tilly said.

Their connection with this area had started some years earlier.  

Hīrere and Maliani had met in Raiatea via a mutual friend, Paloma. At the time, Whaea Hīrere had taken a group of students from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Oparure students there on a cultural exchange.  

Paloma and her family come from Paparā, where they say the Tainui waka was built. “Over there, we heard songs, chants and some ‘orero (kōrero) from the people of Papara. However, we are respectful of others and their stories.”

Hīrere added that Paloma’s tribe, from Paparā in Tahiti, had retained the chants of the Tainui waka. These were not widely known in Raiatea, but had been handed down in that family.

Paloma’s tupuna was named Teva, an ariki of Papara and the family, and he had a close connection to Taputapuatea, and also with the Tainui waka. It had been he who handed down the history.  

Maliani added that earlier in their visit to New Zealand, the couple visited Orakei near Auckland, where they also heard other chants of the Tainui waka shared with them by uri of Ngāti Whatua, handed down through the generations.

The couple’s visit to Oparure Pā saw them watching the local mau rākau experts in action.

The workshop was attended by staff, students and whānau from local Kōhanga reo. It was run by Tainui Te Moanapapaku-Stephens and Waipono Jerry.  

Hine Stewart helped organise the workshop alongside Hīrere.  

“It’s a taster for Pukeiti and ngā Kōhanga reo in our area.”  

They usually do workshops for primary schools around the area – impressing their elders with their commitment.  

“As an educator, I felt and saw that Tainui and Waipono had the attention of those students, up to 35 of them. Both of them had their attention from half past 9 in the morning to 2 o’clock in the afternoon,” Hine said.

“We are very proud of Tainui and Waipono giving up their time to teach these workshops.”

After visiting Oparure Pā, Maliani and Tilly visited Te Wharekura o Maniapoto, where they could see kaupapa Māori education in action.

They also visited Te Kūiti Kohanga Reo to see how it operates.  In the days following, both attended a Rereahu Iwi wananga held at Waimiha Pā before returning to Raiatea.

Anyone interested in supporting the cultural centre should get in touch with Whaea Hīrere on social media or via Centennial Park school.