Last week the Junior Team enjoyed hosting a visitor, Kelly, from the Nelson Provincial Museum. Kelly told us the pūrākau (local story) of Mātua Hautere and Kaikaiāwaro.

This is a special story for us at Māpua School, as Mātua Hautere is a tupuna (ancestor) of Ngāti Kuia - one of the iwi that we are connected with. 

In this retelling of the story, a kaitiaki taniwha in the form of a very rare and special white dolphin approached Mātua Hautere's waka, Te Hoiere, as it was exploring what is now called the Marlborough Sounds. This dolphin, named Kaikaiāwaro, seemed to be leading the waka in a particular direction, so they followed her. 

As Kaikaiāwaro approached the area we now know as Havelock, she used her nose to create a channel through the sea grass. Mātua Hautere guided his waka through the channel she had made, and eventually arrived at the mouth of the Pelorus River, which Mātua Hautere named Te Hoiere, after his waka. 

This version of the pūrākau is slightly different from Ngāti Kuia's version, which describes Kaikaiāwaro as using her nose to carve out the Pelorus Sound and parts of the Pelorus River itself, rather than the channel through the sea grass the led to the river's mouth. 

Because stories like these were traditionally passed down orally through the generations, it is expected that some differences will occur. Knowing that the same story can be told in different ways is one of the key themes in the new Aotearoa New Zealand's Histories curriculum.