Waiapu Bridge Pillar Ki Tai

He mana ā-ahurea, ā-wairua, ā-ohaoha tō te Awa o Waiapu e ai ki te iwi o Natalie Roberstson, a Ngāti Porou. Ka tutū te puehu o whakahē i te whakatūnga o tētahi piriti i te tīmatanga o te rautau 20. Ka whakatuwheratia i te tau o 1914, ā, ka whakahauātia e tētahi waipuke nui rawa. I te tau o 1916 i te whakatuwheratanga tuarua, ka whakapuakina e tētahi rangatira nō taua rohe: ‘ā tōna wā, ka ara mai te wairua o tēnei awa mana nui; ka rangona tōna whakatakariri, ka mutu ko te mahi nui a te Pākehā, ka ākirihia katoatia ki te moana.’ E rua ngā wiki whai muri, ka turakina te piriti. Ko te kaupapa o tēnei kahui takirua ko te pou kotahi o te piriti e toe tonu ana – he maumaharatanga ki te turi a te taringa Pākehā ki te mātauranga Māori.

Kei te maumahara te kaumātua a Tame Te Maro i te kupu poropiti a Te Kooti Arikirangi Tūruki i a ia e wehe ana i te pūaha o Awanui hei karo i a Meiha Rāpata Wahawaha, te rangatira nō Ngāti Porou, nāna i ārahi te whai i a Te Kooti i te taha o te kāwanatanga, kia puritia tonutia te whenua o Te Tai Rāwhiti. Ko tā Te Kooti: ‘Ā tōna wā, ka rengarengahia ō whenua e tō awa, e Waiapu’. Ka hikitia taua mākutu e Hori Keeti i te tekau tau 1950, heoi anō he kaupapa nui aua kupu poropiti e rua. Mai i te tau 2018, kua tae atu ngā tāna miriona miriona o ngā para mahi ngahere ki Te Waiapu, ko āna mahi he paitini i te awa, i te moana, i te whenua.

The Waiapu River holds cultural, spiritual and economic significance for Ngāti Porou, Natalie Robertson’s iwi (tribe). An early bridge opened in 1914, was damaged by a huge flood. In 1916, when the bridge re-opened, a local rangatira (leader) declared: ‘the day will come when the spirit of that great river will arise in anger and the big work of the Pākehā will be swept out to sea.’ Two weeks later, the bridge collapsed. This diptych’s subject is the bridge’s one remaining pillar – testimony to colonial settler failure to heed Māori wisdom.

Ngāti Porou kaumatua Tame Te Maro recalls Te Kooti Arikirangi Tūruki had spoken an earlier prophesy as he left Port Awanui and evaded Major Rāpata Wahawaha, a Ngāti Porou leader who led the pursuit against Te Kooti and fought on the side of the government to protect East Coast land. Te Kooti said: ‘sometime in the near future you and your land will be washed away by your river Waiapu’. This curse was lifted by George Gage (Hori Keeti) in the 1950s, but both prophesies have contemporary significance. Since 2018, millions of tonnes of forestry slash has been washed into the Waiapu, polluting the awa (river), moana (sea) and whenua (land).

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