180: The Kawerau

Merry Christmas

I was thinking about the perforated tooth I found in the far north many years ago, associated with a burial that was eventually transferred to just outside an existing modern Urupa. The tooth was part of a necklace of teeth. Under this skeleton was also a very ancient adze, one unlike anything else in NZ that we have seen or know of. But I was amazed when told by the Kamatua, involved in the karakia before removal, that the skeleton was to be buried outside the Urupa because "It is not one of us". Yes, you heard me, a Maori leader said that the skeleton wasn't Maori. You see, many of those who aren't political and not dependent on state money by way of the ToW are not afraid of the actually truth. They know and they accept the truth.

In the 'prehistory to the discovery' tab on our website here -https://tangatawhenua16.wixsite.com/the-first-ones-blog/start-here we showed a picture of a human tooth necklace but I had never associated it with anything further back than 1300AD.... Until I read about where the whole necklace pictured was found... But below are some notes about it and the site where it was found.

The loop to secure the toggle is very fine and interesting example of cordage-craftsmanship. ie not common. But is was who it was associated to that was the most interesting. The maioha was found in an old kainga-site, situated on a cliff-ledge about twenty feet wide and extending about two hundred feet along the cliff-front at Takatu. The cliff at this point is about one thousand feet sheer above the sea. The old kainga-site is reached by descending a narrow and difficult pathway from the overhanging top. This kainga was without doubt a place of refuge, if not a permanent residence in the troublous times of early Polynesian arrival, when conditions obliged refugees chased out of their traditional areas to live in such bleak and inconvenient places. This site has no Maori name - that in itself was a clue.

This necklace of teeth is the only one of this kind in existence, or it was until I found what I did in Northland all those years ago. Yes, perforated human teeth were worn as ear or neck pendants but as singles and doubles, not a whole necklace. Most were not even real human teeth, but copies made of bone or whale tooth. The practice of a He Maioha Maukaki is not even one that is Polynesian.

But is was who it was associated to that was the most interesting. The old inhabitants of this district are reputed to have been the Kawerau. But who are these people? Written tradition also has it that these old inhabitants were the Kawerau. They were already here long before Toi arrived around 1150AD. They were of great number apparently, and were related to the Maruiwi and likely came from down the Bay of Plenty way in much older times. The name Kawerau is not derived from an ancestor (unlike Maori - which is yet another clue) but is one given by Toi's people. These ones in the Waitakere Ranges were also called Kawerau-moko-torea as their tattoos were of angular form, mostly lines and stripes. Only Samoa and Tonga has such markings, but the rest of Polynesia was not so angular. But Melanesia? It was full of angular and linear forms as is Micronesia. They were also a peaceful people, not taken to warfare.

Like anywhere, at first the new arrivals were tolerated b y the Kawerau, and interbred with until more powerful, whereas dominance was asserted and war began. This is a common theme among men of all races in all continents. 'Colonialism', is not just a thing 'whites' did in this era of world history. Land takeover has happened in all era's of history, in all continents prior to Europeans expansion in the 16th century, except Australia where no racial takeovers occurred until the British arrived. The date of 1250AD has been given as when the Kawerau from the BoP came north to Waitakere to those already there. In time protective pa were built... Korekore being one of them. But these were besieged by Maori. There were many battles and peacemaking but the Kawerau finally broke the peace (it was their traditional homeland before the Maori came), but they suffered heavy losses in revenge attacks.

About 15 years before Captain James Cook arrived, Ngati Whatua took over the Tamaki isthmus by warfare (note: Maori land ownership kept changing as tribes grew stronger) and yet even then, the Kawerau in the Waitakere's were still recognised as the iwi whenua of the Waitakere when others such as the Maruiwi and Waiohua became extinct or absorbed into Ngati-Whatua, (In effect, they became the same as Maori absorbed into European bloodlines today - if you think about it!). The remnants of the Kawerau lived in Mahurangi and Omaha after these times.

The whole point of this post is this... even Maori legend says others were here before Maori arrived, but nothing of those original customs and uniqueness now exists... much the same way as Maori was, around in say 1965 in a European NZ, before their long overdue cultural revival.