Mahika Kai
These are some food sources that could be looked at with children in your classroom:
Tuna
Eels were an incredibly important food resource. Ōtākou Māori travelled to collect eels in to areas like the Taiari and further afield. There are freshwater eels and saltwater eels. West comments that eels were not plentiful on the Otago Peninsula however they were found in some rivers in the Dunedin town area, including Kaituna river that is dry now and the Kaikarae estuary. There was also a hapua tuna or eel lagoon in South Dunedin, near the Gasworks.
There were many ways in which Southern Māori caught eels. Bobbing was one way, where a bob was made of worms threaded on to a flax string wand dropped in to the water. The eel would bite on the the worms and it was hauled out on to the ground.
Eels were also speared. The eel spear was known as a matarau.42 This was traditionally made of mānuka and had wooden prongs with which to spear the eel. Spearing occured in the day and at night with torches (rama). The eels were hit on the head but this would often only stun them. A bone needle would thread a type of rope of flax through their head and would be hung, and prepared in order to dry the flesh.
Tuna
Furthermore there were eel pots known as hīnaki that were generally made from supplejack. The hīnaki is long and round and the eel enters it and cannot escape. There are many types of hīnaki throughout the world that are similar in nature.
There were many ways to catch eel and there are various ways they were prepared for eating. Here is a video explaining the process in the Chatham Islands that may be of interest to your class:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa7PuNLPvlw
Moa
An important food gathering source were two Moa Butchery sites, one at Andersons Bay and one at Harwood. Moa was obviously an accessible and excellent food source. Anderson suggests that up to 100,000 moa were killed during the early period in southern New Zealand alone. Berentson writes that;
Without a doubt the largest concentration of the great birds and consequently the most intense hunting activity lay in the east of the South Island. The greatest number of moa hunting camps, and the largest, in New Zealand all lie within an area bounded by the east coast of the South Island and a line between Bluff, Queenstown and Picton. This area could be known as ‘the moa belt’.
There are archeologists such as Atholl Anderson who suggest that moa were ambushed and killed with spears at short range, taken in traps and snares or were bailed up by hunting dogs. The dogs of the South Island had powerful jaws and neck muscles similar to an Australian dingo. The butchery sites like that of Anderson Bay comprise of rows of ovens situated along the banks of streams, with large quantities of bone, moa eggshell and artifacts in them or near them. Very few were brought back to the site as whole carcasses as they were too heavy. Most moa were brought back to the camp as leg joints. Leg bones at these sites have been found smashed and it was assumed they extracted the fat and bone marrow.
Tī Kōuka
One of the most significant foods gathered was that of the tī kōuka in the Andersons Bay area however the other major food sources was that of birdlife like pūtakitaki (ducks) and fish in the Otago Harbour, particularly Makā (Barracouta).
Kāuru was a particular part of the Cabbage tree that was eaten. The kāuru as well as aruhe (fern root) was staple food for Māori in the Otago area, it would have provided sustenance like that of the potato. Some say the kāuru was the young shoot at the side of the tree.
Beattie has recorded three ways getting kāuru;
When travelling cut down the young trees, strip the bark off and eat the remainder.
When travelling cut down old trees and eat the roots and a part away up at the top of the tree.
Select a suitable place and make an “orchard” of the tī, by cutting down all of the young trees to a suitable height, leave them two years and then harvest the result. The growth from these pruned trees was so suitable for food you merely scraped it and ate the lot.
Elsdon Best (1986) recorded details about the gathering and processing of tī kōuka.
Around September or October of each year the cabbage tree was ready for harvesting. The juvenile plants up to two metres tall were cropped leaving some of the tap root still in the ground to regrow. The crown of leaves at the top was also cut off leaving a section of trunk which was tied into bundles with several other trunks. These bundles were either prepared, or transported to, a place abundant in firewood. Large ovens (umu-tī) several feet in diameter were then dug by the hapū members. Also known as puna, these ovens were generally circular although some were also rectangular, but all were very deep and many were dug to the same depth as a grown man. Knight refers to a number of old written sources about the ovens, he includes this reference, “an oblong pit was dug . . . from four to twelve feet in length and about five or six feet in depth.”
The oven was filled with several rocks and covered in the firewood. At dawn, the fire was lit and by midday the rocks should have been hot enough. Large leaves were then placed on the rocks and then the bundles were placed on the foliage. More leaves and grasses were put on top of the bundles of trunks and then the whole thing was covered in soil. Tī Kōuka leaves were also importantly used to make pāraerae47 (sandals) and pōkeka (raincoats).
Anderson writes that the tī kōuka leaves were durable and waterproof. The sole of the pāraerae was called a papanui, the sides were called kātaha-o-te-pāraerae, the heel is called a whakareke and the fastenings across the pāraerae to keep the foot in place were called kakau
Te Nohoaka o Tukiauau/Sinclair Wetlands
Situated near Berwick Camp, Te Nohoaka o Tukiauau/Sinclair Wetlands is a wonderful resource for schools. It is a wetland that is in the ongoing process of being re-planted and rejuvenated however it has a strong local Māori whakapapa and story. Schools can spend time at the wetlands, planting trees and gaining a real understanding of a pā and the reasons that Māori needed this area (for mahika kai).
In the early 18th century, a Kāti Māmoe chief, Tukiauau led his people south from Kaikōura after a series of battles against Kāi Tahu, and took temporary refuge on Whakaraupuka (Ram Island) setting up their campsite. His name remains attached to the wetlands, while the swamp complex remained an important food basket and precious place (taonga) for later peoples.
In early farming days most of the Taiari Plains wetlands were drained, including an important lake, called Tatawai or Waihoropunga, a traditional fishery used by the natives of Ōtākou and the families living in the district, who had enjoyed intergenerational rights and access to mahika kai - an abundant supply of large tasty eels and a variety of water fowl since time immemorial. After a series of petitions to Parliament from local Māori, urging the Crown to protect this fishery, a 4 acre landing reserve at the lake was granted in 1891, and the lake itself was reserved for Kāi Tahu fishing purposes in 1902. However due to pressure and opposition from the European settlers, the following years saw the interests of settlement placed above Kāi Tahu rights as guaranteed to them by the Treaty of Waitangi and by the terms of the Kemps Deed. By 1920, Lake Tatawai was reported to be ‘practically tideless’ and ‘almost dry’.
The 1920 the Taieri River Improvement Act superseded Māori fishing rights without any consultation or compensation, resulting in a longstanding grievance pursued by Kāi Tahu, included in the Wai27 Ancillary Claims. The Waitangi Tribunal recommended that alternative regional inland and estuarine fisheries should be developed for the use of the tribe in compensation for the loss of Lake Tatawai.
With most of the land on the Taiari plains converted to farmland, just two of the original lakes Waihola and Waipori (Waihora and Waipouri) and their adjacent swamps remained. In 1960, Horrie Sinclair purchased a run-down farm between these two lakes, and reverted it to its original wetland condition. In 1984 he announced his intention to gift the wetlands to Ducks Unlimited New Zealand Limited, and the 315ha block became Sinclair Wetlands. In 1986 a Queen Elizabeth II National Trust open space covenant was registered against the property titles. In 1998 the property was returned to Kāi Tahu as part of the Ngāi Tahu Claim Settlement Act, and today, Te Nohoaka o Tukiauau/Sinclair Wetlands is regarded as New Zealand’s largest privately owned wetlands.
The long-standing Kāi Tahu association and whakapapa to this area is discussed briefly here:
Kāi Tahu had made their way to the South Island eleven generations after the ancestor Tahu Pōtiki was born on the East Coast of the North Island. Kāti Māmoe were resident in Kaikōura and there was a significant battle between Kāti Kurī (who were to become known as Kāi Tahu) and Kāti Mamoe. Tukiauau’s father, Rākaimōmona, a rakatira of Kāti Mamoe, was killed in this battle. Tukiauau was encouraged to seek revenge. Tukiauau built a pā near a cliff, just south of Kaikōura, named Te Pariwhakatau, and enticed his enemies in through a carefully executed plan. A detailed battle took place where Tukiauau was successful in avenging the death of his father. Soon afterwards Tukiauau made an escape south with his people, eventually arriving at Motupara pā at the mouth of the Taiari river, where a senior relative, Tūwiriroa was residing.
Tukiauau had grave concerns that he was being pursued by Kāti Kurī, so Tūwiriroa agreed to provide sanctuary for him and his people. Tūkiauau was able to take shelter up the gorge and into the lake system. Tukiauau’s pā in the Taiari was named Whakaraupuka, established at what is now known as Ram Island, in the Sinclair Wetlands. The pā, rich in resources was in the middle of a swamp that would have been difficult to access.
As fate would have it the son of Tukiauau, Korokīwhiti, fell in love with Hā-ki-tekura (the daughter of Tūwiriroa). The romance was in full blossom when Tukiauau received word that an avenging war party was heading to the Taiari whereupon he made arrangements to depart immediately. Unfortunately Korokīwhiti had no time to inform his lover of their plans. When a number of canoes passed below the pā at the mouth of the Taiari River, Hā-ki-te-kura, distressed at being left behind raced to the edge of the cliff and dived in to the river at the place now known as Te Rereka o Hā-ki-te-kura (The Leap of Hā-ki-tekura). But her judgement was poor and Hā-ki-te-kura fell on to the rocky banks of the river and was killed.
Tukiauau, Korokīwhiti and their people ended up at Rakiura until Hā-kite-kura’s grieving father (Tūwiriroa) attacked their village killing all apart from two small boys, Hapetuakiwhiti and Tūokioki, two of the children of Hā-ki-te-kura and Korokīwhiti. The two boys were raised by Tūwiriroa and, in accordance with Māori custom, he also taught them the story of their father’s death as a constant reminder of the revenge that must one day be sought. As soon as the boys were old enough they travelled north to gather support for an attack. A large contingent of Kāi Tahu from Kaikoura and Kaiapoi descended upon the remaining Kāti Māmoe in a battle known as Tārere-ki-whenua-uta (on the Taiari). This was one of the important battles in the South ensuring that its participants’ descendants, who eventually settled at Ōtākou, retained their mana across their territory.