6 minute read
Rivers Connect
Rivers connect, so the saying goes, and very few rivers in Aotearoa New Zealand have connected so many, for so long, as the Whanganui.
According to legend, the Whanganui River was a ravine carved from the land by Ranginui, the Sky Father, as a gift to Ruapehu. When the great mountains of the central plateau, Tongariro and Taranaki, battled over the maiden Pīhanga, Taranaki was defeated and fled to the coast; the land split open as he passed and the tears he cried over his defeat filled the ravine and became the Whanganui River.
And what a river it was. As the longest navigable river in the country it was pivotal in connecting Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Tuwharetoa and Ngāti Hauaroa and for connecting the central North Island to the coast. When European settlers arrived in the 1880s the Whanganui River’s banks were one of the most densely populated parts of the country, with numerous villages and pā sites.
KōauteĀwa,kōteĀwakōau, I am the river and the river is me
Ned Tapa is on the River nearly everyday, often taking youths at risk down the river to give them a better sense of being, and he knows only too well the important place it holds. “For preEuropean Māori the River was our everything,” Ned says. “Spiritually, physically and emotionally. It was a source of food, it healed our sick, and it was our main highway – because we are connected by water, and some would say separated by land!”
Pākehā also recognised the importance of the River, both for trade and travel. The waka that traversed the River were soon joined by paddle steamers that journeyed deep into the interior, and hotels and moored riverboats joined the villages and pa sites to cater to arriving settlers and tourists, who came from Australia to see the legendary ‘Māoriland’.
Churches soon joined the hotels, and as the European presence grew, so too did pressure on the river and local Māori. By the 1860s this had boiled over into open conflict, with the Hauhau movement gathering in the River’s headlands and marching west with the ultimate goal of the Whanganui settlement. When they reached Pipiriki they battled local iwi and then set about laying siege to the Pākehā garrison there, which they had effectively surrounded. Cut off from supplies and communications and running short of food and water, things were looking somewhat bleak for the garrison troops, although the story goes that they were well supplied with rum and were maintaining a ration of three tots per day –which makes it even more remarkable that they managed any resistance at all!
The rum ration did provide a solution however, in the form of the empty bottles it produced. Notes requesting reinforcements were written in Latin to confuse any Māori who found them (though this would quite possibly have confused Pākehā too) and were sealed in bottles which were then thrown into the river under cover of night. Remarkably, one of the bottles was found and translated, and a relief force was hurriedly assembled – but before it reached the garrison the Hauhau force lost interest and moved on!
“For pre-European Māori the River was our everything”
By 1891 a regular steamer service up the river was introduced to Pipiriki, with visitors staying at Pipiriki House, which was billed as one of the country’s most modern hotels. Modern it may have been, but it had no fire fighting system and was burnt to the ground in 1909. By that time the steamers could travel all the way to Taumarunui, where a 92 foot long houseboat, the Makere, was built before being floated down the river to a mooring at Maraekowhai. It had all the mod cons like hot showers and electric lights, but – like Pipiriki House – no means of fighting fire; it burnt to the waterline in 1933.
Before long, industry was joining tourism on the River. By the mid to late 1800s there were an estimated 30,000 acres of wheat under cultivation, and water-driven mills sprang up to turn this into flour. However, the extensive clearance of the bush caused massive changes to the land and its people and as early as the 1880s there were calls to protect the river. Though those calls would take more than a century to be answered, the solution was innovative – and a world first.
In 2017, after decades of lobbying, the New Zealand Parliament passed a law that granted the river its own legal identity, known as Te Awa Tupua, with the same legal rights and responsibilities as a person.
Decades of negotiations culminated in Te Awa Tupua recognising the river as an indivisible entity, from its source on Mount Tongariro until it meets the Tasman Sea, with all of its physical and spiritual elements.
“Giving the Whanganui River this identity was a world first,” says Ned. “It recognises that Whanganui Māori regard Te Awa Tupua as more than just a natural resource, it is a tupuna, or ancestor, and must be treated with respect. We have a saying - Kō au te Āwa, kō te Āwa kō au, I am the river and the river is me - and in some ways giving Te Awa Tupua it’s identity has reinforced this and reconnected us.”
Connecting to the Whanganui River is still a pretty magical experience; whether from the shore via hiking or biking, or in a kayak or on a paddle steamer, getting up close and personal with the mighty Te Awa Tupua is something we can all enjoy.
