October 03, 2019
Te Kapotai cooking up Koukou commemoration
While Tairāwhiti iwi are split over whether to take part in official Tuia 250 commemorations starting at the weekend, a Bay of Islands hapū is upset it can't get official support to tell the story of its encounter with Lieutenant James Cook and the Endeavour.
Kaumātua Kara George says Te Kapotai's request for an event at Waikare Marae was turned down because it was said to have come in too late.
He says Tuia 250 events in the north seem to be about tourism promotion rather than hapū feeling part of the story.
The Waikare event will go ahead so Te Kapotai can tell how its rangatira Te Koukou was involved in an incident at the end of November 1769 when the Endeavour was surrounded by waka.
The following day when warriors surrounded the Endeavour's landing party on Motuarohia Island, Cook drew a line in the sand and warned anyone stepping over would be shot.
"Some crossed that and our tupuna Koukou was shot and injured. Our whānau story tells how Tupaia went missing for three days and it is recounted he was in Waikare with Te Koukou and our ancestors. He left bearing gifts – a rei puta niho, a carved whale tooth bone that went around his neck and a heru, a comb that went into his hair," Mr George say.
Those taonga are now in the British Museum, and Te Kapotai would like to eventually see them return to the north.
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