Important dates

On Sunday 13 September, we will be hosting our next rūnanga wānanga at 11am.

On Sunday 11 October, we will be hosting our annual general meeting starting at 10am followed by the rūnanga meeting.

The appointments committee is due for elections and the process is being reviewed by the executive. Once the process of postal voting has been approved nominations for the appointments committee will be called for. Updated information on the process of postal balloting and nominations for the appointments committee will be distributed through our newsletter, the KVine and Te Pānui Rūnaka in September, October and November.

Exhibition

Kōrero koe; Kōrero au (You Speak, I Speak) is an exhibition of eight paintings and drawings
by Moana Tipa (Ngāi Hine Matua, Aotaumarewa, Tūāhuriri – Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Celt).

The works are a tribute to her father Thomas Rangiora Tipa of Moeraki who died on 13 December 2013.

They are abstract explorations of space, origins, purpose, place and time, against a background of remnant knowledge of the waka Arai te Uru. (J.P. Tipa, Hocken Library 1899). Four large works (2m x 1.2m) feature night skies and constellations that form the Bailer of Makalil’i (Ke Kaa o Makalili’i) – a celestial navigational pattern still used in Pacific voyaging traditions.

Written into the works are the names of 138 survivors of the waka Arai te Uru that may have (according to some scholars) arrived and beached at Matakaea (Shag Point) some 800-years- ago. The names are those that hills, mountains, streams and landmarks between Kaikōura and Kaitangata continue to be known by.

The four smaller drawings (1.2m x .90m) use the well-known marks of raranga (weaving) and whakairo (carving) to reference place and time.

Through the generosity of the Aigantighe Gallery, Timaru in association with Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua and Kāti Huirapa Runaka ki Puketeraki, an application was made to the Auckland Museum to bring a taonga tiheru (bailer) found in middens at Murdering Beach in 1874 to stand alongside the exhibit.

The taonga was of interest for its pared back, sparse Ngāi Tahu design and the north facing patake above the handle – a mark similar to those used in the works.

The two galleries where works were exhibited were visited by a total of 3,250 people over a combined period – the Forrester Gallery, Oamaru (20 September -16 November 2014) and Aigantighe Gallery, Timaru (28 May-30 June 2015).

The works were made with the support of:

  • The Ngāi Tahu Fund (2014)
  • The Learning Connexion, Wellington NZ,
  • The Polynesian Voyaging Society Hawaii
  • Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand (Mari Star Compass)
  • The Hocken Library, University of Otago
  • Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu (Arai Te Uru soundtrack 2000).

Contributions

Do you have any news that you would like to share? Let us know and we can can put it in the next pānui. Please include your contact details in case we need to contact you to confirm any details of your story. Send mail to 38 Huirapa St, Arowhenua, Temuka 7920; or email [email protected]