The Rivermouth
Te Wai Mimi o Pekehaua
Life begins for our awa in the sky as rain speeds downwards to the mountains below. Like branches of a tree water spreads across the bloodlines of many around the motu.
Reborn as our awa the waters bubble up from a vibrant clear puna hidden within lush bushlife.
Flowing down past the Pa and family homes along the banks never stopping. The final destination her rivermouth pushing out to speak across the lake and island.
Rituals and customs
Family prayers and karakia to our chiefs and tupuna are transmitted by the river. Connecting water to land through our feet on her banks we look up to hear the air echoing spiritual messages across her rippling waters.
The cold water has absolute power to the people diving in to be rebaptised with the natural water of a mother.
Common practises of karakia on the banks whilst children play and dive emphasises life around the awa had many dual purposes.
Spiritual mana
All things of nature have spiritual mana for Maori as we believe all things have lifeforce both for the living and the world of the dead.
Carried in our waters are the spirits and nutrients used to heal our illnesses calm our minds and mark our celebrations. They are felt before they are seen through Maori faith in nature's healing powers.
We accept earth's importance to our way of life as powerful mana and use this to heal our own spirit and in turn our bodies.
The awa herself is more than a spring to be taken from she is a lifeforce of her own making.
Watercress
The staples of our people spread in lush patterns across the banks.
From the puna down to the rivermouth lime green beds would spring up centre stream as the mirroring clear water swirls past to plant seeds along the banks.
Swans and their young feed on the watercress as they journey the current upstream. Unafraid the swans would swim through the soap suds of family doing their washing on the riverbanks. Laughter and conversations of mothers and aunties echoed like birdsongs across the awa.
Te hei mauri ora
Water is a conductor for old tribal business chiefs practised long before the new Pa was built.
Our water is older than our ways of life able to gather memory from the flow of its path like the breath of life.
Tribes around the motu gather and play on the awa banks. So full of life with sounds of human laughter and climbing feet echoing while the awa listens always.
The banks of a well
A smorgasbord of plentiful natural foods from the now extinct greyling fish to watercress koura and fern fronds the awa thrived in the past.
When colonisation moved in to drink from the stream awa food became scarce if at all found.
