3.0 Statements of Associations 3.1 NGĀTI APA KI TE RĀ TŌ 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. LAKE ROTOITI AND LAKE ROTOROA, NELSON LAKES NATIONAL PARK Ngāti Ap a’s relationship with its whenua and wai is integral to its identity as a people. Lake Rotoiti (Small Waters) and Lake Rotoroa (Large Waters ’) symbolise for Ngāti Apa ‘ ’ ‘ people the intense nature of their relationship to their environment, and the mauri or life force that is contained in all parts of the natural environment and binds the spiritual and physical world. Ngāti Apa trace their connections to the lakes from their ancestor Kupe. According to Ngāti Apa tradition Lakes Rotoiti and Rotoro a are the e ye-sockets 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. According to tradition this represents the blood of the wheke. The eyes of the wheke are Nga-Whatu-kai-ponu (the Brothers Islands). The lakes are the source of five important waterways: the Kawatiri, Motueka, Motupiko, Waiau-toa and Awatere rivers. The resources of the lakes and environs were used by Ngāti T umatakokiri tupuna, and later by Ngāti Apa when they established themselves in Te Tau Ihu. 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 Kurahaupō communities in the Wairau, Waiau-toa (Clarence River), Kaituna, Whakatu, Tasman Bay, Mohua (Golden Bay) and the Kawatiri district. While the lakes formed a geographical link with the wider Te Tau Ihu district, shared whakapapa within Kurahaupō iwi guaranteed the maintenance of wider Kurahaupō rights and access. The lakes area was a rich source of mahinga kai, including birds (kiwi, South Island kokako, piopio and 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 was (and remains) highly valued by Ngāti Apa and was used to make korowai. The region was used as a refuge for Ngāti Apa after the northern invasions, and formed a secure base for warriors who continued to defend their rohe, 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 burnin g and planted by Ngāti A pa people after the invasions. The gardens were described by European visitors to the region in the 1840s, and are still visible today. Ngāti Apa also constructed huts of unique design here, both for seasonal and more permanent shelter.