3.3 RANGITANE O WAIRAU The settling group’s statements of association are set out below. These are statements of the settling group’s particular cultural, spiritual, historical, and traditional association with identified areas. LAKES ROTOITI AND ROTOROA, NELSON LAKES NATIONAL PARK Rangitāne are among the iwi who trace their connections to the lakes through their ancestor Kupe. According to tradition Lake Rotoiti (‘Small Waters’) and Lake Rotoroa (‘Large Waters’) are the eyesockets of the great wheke (octopus) Muturangi. In the ancestral homeland, the wheke was in the habit of interfering with fishing expeditions undertaken by Kupe’s people, and by some accounts had been responsible for the death of Kupe’s relatives. Kupe set out in his waka Matahourua to destroy the wheke, and pursued it all the way to Aotearoa, where he killed it at the entrance to Tory Channel with a fierce downward blow of his spear or paddle (paoa) and took out its eyes. Arapaoa Island takes its name from this incident, and Te Taonui (Cape Jackson) represents Kupe’s weapon. At certain times of the year red water flows through Tory Channel. This represents the blood of the wheke. The eyes of the wheke are Nga-Whatu-kai-ponu (the Brothers Islands). The resources of the lakes and environs were used by Ngāti Tumatakokiri tupuna, and later by Rangitāne (and the other Kuraha upō iwi) when they established themselves in Te Tau Ihu and inherited the mana of N gāti Tumatakokiri through intermarriage. The lakes have added significance for the iwi as they are the source of five important waterways: the Kawatiri, Motueka, Motupiko, Waiau-toa and Awatere rivers. The lakes also formed the central terminus or hub of a series of well-known and well- used tracks (‘the footprints of the tupuna’) linking Rangitāne communities elsewhere in Te Tau Ihu. The lakes were particularly associated with the Ngai Te Heiwi hapū. Ngai Te Heiwi are linked through whakapapa to Rangitāne and the other Kurahaupō iwi, giving use and access rights to all. While the lakes formed a geographical link with the wider Te Tau Ihu district, shared connections with Ngai Te Heiwi guaranteed the maintenance of wider iwi rights and access. The Rangitāne tupuna Tamahaerangi and his wife Hawini are tupuna particularly associated with Ngai Te Heiwi and the lakes area. The lakes and their environs were a rich source of mahinga kai, including birds (kiwi, kokako, piopio, bush wren and blue ducks), kiore, eels, inanga, fern root and the root of the ti tree, and berries of the miro, tawa, kahikatea and totara. A shrub called neinei is only found in the lakes area. This shrub was used to make korowai and is highly valued by the iwi. The region was a refuge for Rangitāne (and other Kurahaupō people) after the northern invasions, and formed a secure base for warriors who continued to harass and threaten the iwi hou, particularly in the Whakatu area, a short distance from the lakes along a well known trail. Extensive and well-established fern gardens on the north facing slopes above Lake Rotoroa were cleared by burning and planted by Rangitāne after the invasions. The gardens were described by European visitors to the region in the 1840s. These early European visitors observed signs of recent and ongoing occupation and use of the lakes area, including the fern gardens, recently burned off ground, bird snares, and huts of a unique design used seasonally or as more permanent shelter by those who fled the iwi hou. TE OPE-A-KUPE (TE ANAMĀHANGA / PORT GORE) Te Anamāhanga (‘The Twin Bays’) was one of the two tentacles of the Wheke Mutarangi, the great octopus killed by Kupe. The other was Te Anatohia (East Bay). Te Anamāhanga l ies in t he shadow of two maunga significant to Rangitāne. The are y Puhikereru and Parororangi (Stormy Sky), named after a place in Hawaiki. ‘ ’ Te Tau Ihu Statutory Acknowledgements Page 44 of 163