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| Flagpoles, Tutereinga Marae |
In April 1995, Howie Wilson says, he and three of his mates found the Anzac Day crowds at the Mount Maunganui RSA too large for their liking. The press of people in the club did not allow for the quiet reflection and exchange of memories that marked the day for him and Lincoln Smith, Perry Smith, and Tapuraka Dickson, all veterans of New Zealand’s campaigns in Malaya, Borneo and Viet Nam. They took themselves off, with a couple of crates of beer, to a retreat within sight of Hairini marae.[1] (This was not a new thing - old soldiers had made it their informal catch-up place as early as the 1980s.)
Marae are places of connection and re-connection, places imbued with meaning. It is not, therefore, surprising that the idea that came to Howie and his former brothers-in-arms on Anzac Day 1995 brought together past and future commemorations and began a new tradition. Five years later, after much korero and organisation, Ngāti Tapu hosted a dawn ceremony at Waikari marae on the Matapihi peninsula.
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| Howie and Donna planning, Tutereinga Marae |
The first Parade Commander was a retired former Regimental Sergeant Major of the Hauraki Battalion, WO Ist Class Ben Morunga. The Hauraki Battalion has proved to be staunch in its support ever since, an acknowledgement of the large proportion of Maori who served in the three South East Asia campaigns. All of the veterans mentioned, except for Howie himself, have now passed on.
This was to be the first in a nineteen-year sequence, interrupted in 2020 when Covid-19 restrictions prevented any but the tiniest of Anzac gatherings.[2] The original plan was to hold the service at Hungahungatoroa, but a tangi intervened and the planning pivoted to nearby Waikari, “which was better, really,” says Howie. “The mist was well down and the contingent just came up out of it.” He was surprised and gratified at the turnout – about 500 people attended, many of them young.
Other marae were not slow to put in their bids as hosts. Over the years, dawn services have been held at nearly every marae in Tauranga Moana, including Hairini of course (in 2019) and Opureroa on Matakana Island. Given that there are 22 of them by my count [3], it was quite some time before Te Puna’s turn came.
This was to have been in 2020, the Covid year. Pirirakau elders were to be sadly disappointed; even sadder, two of the most forceful bidders, Maria Ngatai and Kiritoha Tangitu, had passed away before they could see their home marae, Tutereinga, be the venue for the service.
“I did form the Tauranga Moana Tumutauenga Returned Services Association Inc [4],” Howie told me. “But I never really needed it. The service stays the same each year – only the people change.” As the ranks of the original 38 members of the society – many of whom had served in the South-east Asian conflicts – dwindled, Howie found Tania Smith standing alongside him. She took on the takohanga in memory of her own dad, Lincoln. And the crowds, especially the presence of young people, got bigger every year.
Tania held the promise to Pirirakau as Covid restrictions relaxed. At the end of March 2021, a small group of planners got their marching orders: the wreath-making, the breakfast menu, the site of the rum station (just outside the marae), the lighting – Howie does not want anything too bright – the Ratana band and the Parade Marshall. Tania wistfully wonders if the kura choir might be coached in time to sing Hikoi kia toa, “but ke te pai if not ...” and the after-party venue (the Te Puna Rugby Club) is sorted. Photos of tipuna for the order of service, and their placement and presentation on the porch of the wharenui, no detail too small: this will be a big day for Te Puna and Pirirakau are on their mettle. “Expect the wharekai to be full,” Tania tells Pirirakau whaea Donna Bidois.
“It’s an honour and a privilege,” Donna responds.
“Each marae has its own wairua,” Howie concludes. The old soldier stands in contemplation in front of the wharenui, flanked by Pirirakau whanau. Suddenly the connections are everywhere – those who are to be remembered, those who are yet to come. Marae are not monuments or memorials, but their power to contain time and memory, for “learned discourse, customary oratory, laughter, nostalgia and sharing sorrow and tears” [5] as the Ngai Te Ahi Trust describes Hairini, means it is no surprise that his idea of aligning military Anzac traditions with Maori tikanga has taken root and flourishes.
References
[1] For a useful description of this marae from interviews with twelve members of the Ngai Te Ahi hapū, see Teddy, Nikora and Bernard, MAI Rreview, 2008, 1 Article 3; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/33051444_Place_attachment_of_Ngai_Te_Ahi_to_Hairini_Marae
[2] For instance, a few locals waited for dawn outside the near-completed Te Puna Memorial Hall, maintaining social distance. Elsewhere, people followed public health messages and stood at the end of their driveways at 6 am.
[3] https://maorimaps.com/node/14479
[4] Records of the society, now dissolved, can be found at https://is-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz/
[5] https://www.ngaiteahi.co.nz/rohe/hairini-marae/
