The students, staff and board of Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga hosted the annual ‘Ra Maumahara ki a Te Arikinui Te Atairangikaahu’ last month which included two ceremonies. The day programme was a memorial service with presentations by students. The evening programme paid tribute to the signing of the Raupatu Settlement 15 years ago on 22 May 1995 by the late Te Arikinui and the Rt Honourable James Bolger on behalf of the Crown. Each school house group celebrated other indigenous countries by retelling their stories of raupatu. Students represented the Maaori Kings - Pootatau paid tribute to the people of Hawaii, Taawhiao to Tahiti, Mahuta to the South African clans, Te Rata to the American Indian Nation, and Korokii to ‘ngaa iwi moemoea’ our Australian neighbours the Aboriginal peoples. Extract from the ‘Te Arikinui’ Book Photo: The Late Te Arikinui Te Atairangikaahu and Rt Honourable James Bolger during the Raupatu Settlement Celebrations, 22 May 1995
Never did Te Arikinui ever leave the people out on historic occasions. Always she tried somehow, to get them involved and many times at her own expense. August 1st 1995 the Board members, staff and advisers as well as the Crown negotiating team attended the [first] reading of the Waikato Raupatu Claims Settlement Bill at Parliament. On 19 October [1995] the Board hired a train... dubbed the Tainui Express. It travelled from Auckland ... to allow the then 56 Waikato Marae who had signed in support of the settlement, to travel to Wellington. One hundred and fifty kaumaatua and rangatahi representatives for the third and final reading of the Bill, filled the train. From the Railway Station the people marched through the main streets of Wellington to Parliament Buildings and many will never forget ...
Photo: Memorial Pou in Tuurangawaewae house -
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TE HOOKIOI - hune/june 2010