These are the offspring of Papakura and Te Ikaroa.
Horu is kōkōwai that has been baked over a fire. Horu is a sibling to taniwha. Tāniwhaniwha is another sibling, and is the ferns where kōkōwai might sometimes be caught in a stream.
The siblings live together in their tipuna Parawhenuamea.
Do you know any of these siblings?
What do they look like to you?
Horu - Biogenic Iron
What is biogenic iron? Put very simply, biogenic iron is the excrement of tiny microbial organisms that live in waterways. Its pretty much kōkōwai teko! All though it is waste, I like how our friend Heidi Gustafon describes it in her pukaupuka Book of Earth :
“When I see primordial iron brew seeping out of a ditch, spring or sidewalk, I feel like falling to my knees, as if in the presence of the greatest gods. Maybe that sounds ridiclious but why not? Aren’t I witnessing a four billion year old lineage of life creation in front of my eyes? No story, no propaganda, just pure unadulterated nature - our very oldest ancestors still right here and here and here pumping out iron and oxygen, without which life as we know it would cease to exist. “
Our tīpuna sometimes named these waterways that carried ochre. There is one in Te Urewera called Ngā Toto o Tawera (also known as Ngā Toto o Tamahore) where a tipuna Tawera slipped over and lacerated himself creating the red spring.
As said above the horu was caught with ferns that would be used to make kōkōwai. We can see the relationship and whakapapa of Horu and Tāniwhaniwha when we go out into the taiao, where they live together as siblings.
