He aha te mea nui o tēnei ao, he tākata, he tākata, he tākata.
What is the most important thing in this world? It is people, it is people, it is people.
Nau Mai, Haere Mai, we, the uri, the descendants of Hāwea, Rapuwai, Waitaha, Māmoe and Tahu, we, the kaitiaki, the guardians of this place, welcome you to Hakatere!
Curated by Tewera King of Ngāi tahu, Upoko of Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua.
Hine-Paaka was an ancestor of the Ngāi Tūhaitara hapū of Kāi Tahu and of the Kāti Māmoe people who preceded Kāi Tahu in an earlier migration to the South Island. Her name is preserved in the Hakatere district in the naming of a large mātai which stood on the edge of the Alford Forest. The tree was known as a customary marker of the Ngāi Tūhaitara claims to the region – this right was through Hine-Paaka’s descent from her parents, Marukore and Tūhaitara.
Te Rehe was a Kāi Tahu leader in the 19th century. He was the ariki (paramount chief) for the Huirapa rohe in which Hakatere is located. His wife was Pōti and they had several children. Te Rehe and his sons regularly guided surveyors and government agents through the South Canterbury region and hosted them at Te Waiateruatī Pā on the Ōrakipaoa River. This sketch of Te Rehe was drawn by Walter Mantell (Commissioner for Extinguishing Native Claims) at Te Waiateruatī on 9 October 1848.
Riki Te Mairaki Ellison-Taiaroa was widely recognised as an authority on South Island Māori matters having been steeped in Māori history and lore by his great-grandmother Tini Kerei Taiaroa and great-uncle Riki Te Mairaki Taiaroa, the wife and son of Hori Kerei Taiaroa. Uncle Riki, lived at Taumutu on the shores of Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere). He had close connections to the wider community of Ashburton as a historian and a respected awardwinning dairy farmer. In the 1970s he was instrumental in the establishment of Māori support networks in the Hakatere district including the Hakatere Marae.
