The Aorere goldfields were extensive. Auriferous gravels were found in many tributary rivers, streams, valleys and gullies, from the Aorere river mouth at Collingwood to the headwater s and ranges, more than sixty kilometres inland. Māori miners were domina nt in n umber, especially at sites where access was difficult. Tūpuna used river waka to reach inland sites. Strict tikanga was followed at the Goldfield sites. Traditional Māori principles of rangatiratanga, kaitiakitan ga and manaakitanga were practised by tūpun a to welcome guests with appropriate ceremony and hospitality. The Aorere River Valley also provided a natural inland pathway or Ara to reach Te Tai Poutini. This pat hway was an important greenstone trail, used by tūpuna in search of this valuable taonga and item of trade. The route followed the Aorere River before meeting the head of the Heaphy River and emerging just north of Karamea on the West Coast. The journey was a long one and required that tūpuna camp, rest and gather food en route in order to complete the expedition. PATURAU RIVER, ANATORI RIVER AND ANAWEKA RIVER AND THEIR TRIBUTARIES Te Tai Tapu, the area within which the Paturau, Anatori and Anaweka rivers flow is of immense traditional, historical and cultural significance to Ngāti Rārua. The relationsh ip of Ngāti Rārua to Te Tai Tapu is as important to present day iwi as it was to their tūpuna. The leng abundance of natural resources and the th of occupation, the prehistoric coastal trail to Te Tai Poutini all contribute to its importance. The settlements in Te Tai Tapu, such as those at the mouth of the Paturau, Anatori and Anaweka Rivers were crucial for attacks and subsequent settlement for a period in Tai Poutini. On the trail south to Te Tai Poutini, these awa provided important bases for tūpuna to harvest resources and stock up with food for their journe y. Traditionally, Ngāti Rārua tūpuna occupied a large settlement at the mouth of the Paturau River. Associated with this settlement were cultivation areas, mahinga kai, urupā and the largest pā south of Whanganui Inlet. Around 1830, Niho Te Hamu, a prominent Ngāti Rārua chief, imprisoned a senior Ngāi Tahu chief Tuhuru, captured near Hokitika, at Paturau. Niho made many trips to Te Tai Poutini to collect pounamu gifted to him by those whom he had allowed to return to their lands. Although, there is little archaeological information on the kāinga and pā at Paturau, oral traditions tell of numerous habitation sites and areas of significant resource use, and this awa remains a taonga of great significance to Ngāti Rārua toda y. The Anatori River mouth was another locality where generations of tūpuna lived, camped and harvested resources on the Tai Tapu coast. At the centre of extensive alluvial gold mining in the 1860s, Māori owners issued licences to mine in the river. Evidence of Ngāti Rārua settlement can still be seen at the m outh of the Anaweka River. Middens and ovens provide an indication of the importance of this river to tūpuna. The mouth of th e river was where whānau lived, gathered and processed resources and maintained their tribal traditions. Rev Charles Lucas Reay, Anglican minister in Nelson, travelled almost to Kahurangi Point in 1845 where he recorded the names of nine male and seven female residents at 'Teanahoeka' (Anaweka), a Rārua kāing a. Since the early 1800s, Ngāti Rārua whānau have made seasonal journeys to the awa of Te Tai Tapu to collect mahinga kai, rongoā and other natural materials. In earlier times, whole commun ities or contingents of Māori w ould relocate their villages to harvest resources from this huge and abundant food basket. Everyone had different tasks. Some would go fishing, while others would collect shellfish, snare birds or collect plant materials from around the river mouth, estuary areas and associated lowland forests, which hugged the rivers from the coast inland. Te Tau Ihu Statutory Acknowledgements Page 79 of 163