School of Humanities<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was once common practice for k\u014diwi tangata (ancestral remains) to be unearthed from traditional M\u0101ori land and placed into museums. One such group of ancestral remains was excavated during the 1940s and 1950s from land at the Wairau Bar, Marlborough, and taken to Canterbury Museum and to the Dominion Museum (now Te Papa), where they were kept for research and display purposes. In 2009, negotiations led to the return of the k\u014diwi tangata to Rangit\u0101ne, with the proviso that they would remain available for archaeologists and anthropologists to study. In the decade since, a variety of studies have been carried out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Peter Meihana from the School of Humanities, whose own community is Rangit\u0101ne, has been working to make sense of that research, how it applies to Rangit\u0101ne today, and how it can work with the tribe\u2019s whakapapa (geneaology) and oral traditions. \u2018With one of our kaum\u0101tua [elders], we looked at the history of the excavations and repatriation,\u2019 he said. \u2018One of the things we focused on was some of the genetic sequencing that was carried out by Professor Lisa Matisoo- Smith, from the University of Otago, who had been working on tracing mitochondrial lineages from the remains to work out their origins.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the remains were excavated, experts at the time followed an older model that said that the people in the ground were not Rangit\u0101ne, but instead arrived before the Polynesian ancestors of living M\u0101ori migrated to New Zealand. \u2018That was one of the excuses that was used to dig up our people,\u2019 said Dr Meihana, \u2018but when Lisa did her research, she was able to say that these people don\u2019t come from any other place but Polynesia.\u2019 After this, living Rangit\u0101ne also had their DNA tested, which showed that they belonged to the same genetic group as the k\u014diwi tangata. Although this could not show conclusively that living Rangit\u0101ne are the descendants of the people in the ancestral remains, it did show that both groups had a common female ancestor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Dr Meihana, this information has a wider meaning about the place of women in M\u0101ori tradition. \u2018What often happens when oral traditions are retold, particularly in the Land Court, is that the male ancestor is elevated,\u2019 he said, \u2018so I made an argument that these male ancestors are important and we\u2019ve got oral traditions connected to them, but it\u2019s actually the female ancestors who connect us back to these earlier people. I wanted to point out that the genetic testing has been useful for us in refocusing our attention on these female ancestors.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Recently, Rangit\u0101ne and the Marlborough community unveiled a tauihu (canoe prow), carved in bronze and steel by Rangit\u0101ne artist Hemi Te Peeti, which now stands on one of the settlement properties in Blenheim. Dr Meihana provided advice on the ancestors who should be represented in the tauihu, which means that, for the first time, little-known female ancestors have been represented in a physical form. \u2018The community loves it,\u2019 he said. \u2018I\u2019ve already seen a shift in a few days in our people\u2019s thinking. They want to know who the two figures at the end are, as they had never heard of these women before \u2014 they had been submerged under the deeds of their husbands. I\u2019ve already seen a lift in people\u2019s pride, and our own people have become more inquisitive in wanting to know more. The research that our kaum\u0101tua and I did is now in a physical form on our settlement property, so I\u2019m pretty happy about that. To me it\u2019s a really neat progression \u2014 the science, the oral traditions, the whakapapa, has now been manifested in these new forms of art on the land.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tourists are already visiting to see the tauihu, and Dr Meihana is eager to get more of Rangit\u0101ne\u2019s stories put onto the land. \u2018When we have more stories on the land, we can start to teach our young folk about them, and I can see business opportunities for those who want to get into tourism, where they can tell their own stories,\u2019 he said. \u2018I\u2019m fortunate in that I\u2019ve been a trustee for Ng\u0101ti Kuia and I am now a trustee for Rangit\u0101ne, so I get to be involved while these things are happening and unfolding, so it\u2019s not like I\u2019m an expert observer; I\u2019m in the mix. In some ways, it\u2019s a privileged position because I get to see what\u2019s happening within my own community as well. I can work amongst my people and get insights that other researchers will never have.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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DR PETER MEIHANA Ng\u0101ti Kuia, Rangit\u0101ne, Ng\u0101ti Apa, Ng\u0101i Tahu School of Humanities It was once common practice for k\u014diwi tangata (ancestral remains) to be unearthed from traditional M\u0101ori land and placed into museums. One such group of ancestral remains was excavated during the 1940s and 1950s from land at the Wairau Bar, Marlborough, and … Continue reading The secrets of k\u014diwi tangata<\/span>