**Check out the new waiata tangi (lament)
here
and the new waiata oriori (lullaby)
here
Piki
Mai Kake Mai!
Kaputuhi
Pa
is the cultural
center for Ngati Kaputuhi, a hapu of Ngati Maniapoto. Kaputuhi, the ancestor, traces her line
of descent from Kurawari, a daughter of 
Raukawa.
Her husband, Taitengahue, descends from the
celebrated Maniapoto. They
had three
children, Maniauruahu, Parekura and Tarawehi. It was Parekura’s descendents alone who
adopted the hapu title Ngāti Kaputuhi and later built a meeting house,
naming it after their ancestor, Kaputuhi.
That meeting house stands today at
Hangatiki. However it was originally located north, at
Waikeria. In times past,
Ngati
Kaputuhi had kainga there, in particular at Whenuahou and Te
Waiaruhe. Loss and alienation of
lands in this
area
meant Ngati Kaputuhi had to look elsewhere
for a turangawaewae.
To
the west were Ngati
Kaputuhi’s Ouruwhero lands around the Te Kawa district.
In 1908, Makereti Hinewai Grace, being
the principal elder of the hapu, had the
meeting house removed to, and re-erected at, Te Kawa.
The honour of opening
the meeting house was
given to a young Mere Amohanga who
uttered the words “Cuppa Tea”, rather than
Kaputuhi. Te Kawa would in time become also known as Kaputuhi
Township.
By
the late 1930s the 'Te Kawa meeting house', for reasons unknown, had
fallen into disuse. Meantime,
members of
the large Amohanga-Nikora family
living at Hangatiki were seeking to build a
marae to cater for their community activities. These were the
lands of their
grandfather, Rawiri Te Hauparoa. He
belonged to, among others, the local Ngati Taiwa and Ngati Rungaterangi
hapu. He could
claim descent from
Kaputuhi, the ancestor, through her son Maniauruahu and was Makereti
Hinewai’s first
husband. Their only
son was Nikora Te Amohanga whose
widow, Werawera Hetet, had set aside land for a papakainga at the base
of the
Pukeroa hill, not too far distant
from the Mangapu stream.
In 1947 the family, led by Rewi Turner and Te Rehe Te
Amohanga,
undertook the dismantlement and removal of the Te Kawa meeting house. This was strongly opposed by many
residents
of Te Kawa. The
matter was the subject of a Native Land Court hearing and
several hui.
Kaputuhi, the ancestral house was eventually
re-erected at its prese
nt site
at Hangatiki.
To adorn her, a pou was carved, Parekura.
She stands out front
to cry the call of
welcome to visitors from afar. At
her
feet is her pet lizard which has come to symbolise Ngati
Kaputuhi. The carved
tekoteko above is of course
none other than Taitengahue, standing
guard over his wife and daughter.
For
over fifty years
Kaputuhi Pa has witnessed many an activity and occasion - school
visits,
meetings, reunions, weddings, birthdays and of course tangihanga. The old kauta has been
replaced by a more
modern day kitchen and
dinning room, Muri-aroha.
The flag-pole has perhaps
seen better
days. Like so many
other rural
communities, Hangatiki is but a remnant of days of old.
A generation has passed and most families
have gradually moved away. Yet
Kaputuhi Pa still continues to be the gathering
place, shelter and focal point for the people of Ngati Kaputuhi.
Na
Rore Stafford and Paul Meredith