Find your stories

Ngati Porou has many stories. Every whanau, every hapu, every rohe and every individual has their own stories to find and to share. This site is here to help with that, and there are other places you can go to begin your journey as well…

Talk to your marae and pakeke

In the first instance you should of course go and spend some time with your marae and with your pakeke (elders). At hui you will hear the whakapapa and the kōrero of your people, and be able to connect them to your whenua. At the kapu ti you will learn who fits where and when. All of this will help you piece together your story.

Use this site

Of course not everyone can make it back to the coast all the time. And our pakeke need their rest from time to time.

This site offers an overview to our iwi history. There are a range of overview essays based on various pou: Rangatira (leadership); Whanau (people); Matauranga (knowledge); Kaitiekitanga (environment); and Whairawa (economy). These will give you a context which can help you understand more about what you will hear on your journey of discovery.

For example, in the article on Nga Tīpuna you can find some of the founding whakapapa of the iwi, that will give you an anchor when you begin to trace your own. Or the section on Migration in the Whanau essay might help explain why you were brought up in the city.

Our common context helps to guide and explain our individual and whanau stories.

Our taonga

This section of the site showcases some of the brilliant storehouses of our Ngati Porou taonga. Whether letters from tīpuna in the Alexander Turnbull LIbrary in Wellington (pictured), or online photographs or even whole marae in international museums, these are great places to begin exploring.

Read and explore more

Ngati Porou is an iwi of scholars! Over our existence we have striven for academic excellence, firstly through our whare wananga and then later through the University system and on our marae.

Great books

There are some excellent books (available in most libraries) to get you started on your journey. Here are only a tiny selection::

Apirana Ngata, Rauru-nui-a-Toi lectures – Ta Aprana led these as a series of lectures in 1944. They contain the depth of Ngati Porou whakapapa.

Tania Ka'ai, Ngoingoi Pewhairangi: an extraordinary life – a biography of one of our great women leaders, this gives great insight into our creativity

Apirana Mahuika, ‘Leadership: Inherited and Achieved', in Michael King ed., Te Ao Hurihuri – this is an excerpt from Papa Api’s master’s thesis on women’s leadership. It gives a great insight into our leadership models

Monty Soutar, Nga tama toa: the price of citizenship – a great book that gives you a feeling of what it means to be Ngati Porou

Online resources

Although you should always be cautious when it comes to information on the internet, there are some great iwi resources out there. Here are just a quick sample:

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/ngati-porou -  Ta Tamati Reedy’s essay on the iwi is the single best resource on the web. Te Ara also has lots of interesting material on other topics.

https://www.youtube.com/user/wakahuiatvnz - Waka Huia has produced some outstanding material on Ngati Porou over the years.

http://www.terangitawaea.com/ - the Rangitawaea Festival showcases the creativity of our tamariki and rangatahi, and also tells some great stories!

http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/features/editions.aspx?id=11 – Walton Walker’s collection of amazing korero on our whenua and history