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Pipiwharauroa He Maungawhā
Hugh Lynn
entail, then one day about a year before he died he gave me three things and told me not to tell my mother. The first was a small segment on paper of my whakapapa. The second item was an old taiaha and the last was a heavy wooden patu fashioned by his own hands.
Kō Ahitītī te maunga Kō Waihirere te awa Kō Pārihimānahi te marae Kō Ngāti Wāhia te hapū Kō Te Aitanga-ā-Māhaki te iwi Kō Hugh Harawera Lynn ahau
First there were two people; my mother, Dorothy Virginia Mangaere Katipa who, by the time I was born, was separated from her husband and was working full time.
Hugh Lynn
It became extremely difficult with a young child so she had to ask my Grandfather, Haua Harawera Katipa to come from Gisborne to live in Auckland to assist in looking after me. We all lived together in a small flat in Morningside. There was also some assistance from my Grandmother Philomina Sarah Gollop Katipa who was still living in Auckland and working in the city, such was the makeup of my Auckland family. My mother was working daily and many nights performing on stage in various shows in the Auckland theatrical scene. There was only one income to begin with which was a result of mother’s efforts. By the time I had started at school, my grandfather, Haua had also commenced work with the Ministry of Works. What I did not know at the time is that mother had faced serious abuse about being Māori and had made my grandfather promise not to teach me anything Māori. He kept his promise until I was about fifteen years of age. Then one evening I remember clearly, I had arrived and knocked on the door of this young woman’s home to take her out, her father answered and told me quite bluntly that his daughter was not going out with me because I was both Catholic and Māori and slammed the door in my face. I remembered feeling stunned. I knew I was a Catholic which was easy to establish as all my schooling had been Catholic, firstly under the guidance of Nuns and then the Marist Brothers but I did not know what a Māori was. I was left feeling deeply confused regarding this. Up until I was fifteen my grandfather had never talked about being Māori and what that might
Just before he passed on he called me into his room and told me that these three items that he had given me were very important for me and asked me to go out and fight for my people. He also told me that he knew I did not understand the significance of his words but that there was something inside me that did. About two years after his passing I remember finding these items where I had hidden them away and I wondered what was I supposed to do with them. I did not understand the words of the whakapapa written in Māori on paper which was as strange as a Martian’s language to me. Then I got a bright idea! I knew that this long stick with a strange shape was a weapon of war and if I was to fight for my people I should learn how to use this taonga. Previously I had been practising ‘Asian martial arts’ for some 11 years what with Mount Eden being just up the road from our home. Its Māori name was ‘Maungawhā’ and had once been a fortified fighting Pā. So it was there where I would go to practise with my taiaha. I had found a place at the top of the mount, away from the public so that I could focus on the task at hand.
on my journey to becoming what was to me, more Māori. What I began to realise at this time as I progressed, was that this was not going to be easy. In fact it had become one of the most difficult tasks that I had attempted in my life up until then. All that I had done, or put my mind to until then had brought nothing but success. As a few years rolled by I had put this seemingly difficult task away of trying to find out more about being Māori and what it meant. I was by then very wealthy living right on the waterfront in Mission Bay, driving a Ferrari while the Bastion Point events were unfolding around me. I did not understand what was going on up there but I was experiencing a rising anger. On the morning when the Police arrived in numbers at Bastion Point, I was forced awake at 3 a.m. and I was standing outside on the balcony smoking a cigarette when this horrible feeling began to overwhelm me and continue on for some time with my tears falling uncontrollably.
Hugh with his grandmother Philomina Gollop Katipa on his 21st birthday
I already had some experience training with similar weapon types so, in my mind, it all seemed fairly easy but for some unknown reason during my training I kept hitting myself with this taiaha. Well it’s early days I thought, I am still learning and although the taiaha started to feel more comfortable in my hands after constant practice, it seemed to have a life of its own and it kept hitting me. I clearly remember those times for the many bruises I received from what felt more like a life form than a stick as, up until then I had done very well in martial arts. I had seen very early that there was a strong similarity between the fighting arts and the art of dancing in this respect. The need to be perfectly balanced was one. So, what was going wrong with this Māori taiaha and why was I struggling to master it? I remember, as crazy as it sounds, often talking to my taiaha without receiving any response. One day while I was going through this process, I had a feeling that I should pick up this taiaha and examine it more closely and when I did this I started to see that one end of it was like an aeroplane wing and it had been specially designed to move through the air more quickly than a normal stick yet the taiaha had been made long before the advent of aeroplanes. I found this discovery to be amazing. “How could this be?”
Then something changed, and it was as if I am in another place, but I had not moved. There are a number of people around me whom I am unable to identify. Yet I have this certainty that my grandfather is one of them, and is present – suddenly, someone speaks.
“Your time on the earth is short and you will be judged by what you do for other people. Even though you have been very successful up until this day and have succeeded in winning many awards and have become publically popular and famous, it will all be without meaning and in fact, a complete waste of time and effort. Remember this, when you have completed your journey down on the earth, you will be held accountable and judged for what you have done with the life given you. Remember always, that it is what you do for others that is the real measure of how successful you really are”. And then I was aware of being back on the balcony again and experiencing a deep state of distress, what a dilemma I was in…, what to do? I don’t know. I felt completely lost. A feeling of a deep sense of disappointment was rising inside of me. This feeling stayed within me for a number of months, coming and going. Clearly there was a considerable challenge ahead of me. To be continued next month…
Something took place that day as internally my whole body was vibrating as I then realised I had made an important discovery without really knowing or understanding why. It had taken up to this moment to realise that I really did not know or understand what I was doing with this taiaha or in fact, that I had commenced Dorothy Virginia Mangaere Katipa with Dad Haua Harawira Katipa on her wedding day
Hugh with the taiaha given to him by his grandfather Haua Harawira Katipa