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[Traditional Māori music (15 secs)]
[Narrator] The ancient pa site of Kaiapohia, close to the main highway 30 kilometres north
of Christchurch, exemplifies the fluctuating fortunes of Ngāi Tahu, the largest Māori
tribe of the South Island.
Ngāi Tahu migrated south from the East Coast of the North Island in the late 1600s. At
Kaiapohia they established a pā (or fortified settlement) on a 2 hectare finger of land
extending into a large lagoon. This provided excellent defence on three sides, while the
fourth was protected by a complex of trenches and palisades. From this stronghold, Ngāi
Tahu spread outwards and eventually dominated most of the South Island from the islands
off the southern coast up to the Marlborough region.
Kaiapohia pā became a major trading centre for greenstone or pounamu. The precious stone,
a type of jade, was carried over a local pass (now Harper Pass) from the rivers of the West
Coast where it was found. In 1828 a North Island tribe, Ngāti Toa, came south in search
of pounamu. They arrived at Kaiapohia, presenting themselves as friends, keen to trade for pounamu.
Ngāi Tahu invited eight of their chiefs into the pā. These chiefs included Te Pēhi Kupe,
the tribe's senior hereditary chief, who four years earlier had boarded a trading ship and
travelled to England. Heavily tattooed on the face, Te Pēhi became a sensation, before
returning to New Zealand laden with muskets. But this time Te Pēhi and his group had left
their muskets outside Kaiapohia. When their Ngāi Tahu hosts suddenly attacked them, they
were all killed. The one Ngāti Toa chief outside the palisades, Te Rauparaha, called
out 'Nourish your children for the time I come back because there will be no survivors'.
Sure enough, several years later Te Rauparaha returned with many Ngāti Toa warriors and
laid siege to the great Kaiapohia pā. They dug a trench up the narrow neck of land leading
to the pā. At its head, close to the outer palisades, they stacked a huge mound of trees
and scrub, which they intended to burn when the wind was blowing towards the pā and so
attack under the protection of the smoke. But Ngāi Tahu seized the initiative and lit
the material as a strong north-westerly wind blew the flames away from the pā. But then
disaster struck. The wind changed to the south, sending smoke across Kaiapohia as well as
burning the outer defences. Ngāti Toa stormed into the pā and, true to Te Rauparaha's earlier
threat, killed most of its inhabitants. Only a few managed to escape by fleeing through
the surrounding lagoons and swamps. Such was the slaughter that when Europeans
arrived a decade later, only about a dozen Māori lived in the vicinity. And when the
missionary, James Stack, established a station there, he first had to remove drayloads of
human bones from the site. He later erected a carved concrete memorial to Ngāi Tahu on
the Kaiapohia site. The memorial still stands, but the swamp has
been drained and Kaiapohia seems a distant memory. Yet the spirit of Ngāi Tahu flourishes
strongly elsewhere. In recent decades the tribe has staged a spectacular comeback, on
the back of business acumen. During the 1990s, Ngāi Tahu received a significant
sum from the Crown as compensation for the loss of their lands and they invested wisely.
Today, the tribe has an extensive property portfolio of office buildings, shopping centres
and other commercial premises. It has interests in numerous tourist ventures throughout New
Zealand. These are complemented by big stakes in the seafood and aged care sectors.
The old Kaiapohia pa site may be desolate, but nearby Ngāi Tahu is busy developing a
new community, known as Pegasus Town. And if you go whale watching, jet boating, walking
on a glacier, ice climbing, or kayaking somewhere in the South Island, chances are you are participating
in a Ngāi Tahu venture.