Nau mai, whakatau mai rā ki te pae tukutuku o Kererū Marae 

Welcome to the Kererū Marae website. 

This website is a hub for whānau that whakapapa to Kererū Marae to connect and stay connected to each other and our Marae.

We hope that information shared here will help you strengthen, find, learn and share as whānau of Kererū Marae.

Piki ake au ki runga ki taumata te utu o Te Arapaepaerangi,

Ka āta tiro iho ki ngā take hiwi a Pukekohe.

Mai i te Kai-o-te kapukapu ki Pīkautahi ki Kererū

Kūterehia ngā manga o Kōpūtoroa i taha mauī, Waokū i taha katau e

Kōpikopiko te awa nui Manawatū te nukuroa

Mā Te Whirokino ki Piriharakeke, te waro hunanga o Peketahi,

Tere tonu ki Papangaio te pūwaha, Te Whārangi rā ia

Puta ki waho te tāwhangawhanga ki ngā tai aupaki
Te Moana Tāpokopoko a Tāwhaki

E hoki ahau ki Te Kererū, ki Te Kōpū-o-te Toroa, te rua i moe ai a Raukawa

Ko Māhina-ā-rangi e

Ko Ngāti Takihiku, Ngāti Ngārongo e,

He ara hei kāwei tautika mai ki ahau e.

Taumanuka ki runga, Tawhirihoe ki raro

Ko Te Maire ki uta, ko Te Wharangi ki tai

Ko Te Awahou, ko Matakarapa, ko Hokio ki waenganui

Ko Papakiri, ko Te Pua-o-Tau, ngā rua whakakī a ngā Kaumātua

Toroa ki uta, Toroa ki tai ko te kōpū o te toroa e

He kōrero hītori | Historical Account

The name Kōpūtoroa or Te Kōpū o te Toroa means ‘the breast of the albatross’ refers to the way clouds of mist rise over the crest of a ridge by the Kōpūtoroa stream, resembling the soft, white plumage of an albatross breast. The kererū [wood pigeon] was the bird of inland forest, and the albatross was the bird of the coast these birds are thought of in the same way, encapsulated in the pepeha ‘Toroa ki uta, Toroa ki tai ko te kōpū o te toroa’ – the 'albatross' of the inland places (a metaphor for the kererū), the albatross of the sea, it is the breast of the albatross. This may refer to the hapū living both inland and by the coast. 

Incorrect spelling seen on local signage is ‘Koputuroa’ which originated in the Māori Land Court and maps in the 1880s and was also used in later maps (Horowhenua County 1920, and Moutere & Mt Robinson Survey District 1923). Koputaroa’, also incorrect, was used on the railway station, and by locals for the stream as well. These names have been used in ignorance of the original meaning of the name, and the correct name is found on several of the earliest maps.

Kererū kāinga was an important residence for Ngāti Ngārongo. There was a kāinga at the clearing and a pā on the southern side of Koputaroa Road (across the road from where the Marae is currently located) surrounding a pond. Native Land Court minutes refer to bird-snaring activities at Kererū. A hollow tree there became known as Te Ana o Taikapurua because it was where Taikapurua an important Ngarongo chief took shelter.

Rongorito was the main whare-tupuna at Kererū Marae, which stood from the 1901 until the 1970s where it sadly fell into disrepair. Te Rongorito was the youngest sister of Maniapoto she lived at Te Marae o Hine, near Otorohanga, Te Rongorito maintained the kaupapa of peace at this marae. According to Waitangi Tribunal member Tania Simpson (Ngāti Raukawa, Tainui), Te Marae-o-Hine was not only a sanctuary, but also a place of healing, particularly for wahine. 

Māhina-ā-rangi opened alongside Rongorito in 1901, was named after the mother of Raukawa and still stands as the main house. The union of Māhina-ā-rangi and Tūrongo is the greatest love story within Tainui, Raukawa was their son. Māhina-ā-rangi lived at Roto-a-Tara, Te Aute her tūpuna came on the Kurahaupō, Tākitimu and Matahourua waka. This whare was owned by the kuia Karaitiana Te Ahu who married Hone McMillan. When Karaitiana died, Hone McMillan inherited her estate. More than twenty years after the death of Karaitiana, Hone signed the marae reserve lands at Kererū to the Ngāti Takihiku Tribal Committee, as a dwelling place in perpetuity. Ngāti Takihiku Tribal Committee was one of a few Māori Committee that had been established in that era. They have held a custodial role to the marae reserve as a mainstay for the two hapū.

In 1982, a Dining Hall was opened and named Kererū. In 1998 a kitchen was attached to dining hall and re-opened as one building and renamed Te Tini o Kererū

A kōhanga reo has operated at Kererū Marae since 1984. In 1988 Te Kohanga Reo o Kererū was opened with a maximum of 30 children attending. It is one of the three surviving Raukawa kōhanga reo built on a marae reserve. This idea was gifted by Henrietta Maxwell to the family of her husband Lawrence Pumaitehangina Jury. Te Kōhanga Reo o Kererū Marae continues to be a bastion for descendants of the marae who seek te reo Māori for their tamariki. The first building stood at the right-hand side of the whare tūpuna, Māhina-ā-rangi. In 2016, the Trustees of the marae, the Trustees of the Kohanga Reo and the Ministry of Education agreed to shift and establish the Kōhanga Reo elsewhere. The new Kōhanga Reo building was built where the old kaumātua flats and teaching space given by Te Wānanga o Raukawa previously stood. The new whare for the Kōhanga Reo is named Te Kōpū-o-te-Toroa.

Ngāti Ngārongo

Pāora Taikapurua and his great-nephew Ihakara Tukumaru both important rangatira of Ngāti Ngārongo are both buried at Ihakara Gardens, Te Awahou Foxton. Early Ngāti Ngārongo settlements were at Matakarapa, Te Maire, Te Awahou, Te Whārangi, Papangaio, Raumatangi, Karikari and Kererū clearing at Kōpūtoroa. The Manawatū River was important as a trade and communications route. Te Maire (named for a tree) was a good place for cultivation, and there was also a lagoon of that name, near the river. Kererū kāinga was an important residence for Ngāti Ngārongo.

The Kōpūtoroa stream was an important mahinga kai, for tuna, whitebait and kākahi, and there was also a wetland which is home to a native snail. The Manawatū river was important for eeling, fishing and transport. The boundary between Ngāti Ngārongo and Ngāti Whakatere was the Ōtauru stream.

Ngāti Ngārongo enjoyed living at Matakarapa from the 1820s to the 1940s, when European/commercial interests led to a decision to create the Whirokino cut, a short-cut for the river, which effectively cut off access to the land on the peninsula for the local hapū. 

1930s – Matakarapa became part of the Government's Manawatū Land Development Scheme.

1942-43 The Public Works Department of the central government decided to tackle flooding problems by making a cut to shorten the river and increase its rate of flow to the sea. The Whirokino Cut impacted heavily on the Matakarapa community by reducing access and services. 

1949 – Pipeline across Matakarapa installed to take wastewater from flax mills to the western loop.

1976 – Foxton’s sewage began to be piped to oxidation ponds established on western Matakarapa. From the oxidation ponds, the treated effluent runs into the western river loop.

2017 - Ngāti Ngārongo concerns about this activity were expressed, along with those of other hapū. A recent development of concern is the Horowhenua District Council’s plan to spread the wastewater over land at Matakarapa.

2018 – Ngāti Ngārongo still owns the Matakarapa No. 5 reserve, of one acre. An agreement has been negotiated with the Horowhenua District Council including mitigation and compensation for impact of wastewater spreading on land.

Ngāti Takihiku

Takihiku was the youngest child of the children of the ancestor Raukawa and his wife Turongoihi. Takihiku-roa was one name for him that compared him to a great comet tail, when seen in the sky. Another name was Te Hiku o Raukawa, the tail of the tuna was a great delicacy that was fed to him as a baby by his father Raukawa. Takihiku grew up at Maungaorongo in Rangiātea, in Korakonui, in Panetapu, in Tauranga-ā-kohu, in the years after 1500. His pā there was Ruataikawa.

Ngāti Takihiku were a late comer to the southern district, arriving after the territorial divisions had been allotted. Ngāti Ngārongo however provided a strip of their own territory; this strip covered about a 1000 acres and extends from near Paiaka road to the Levin-Shannon highway at its highest point, on the sandstone upland between these two places; the strip parallels the northern boundary of the Ihakara Reserve block. Another area of about 300 acres of Takihiku territory lies in the apex of the great bend of the Manawatū river at Foxton; this is the Matakarapa block.

Even though the settlement of Ngāti Takihiku had houses, there was no land available to bury the dead of its relatives. Ngāti Ngārongo had a cemetery to bury their dead, called Papakiri. After a dispute over this matter between the descendants of Ngārongo and Takihiku, a block of land was reserved specifically for Ngāti Takihiku at Pua o Tau (on Paiaka Rd) where the whare tūpuna Takihiku once stood. This block was given by Ngāmihi Pene (nee: Rōpata).

It is easy to say, the children of Te One and Pirihira, and the children of Te One and Aperira make up much of Ngāti Takihiku. It is estimated there are perhaps more than 10,000 direct descendants of these ancestors.

Other significant ancestral sites | He tūtohu whenua anō o ngā tūpuna

Te Kai-o-te-kapukapu is a former landmark of both hapū. It is close to the East of the Kōpūtoroa Stream, and two kilometres southwest of the town of Shannon. This kind of place is a landmark for both Ngāti Ngārongo and Ngāti Takihiku, it was formerly a cultivation belonging to the people.

Pīkautahi is another landmark. This is a village on the northern cheek of the Manawatū River, west of the mouth of the Kōpūtoroa Stream. Pīkautahi is a fertile block producing much food. To be a chiefly dwelling, the home people are bound to assert their mana to that land.

Another block of land within the lands where the hapū lived together was Te Awahou. This was a block surrounding the town known as Te Awahou [Foxton]. In its day it was a land richly endowed with flax, surrounding all the curves of the Manawatū River.

Find our Marae on Māori Maps

Kererū Marae Committee contact information:

Kererū Marae Committee

Chair: Huataki Whareaitu

Cell: 021 106 1475

Email: huataki.whareaitu@gmail.com

Admin/ bookings: Mona-Pauline Mangakāhia-Bajwa 

Email: mona-pauline@erea.co.nz

Cell: 022 037 1910

Committee Email: kererumaraecommittee@gmail.com

Kaitiaki Marae: Kim Woon
Email: kim@lonsdalehospital.col.nz

Cell: 027 530 2229

Committee Email: Kererumaraecommittee@gmail.com

Kererū Marae Hauora information: 

Coordinator: Michael Whareaitu 

Cell: 027 857 9605 

Email: Michael.whareaitu77@gmail.com

Kererū Marae Te Kōhanga Reo 

Kaiwhakahaere: Te Puawai Hunia 

Cell: 021 565 884 Landline: (06) 367 8014

Email: kererumaraetkr@hotmail.com