My travels to Maori territory

Page 5

When I went to New Zealand with my family, I had the opportunity to spend a week in a Maori settlement. This settlement was at the north end of the North Island. It is called Pawarenga.

While in Pawarenga, I met a Maori man they called Chiefie. Chiefie became our guide to the community and took us all around the hills which circle the community. Over the hills to the west, you can see the ocean. The children and I rode horses up into the hills to see the waterfalls. This is the source of their fresh water in the community.

My son Brandon had a friend, Afatu, at Pawarenga. They spent most of their time together doing chores, riding horses or just being teenage boys. The two boys were responsible for setting the fish nets when the tide was coming in. Brandon learned about Maori fishing traditions.

They were netting flounder. They had some close calls and several adventures in that river.

Some of what we learned in Pawarenga was sad. There used to be a forest of kauri trees. These trees grow very, very large. We drove through a forest on the way to Pawarenga and stopped to see the second biggest tree in the world. It was a kauri tree that was about 2,000 years old. These trees also occupy a significant place in the creation story of the Maori. The kauri trees, when the world was born, separated Mother Earth and Father Sky. The settlers cut down this forest, because both the wood and the gum from the trees were so valuable. However, I understood when I heard the people of the community talking about what had happened to them, that a sacred wrong had been done to the people.

There are many similarities between what has happened to First Nations in Canada and to the Maori people of New Zealand. There are also many differences. Maori people own their land. It is not held in trust for the people in the way Indian reserves are in Canada. Although this allows some opportunity for economic development for the Maori, it also means they have to pay tax on their lands. They have, over the years, lost a lot of their land for failing to pay the taxes.

The shrinking land base is an important issue for Maori people. Because the land is owned outright by individual Maoris, I also think that they are putting to use more of their land. There were fields and animals everywhere.

Their paddocks are much smaller than our pastures here in Canada. And there are billions of sheep ? sheep everywhere!

My eldest boy noted when we were at Pawarenga, that it was "just like Thunderchild, only it's not flat." He was right in his assessment (and the land was so beautiful ? green and hilly). Even though we were so far away from home, we fit right in to the goings-on of Pawarenga.

While in Pawarenga, Chiefie took us on a wild pig hunt. They use their dogs, spears and knives. It was very exciting to be in the forest on horseback. Too bad we never found a razorback!

I am thinking about hunting season now that I am back home in Canada. But thinking of hunting makes me remember New Zealand and I miss my friends there. Maybe one day Chiefie and his family will make it over this way and we can go out looking for a moose like the one in the photograph.