161: The Eroero (Melanesians?)
A learned kaumatua of the Ngai-Tahu tribe, at Rapaki, Canterbury, provided this traditional information concerning the successive iwi or peoples of the South Island:
“The first race to occupy this country was a tribe named Hawea, who came here in a sailing canoe called the Ngapakitua. They came from the west, or the north-west (ed- note NW not NE). They were a dark curly haired people (Melanesians). The next iwi to reach this island was a tribe called Te Rapuwai, who came from the north. They had kiri whewhero (red or copper-coloured skins). The Rapuwai strain still exists in our South Island tribes. Next came the Waitaha, who were a very numerous people. Then in much later times, Ngati-Mamoe migrated to the South from the North Island, and they were followed by Ngai-Tahu, who fought and defeated them and intermarried with them. The present Maori inhabitants of the South Island and Stewart Island are a blend of the various migrations; Ngai-Tahu is the principal tribe. But we are half pakeha now!” (Most who identify as Maori now have much greater portion of other racial blood)
The late Hone Taare Tikao, of Rapaki, Lyttelton Harbour, said that the first tribe which inhabited the South Island, a people called the Hawea, who came from somewhere north or north-west of New Zealand, were probably the ancestors of the Patupaiarehe folk.
Other sources say that the first who lived in the South Island were the Eroero people, who had fair skin and hair the colour of tussock. Some say they were fairy folk, others that they were unkempt and hairy creatures, and others say that they were real people who were responsible for the earliest rock drawings. After them came the Rabuva’i** (Rapuwai) (meaning to explore places). It is said that they did not arrive on a waka (canoe), but that they were always here. After them came the Hawea people on the waka Kapakitua, a strong intelligent people who were specially selected to take part in a voyage of exploration. The principal chief of the Hawea waka was Taiehu. Lake Hawea is named after these people. At the same time or later came the Waitaha people on the waka Uruao. Some say that Kapakitua was not a waka but the ceremonial adze on Uruao, and that the Hawea people were a hapu (subtribe) of Waitaha. The principal chiefs of the Uruao waka were Rakihouia and Waitaa (or Waitaha). They named the Matauu (or Mata-au, now Clutha River) after their landing point at the mouth of this river.
Are you confused? Gosh, I think we all are. But what is certain, is that there were many old stories (depending on which tribe you were aligned to), from Maori themselves, that all agreed people were here before Polynesian immigration and that there were other people before them, and even another people before those. Interestingly, none are referred to as being tall.
Polynesians are tangatawhenua (people of the land) by means of begin born here (as it applies to all Pakeha born here), but they are not 'first ones', the tangatawhenua term Maori use, they use to mean 'first'. NO interpretation of the words tangtawhenua mean 'first'. Maori know they are not the first here but refuse to acknowledge that openly while many individuals keep telling us there tupuna quietly say otherwise.
Here, we could discuss Zealandia and the possibility of island hopping all the way down here by Melanesians, but that would mean the first here were truly ancient... and buried under what is now the sea or 2 meters underground to previous top layers millenia ago. **Interestingly, many of the artifacts we have resented that don't fit the Polynesian mould were found at least 2 meters underground...!
Questions?
