kia ora mai tātou te hunga pānui pukamata I along with up to 15 others (Alan Heta, Paul Hemi, Hiwi and Pat Tauroa, Karanga Pourewa, Owen Kingi, Bill Hori, Cheyne Foley, Dr Garth Cnt, Evald Sabasic, Micky Williams, Eru Heta, Jane Bowman, Robyn McPhail, Jim and Sophie Smith, Terry Tauroa, Robyn Tauroa, Hinemoa Pourewa, went on a two day journey across our rohe. Whangaroa was given an opportunity to have someone research what the government since 1874 knew about the impacts of deforestation. His name is Dr Garth Cant, a retired geographer who completed a similar report for Te Rohe Pōtae, or the Whanganui people. You would be astounded to know what they knew at that time and chose to ignore their own facts, i.e. the land would slip into the waterways, flooding would increase, streams would slow, change and sometimes die. As well we were trying to find out whether there is any record of what our old people said. We met at Te Patunga marae and spent the morning discussing what we think would be important for Garth to research on our behalf. As a group we came up with asking him to look for what has been the impact on de-forestation on our people, the original people of Whangaroa. Together we talked about what has been the impact of deforestation, some people talked about the change in climate, the difference between breathing pine trees and native trees, the difference between pasture quality air and bush air. We talked about the loss of knowledge of bush rongoa, bush food and bush living. I think the thing that stuck in my mind was with the loss of our ngehere also came the loss of our people. Once that forest was cut out, so too literally, was our people. They left home, and for many, they never returned. It was especially hard to hear some stories. They were a mixture of stories of hardship, loss and theft. We finished our first day off standing on top of Te Huia, greeting the four winds of Whangaroa and marveling at its beauty, expansiveness and exquisitiveness. He kitenga nui, he kitenga roa, he kitenga aroha! Kātahi ko te rangi ataahua.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 05:21:48 +0000
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