Wairarapa Maori and their relationship with tuna
“There
are old stories within Māoridom where a person would sing a song
composed especially for a tuna kaitiaki on a special piece of stream.
The tuna would always come.”
Wairarapa Maori and their relationship to Tuna
Nga
taonga tuku iho – te tuna. The Eel – an ancient gift from the
gods
“The
special place of tuna or the eel is maintained in Māori culture
through the stories contained in tribal histories. A means of
illustrating the enduring relationship between man and eel can be
found on meeting houses throughout New Zealand.
The
carvings on meeting houses act as a record of important events,
people and animals. That images of eels appear beside tribal
ancestors is a mark of their importance to Māori.
From
the records of our ancestors we know that eels lived in abundant
numbers throughout the waterways of the lower North Island. A
landscape containing numerous swamps, lakes, streams and rivers
proved to be an ideal home for eels, within which they thrived.
In
plants such as flax, supplejack and mānuka the means to catch them
were readily at hand. Māori grew crops, gathered edible plants,
picked berries, caught birds or rats and fished for nutrition. Fresh
water waterways provided homes for kākahi (freshwater mussel), kōura
(fresh water crayfish), juvenile inanga (one species that makes up
whitebait), inter-tidal fish and tuna.
Even
mixed with vegetables a number of kakahi or kōura would need to be
caught to make a meal. The eel was much bigger, easier to catch,
available all year round and was everywhere. For a people that relied
on seasonal foods the eel was truly a gift from the gods.
Today
eels are not relied upon as in the past but are still valued, as they
are an important part of preserving the practice of cultural
traditions. Of course some people still consider a feed of eel makes
for a very tasty meal.” (2)
How
Māori used and preserved eels
“Māori
studied eels intensively to determine life cycles, ages, habitat and
migration patterns. This knowledge helped them determine how many
eels they could take for food before depleting numbers to a dangerous
level.
Eeling
would occur at special times of the month and year according to a
range of environmental indicators e.g. lunar cycles. Once caught,
eels were preserved by drying on lines, or smoking over fires.
Farming’ and ‘reseeding’ were not uncommon. This meant
restocking waterways or holding eels in specially built enclosures.
‘Blind
trenches’ were dug close to migration passages during the migrating
season. This tricked the eel into thinking it was entering a normal
stream. Once the trenches were filled with eel they were blocked off
and the eels harvested.
An
annual eel migration occurs at Lake Onoke during autumn of each year.
The Wairarapa Moana (lake) was the second to largest eel fishery in
New Zealand only being outsized by Canterbury’s Lake Ellesmere.
Different
sizes and species of eel had specific names, migrating in successive
months according to size. Māori families with fishing rights at
Wairarapa Moana only fished during the migration period and caught
enough eels to last a year.
The
following comes from the Tuhirangi Marae book celebrating the opening
and rededication of the south Wairarapa Marae in 1991. With reference
to the annual eel migration at Lake Onoke, they came in three
migrations:
1.
Hau A small eel about 45 cm in length that didn’t need gutting and
was grilled whole and very carefully so the skin was not broken.
2.
Riko About double the circumference of the hau, but even so a very
clean fish that was stripped from the bone and kept attached by the
tail. The bone with the hua still attached was when boiled a
gourmet’s delight.
3.
Paranui A huge eel sometimes almost two metres long. The paranui took
a lot of processing because of its size and its oil content so it was
either dried or smoked. The riko and the paranui were preserved for
barter, but of course they were best fresh.” (2)
Maori
Commercial Interests
“Eel
are a very valuable taonga for Maori, and as well as the high
cultural value, they also hold a high commercial value for many iwi.
However, Maori were excluded from this industry until the early 1990s
when under the ‘Sealord’s deal’ 1992, Maori automatically were
granted 20% of all fisheries.
Not
all Iwi took commercial advantage of this. Some
Iwi/hapu such as Ngati Raukawa ki te Tonga, concerned with the
decline of the species, did not utilise this allowance. In the North
Island, commercial fishing has been prohibited from the Taharoa
lakes, Whakaki Lagoon, Lake Poukawa and the Pencarrow lakes
(Kohangapiripiri and Kohangatera) and associated catchments.
Joseph
Potangaroa of Rangitane o Wairarapa (Masterton) states that “our
people, as with other hapu and iwi, find themselves by necessity
being a part of the answer to an obvious problem although they were
not a part of creating the problem i.e. the 1960s onwards. Since
Sealord’s in the 1990s they have been players but still have pulls
in opposite directions. These are some of the complexities of iwi and
hapu in this neck of the woods.” (1)
and (3)
Customary
non-commercial fisheries
“Iwi/hapu
also have customary take rights for occasions such as hui and tangi
(this is currently set at 47 tonnes, and 33 tonnes for recreational
fishers). Customary non-commercial fishers desire eels of a greater
size, i.e. over 750 mm and 1 kg.
Currently,
there appears to be a substantially lower number of larger eels in
the main stems of some major river catchments throughout New Zealand,
which may limit customary fishing. Consequently, the access to eels
for customary non-commercial purposes has declined over recent
decades in many areas. There is no overall assessment of the extent
of the current or past customary non-commercial take.”
(1) and (3)
Photo above: This historic photograph shows several hīnaki and the hull
of a large waka. The photograph was taken about 1906.
Major Tunuiarangi Brown, who was active in the movement
to protect scenic and historic sites standing at the left.
Further
reading
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