Witi Ihimaera - The Thrill of Falling - Stories

‘There came a sunset when the young watch, Nicholas Young, sighted a promontory. Cook called the land New Zealand but your ancestor Tupaea knew otherwise: this was the fabled land of Aotearoa. And Tupaea realised ’Oro — or destiny — had a different purpose for him: to reinstate the connection that had long ago been severed.

‘He saw tall mountains, white cliffs, fertile land and then a village, with smoke coiling from many cooking fires. For the first time, he glimpsed the people, descendants of the Maohi voyagers.

‘He knew he would be the first priestly visitor for over three hundred years. But would the people remember?

‘He said to Taiata, “Bring me my robes.”’

Hello, Little Tu, are you receiving, over?

This is what I saw.

The sky was a strange colour that day, with the sun a fiery glowing ball, sending sunbursts from its surface.

The Maori, watching from the shore, were struck with wonder at what they saw. What was that moving across the blazing eye of Rangi? It was a strange magnificent waka, bucking amid the solar flares, its timbers smouldering within the raging solar sea.

‘Make haste, o waka, go quickly,’ they cried. With a roar of relief and acclamation they saw the canoe negotiate the transit and sail through to the cool universe beyond. Then it tipped and plunged headlong from the highest heavens like a fiery comet. Through the atmosphere the waka flamed, into the foaming sea.

What wonder was this? The canoe emerged newly born from the waves. It was like a huge island, with wide bluff bows, a raised poop and a square stern. The large sails made the island look like it was carrying its own clouds above it.

A brilliant rainbow arched from the highest heaven, and birds shrieked and flew from one end of the earth to the other. ‘O iwi, bow down,’ the birds commanded. ‘The Arikirangi is coming.’

And Tupaea slid down the rainbow, landing on the strange island.

The people gasped, for he was a man without physical flaw.

On his head was a circular cap, like a woven helmet, and from it sprouted a tall headdress made of beautiful red, yellow and black feathers. His body glistened with oil, and around his midriff and thighs he wore a girdle of red feathers. A shoulder cape reached down to the waist and was tipped with a fringe, this time of yellow feathers.

He had not come alone. A small boy child alighted alongside him, draped in pearls; they stood on the floating island, shining in the rainbow’s holy light.

Once Tupaea was satisfied that all the people had gathered, he began to chant:

A hee mai te tua, e ia papama ’ehe

No te tai a tau te po …

The sea rolled, the tides mounting

For a period of nights …

As he chanted the small child took up a great conch-shell trumpet, a putaiiteaeha, which brayed from horizon to horizon. Then he beat out intoxicating rhythms on some drums, and the whole universe swayed as Tupaea began to dance:

E po fanaura’a atua, o te po Mua Tai’aroa;

It was the God’s birth night, the night of Mua Taia’aroa

O ’Orotaua atua i fanau mai i te reira po …

’Oro taua was the God born that night …

Dipping and swaying, Tupaea lifted his arms to the sun, lowered them to the earth. When he twirled and gestured, the feathers he was wearing gleamed like a cloak of many colours.

’Oro atua o te Reva e te whenua nei;

’Oro, god of the Air and Earth;

’Oro haia; ’Oro atua o te Arioi

’Oro manslayer; god of the Arioi .

Then Tupaea revealed the beings which had come with him: goblins of ghastly white, in red skins, tricksters and devious. The people marvelled when Tupaea bade the goblins bring him to shore on smaller waka, for as they rowed they had their backs to the land, which meant that their eyes were at the backs of their heads.

There, on the sand, the small child brought forward a cylinder.

Tupaea unveiled the ironwood that had been stored within a sacred canopy covered with feathers, and offered it to the Maori people. ‘Do you remember?’ he cried.

With tears of gladness, they nodded their heads. Oh, it had been such a long time since ’Oro had been among them!

‘Then bow down before the great God, bow down!’

From that moment onward, all the people honoured the priest: ‘Arikirangi! Tupaea! Haere mai! Greetings, captain of the Endeavour !’

E mokopuna, you may wonder why Maohi of Aotearoa thought Tupaea was the captain of the Endeavour. Well, his arrival had been foretold long before by Toiroa, a tohunga from Mahia. ‘Arikirangi, high chief, he is coming,’ the tohunga said. ‘He comes with red and white strangers.’

Now, with Toiroa’s foretelling in mind, it may appear contradictory that the Endeavour was strenuously opposed by Maohi when it attempted first landing. Tupaea, however, wouldn’t have been surprised by this! Even in his own homeland of Tahiti, this was how the people traditionally responded to strange visitors.

What were the circumstances? A fifty-strong warrior group attacked Cook’s landing party. The aggressive warriors did all they could to repel the floating island. A Maori warrior was killed during the beach encounter .

Tupaea, in fact, stopped further bloodshed. He spoke in the language of the Maohi to the attackers. It was the first korero between Maohi priest and Maohi iwi of Aotearoa for more than three centuries. And they understood!

This only confirmed his status as captain and, therefore, it was to Tupaea that all questions were directed:

‘Is the floating island yours?

‘Have you come to re-establish the Fa’atau Aroha and the sacred seaway to Hawaiki? If so, welcome, we have long awaited your arrival!

‘But who are these red and white strangers who have arrived with you? Why are they so transgressive of Maori custom, not responding to our challenge by acknowledging our rangatiratanga, and, instead, coming onto the land without our permission? We will leave you, o great priest, to punish your goblins and tricksters.’

From that moment, the news spread throughout Aotearoa that the Arikirangi had truly arrived.

During all the initial, and tense, encounters that followed — for, oh, the actions of the red and white strangers were sometimes sacrilegious, belligerent and hostile — it was with Tupaea that we wished to korero, talk. Indeed, Tupaea was so desirable that one of the tribes tried to steal away Taiata, presuming that if they did so Arikirangi would be compelled to stay among them!

Tupaea captained the Endeavour onward, and he arrived at Anaura on 20 October 1769. There he was invited by the paramount chief, Whakata Te Aoterangi, to his palisaded kainga. He was offered hospitality and he begat the dynasty that takes his surname in Anaura.

Ko Arikirangi tenei ra te haere nei!

E mokopuna, three days later, on 23 October, Tupaea arrived in Uawa on the Endeavour.

A welcoming party called him from the shore, ‘Haere mai, e Arikirangi, nau mai, kua tae mai! Come among us, great lord, you the physical manifestation of ’Oro, come under the cloak of love!’ War canoes were sent out to his waka, and he was garlanded with flowers. When he set foot on the land, over a thousand men and women greeted him with song and haka .