Interview with Rapata Kopae
August 2023
Rapata AKA Paraboy is an active kaumatua for his hapū of Ngāti Pūkeko and sits on the paepae of his marae. He is also a kaitiaki and grave digger at our urupā Ōpihiwhanungakore. Ōpihiwhanaungakore is an ancient urupā along the sand dunes of the Whakatāne awa. It is here our tīpuna of Mataatua lay. According to some Ngāti Awa kaumatua this is where Toroā and his daughter Wairaka are buried. For the last 30 years and still to this day, a group of kaitiaki have been instrumental in the protection of this urupā from development. We wanted to talk to Paraboy about kaitiakitanga and also to share his view of the whenua from a gravedigger's perspective.
Ko wai koe?
Rapata Kopae. I live on the land of Ngāti Rangataua. Im part of Ngāti Pūkeko. I also connect to Te Patuwai, Taiwhakaea, Te Whānau ā Apanui, Ngāi Tai and thats on my father’s side and on my mothers sides Ngāi Te Rangi, Matakana Island, Whareroa marae, Ngāti Kuku. That’s who I am.
What I do is, I don’t get the tono by a watch. My life is what I think is good for me and people around me. I haven’t worked for 34 years, as in not an 8-4. I’ve fine tuned my life into doing things that make me feel good.
That’s mana motuhake.
Thats it! So be it.
Kauae Raro often talk to tamariki about their mātauranga around clay and soil, can you tell me about your childhood memories around soil, clay and/or the whenua?
My life growing up was the pre-tv area. It was always about the river. Not only there to connect by swimming in the awa but also fishing there. I got to know the river, not just in certain spots but right along actually. I was very connected and I still am. That was a big part of me growing up.
The other part of my childhood was that I was the youngest son and a couple of older brothers were whangai to other whānau. It was always me at home, I was the one that had to pick the puha and help in the garden with my old lady. I felt like I was getting picked on “why is it me always having to do the gardens” but it wasn’t until I went on my own hikoi that I realized that gardening was one of the best things I had ever done. In 1990, I decided I didn’t want to work for anyone, that means if I wanted to carry on life without working, it meant I had to go back to gardens, pigs, chickens and also I had to reconnect with the awa.
I had to turn back to those skills I learnt growing up.
Art by: Rangimohia Dansey-White
Art by: Sarah Hudson
You are a kaitiaki/gravedigger of Ōpihiwhanaungakore, our sacred urupā. Tell me about this responsibility?
We first started at Pupuaruhe and we changed the whole tikanga of grave digging there. One of the tikanga we started was doing karakia again, that was the start of probably making it easier for us to transition from Pupuaruhe to Ōpihiwhanaungakore.
One of the responsibilities is bringing young fullas with us to dig graves (at Pupuaruhe first) and making a connection with them. That's huge! I have to find the right young fullas, I tell them it's about making the last bed for their loved one. It gives them pride. Some of them have never picked up a shovel in their lifes, never been around karakia. When I dig graves with them at Pupuaruhe, I talk about Ōpihi.
Because that’s the next stop!
Aē, that's right. The biggest thing about that is, when we were young and transitioning from Pupuaruhe to Ōpihiwhanaungakore, for us to be kaitiaki of Ōpihi we had to battle all the old fullas for that status of kaitiaki. They tried to stop us from being trustees/kaitiaki. It was the hardest battle of the world. It was huge for us, as the next generation. When we did set up the trust it was mostly us radicals and not koroua but that was okay because we could rule what they would throw at us! We even went to court because they tried to throw us out and when they realised we had more radicals or people with feelings, they stopped and didn’t want anything to do with us. Everything that happened at Ōpihi, was put together by our generation and the koroua stayed right out. It was a huge thing for us to go to Ōpihi and make decisions.
Paraboy goes on to speak about the burial of the koroua Sam Jaram, the first tūpāpaku in 70 plus years.
When we buried Sam Jaram in 2003, it was like going into the unknown. Te Oneone, 3 of the Rangihika brothers and I put our hands up to do the burial. Our generation was lucky to have the Rangihika whānau there as this was their upbringing. Without them it would have been hard yakka. While digging the grave, I don’t think we even realised the power of Ōpihi.
We had our tikanga, the tohunga Ching Tutua did our karakia, we had to be naked to go into the urupā and afterwards we jumped in the awa twice. Straight after and then again before we got back to the marae. They also separated us during the hākari. That was the strength of the tapū.
After that, I sat down with Koro Tutua (a well known tohunga/matakite from Ngāti Awa) and he told me that he saw a white kuri with us sitting down, that was a good tohu and then he shared that there was a waka and it was filled of warriors. That got me worried but he told me that was a good tohu to. So with all these things, with all these good signs, I thought great, job done.
My mate doesn’t like me telling this story but it has to be told so people understand the strength of Ōpihi. I thought I better go see my mate after the burial, I normally see him every day but I had stayed away for about a week but I wasn’t sure why. I thought because we got the good kōrero from Koro and the karakia was done by the tohunga Ching, that everything would have been cleared but I went over there and my mate had this wairua experience, where he had not slept or eaten in 5 days. My mate told me that he had gone to this special place and he didn’t want to come back. I have never heard anything like that! When you get hit with that you think OMG. I told him that I would share this story whenever I talk about Ōpihi so people know that it isn’t just some sand dunes where you go to dig a hole.
I do the karakia now, I tell people that I didn’t go to tohunga school. Im just a person that doesn’t go to work but I wanted to be able to go tangi. I don’t proclaim to be a tohunga, I am just a person that doesn’t fear what I do. Im nice and comfortable in our culture and I have gotten over the spooky stuff. I’m just trying to clear the way for the next generations, as long as you have the right feelings for what you do, I don’t really see a problem. It’s to help our tīpuna and protect the place.
That’s a huge responsibility to uphold the tapū and the tikanga of Ōpihiwhaungakore. As a rangatahi of Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Pūkeko, Its choice to hear that when you guys were rangatahi you took on that responsibility. No matter what the kaumatua were saying at the time, you all stood up for what you believed in. Our generation see that. We are grateful for you.
Aē, kia ora. Then there is the process of the whenua itself.
Choice, that was going to my next pātai. How does whenua/soil turn up in your mahi?
That’s where Arthur Rangihika comes in. He’s the fulla who’s always there to watch how we dig the grave, because there are special ways of doing it at Ōpihi. At Pupuaruhe, its not too bad you can go straight down, but like my mate says anyone can dig a hole but not many can dig a grave. When we go to Ōpihiwhanaungakore, because of the sand we have to dig on an angle, which means digging more dirt. We have to do that so it doesn’t cave in. So the biggest difference is at Pupuaruhe we can put our tūpāpaku down with ropes but at Ōpihi we have to put a fulla down there. It's probably similar at all the urupa along beaches. There’s still the consequences of working in a wāhi tapu. That’s why I hold onto those stories I shared earlier and make sure I do those karakia, so it protects everybody.
It’s like health and safety for Ōpihi!
It’s such a thing, that's what it is!
This feels like a random pātai now but I will be asking everyone this. We use soil, clay and stones to make paint like our tīpuna - we’ve found a rainbow at our feet. Have you had any colourful soils or stones make an appearance in your mahi?
Being the kaitiaki of the awa, I notice the colour of the cut banks if there has been a flood. The banks end up like that because the trees have been cut down. There is a difference in the soil and in the clay. When there is a flood, i'm on my vehicle at the stopbank and watching. I’ve watched the river go over the banks at Rewatu and Pahou a couple of times over the years.
Are you saying that when they cut down the trees that destabilizes the soil and what makes the river that way?
Yes, and when they cut down the trees that's the environment for the fish like whitebait. So we had that discussion with the DOC workers. It came down to the same thing, they took about taking too much whitebait but its not about taking too much out of the awa, its about the environments that the councils are changing. Ya know? They think they are doing a great job. What they are doing is clearing the waterways so that the trees don’t fall in the river and clog it up for the flash boats.
Manipulating the awa.
It just makes them feel good, that they’re doing something but they are actually stuffing it up. When the settlers first come in, they had to build a cow shed close to a waterway. That was one of the rules, so the cow shit would go straight into the awa. Stupid things like that.
Now we are seeing the consequences.
The other thing, my old lady was always using kete. It was usually for kai. For the spuds or kūmara. Even that generation missed out on being able to utilize things like kōkōwai and paru. It was taken away from our vision. All of that knowledge almost disappeared. That’s why you won't hear us talking about it.
It's still a way to connect to the whenua though aye.
Yeah! She would make a dozen or so kete for harvest time. She didn’t use dyes or anything for those. I wish she would have dragged me by the ears to learn how to weave.
Different time though aye? Things had to be practical.
Do you have any kōrero tuku iho/mātauranga you would like to share? This could be a whakatauki, mōteatea, pūrākau around soil and/or whenua?
I got access to this book called the Kauae Runga and Kauae Raro. This tohunga Matoruhanga from the Waiarapa he talked enough to these koroua so they could write it down. Kauae Runga was about Io down to the children of Papa and the Kauae Raro was where the change from the ira atua to the ira tangata. I made a whakapapa that was easy to share.
We just buried this upoko the other day.
That's right, I saw you mischiefs at work that day.
It looked pretty orange to me, I'm not sure if it was just old or what the process was. They did a test on it to make sure it was from the time of our tīpuna.
Last pātai, We want to encourage our rangatahi to connect to the whenua? How do you think this can be done and why is it important?
How it should be done, is what me and you are doing! The biggest thing is to find people like me who don’t mind talking and sharing. It’s lucky there are a few of us who know a bit but when we sit together we know a lot and we don’t mind sharing. Our battle was to figure out what was tapū and are we going to hang on to it and clashing with old fullas and their view on tapū. So, if we can share that with the next generation upholding tapū on whenua, no matter, hei aha koa te aha! That’s got to be a good thing for us.
If we don’t do that, you will end up doing what we are doing, looking for things, looking for kōrero. We had a good run on that and now it’s time to share. I always wanted to interview the old fullas and kuia but they’re all gone now, looks like it’s us now! Let's not be like those old fullas and take it with them, otherwise that next generation is going to have to go through everything again. So find the people from my generation who don’t mind sharing. I'm sure you know who they are. Maybe the old fullas thought that mātauranga was power, but that power was used against us to keep us quiet. That's the worst thing I can think of.