Rakiura: The story of the island's blushing skies
Monday, 13 September 2021
For Te Wiki O Te Reo Māori 2021, Stuff has chosen six places from the Ngāi Tahu Atlas that help tell the story of our region.
The Kā Huru Manu (The Ngāi Tahu Cultural Mapping Project) has mapped out more than 1000 original Māori place names, kā ara tawhito (traditional travel routes) and the original Māori land allocations in the Ngāi Tahu takiwā (area).
These place names represented a significant symbol of the Ngāi Tahu historical association and relationships in the Aotearoa landscape. They were primarily associated with people, historical events, geographical features, and the natural flora and fauna.
The place names have been fully referenced from whānau manuscripts, published books, manuscripts, published books, 19th century maps, newspaper articles and a vast array of unpublished material.
The Kā Huru Manu can be viewed at https://www.kahurumanu.co.nz/atlas.
**READ MORE:
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* These are the new Māori place names in New Zealand
**
Rakiura
Aotearoa’s third largest island, Rakiura, is known for its breathtaking skies.
From its incredible night sky, which earned the island Dark Sky status in 2019, to its sunsets that display an assortment of colours, and for which the Māori name for Stewart Island came from.
According to the Ngāi Tahu Atlas, Rakiura is often translated as “glowing skies”, which refers to the story of early Māori chief Te Rakitāmau.
He left his home to ask a high-ranking Kāti Māmoe chief for the hand in marriage to two of his elder daughters.
The legend says that Te Rakitāmau blushed with embarrassment when he was declined, and the red skies of Rakiura reflect that.
The highest peak on the north of the island is also named for this story – Hananui, or the great blush.
From the late 1200s, Māori settled around the coast and on some neighbouring islands surrounding Rakiura. They caught fish and harvested tītī (muttonbirds).
Tradition says the first Māori were the Waitaha tribe, and later Ngāti Mamoe and Ngāi Tahu people arrived.
According to Department of Conservation information, on arrival to Murihiku, Ngāti Māmoe overcame the Waitaha tribe by peaceful means, mainly through intermarriage and the sheer weight of numbers, just as Ngāi Tahu did to Ngāti Māmoe when they arrived.
According to Te Ara, coastal settlements were not large and the island was sometimes used as a refuge from the mainland during warfare.
English explorer James Cook first sighted the island in 1770 and from about 1800 to the early 1820s, European sealers caught seals, while whalers worked there from the 1820s to the 1840s.
Many married local Māori women and mixed-descent communities began to grow in number.
In 1864, the Government bought most of the island from Ngāi Tahu, nearly a decade after 2.8 million hectares of Southland land was sold to the Crown from Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Māmoe for £2600 (NZ$4930).
Upon purchase, Rakiura became part of the Southland province.
Excavations undertaken by the Department of Conservation show that as early as the 13th Century, Rakiura was occupied by Māori of the moa-hunting period, as shown by evidence found at places around the coast.