A landmark change in status for the area once known as Egmont National Park will also officially restore many original te reo place names. Airana Ngarewa explains the significance behind five of them.

In 1865, the crown confiscated what was effectively the whole of Taranaki in retribution for rebelling against the crown. This included the maunga for which the region is named. The signing of the deed of settlement for Ngāti Maru in 2021 marked the end of the settlement process for the eight iwi of Taranaki that are recognised by the crown. The iwi then turned their attention to their ancestral mountains with Te Ruruku Pūtakerongo, a deed of cultural redress for all Taranaki iwi in respect to their shared relationship to Taranaki Maunga.

Last week, voting closed on the deed and associated legislation and now all uri await the outcome, many anticipating that it will be ratified. The deed would see the peaks contained within Te Papakura o Taranaki, formerly Egmont National Park, recognised as ancestral mountains. The mountains would be given legal person status under the name Te Kāhui Tupua, and Te Kāhui Tupua would be given ownership over itself. Te Tōpuni Kōkōrangi, a group appointed 50:50 by iwi and the crown, will develop park management plans and DOC will retain day-to-day management.

One of the most exciting propositions of Te Ruruku Pūtakerongo for me personally is the restoration of many traditional names in and around Te Papakura o Taranaki. Here are five place names associated with our ancestral mountains and some of the reasons why mana whenua hold them so dearly.

Te Rere o Kāpuni (also known as Victoria Falls)

Many stories surround this waterfall on Taranaki Maunga. It is a place of great tapu with strong connections to Pai Mārire, Rātana, Parihaka and the Kīngitanga. One kōrero tells that before Te Wherowhero became the first Māori king, he was a chief renowned for his military strategy. After leading an army through Taranaki and capturing Te Rei Hanataua of Ngāti Ruanui, he led an assault against Te Matakātea at the twin pā of Waimate and Orangituapeka, the kāpuni stream running between them. Upon his defeat there by the keen-eyed Te Matakātea, he swore an oath that he would never bear arms against Taranaki again.

Soon after becoming king, Te Wherowhero would pass and his son Matutaera would take the mantle of king. Continuing his father’s commitment to peace, Matutaera is said to have journeyed to Taranaki to be baptised Tāwhiao by the prophet Te Ua Haumene, the founder of Pai Mārire. This baptism took place at Te Rere o Kāpuni, which is believed to be the waterfall further up the same stream where his father made a vow of peace, ultimately ending nearly 30 years of raids on Taranaki from iwi further north.

Hangatāhua (also known as the Stony River)

This river flows from a swamp atop Taranaki Maunga which is known by Māori as Ahukawakawa. Before Tahurangi climbed the maunga, his father Ruataranaki, the man for whom the mountain is now named, journeyed to the source of Hangatāhua where he ceremonially connected himself to the maunga taking up residence inside one of its rua. His father-in-law, Maruwhakatare, consecrated this ceremony through karakia. Finally, Tahurangi scaled the mountain, lighting a fire atop its peak, thereby establishing Taranaki as the rightful name of the maunga.

This story is remembered through pepeha kōrero:

He pou tā Maruwhakatare. He ahi tā Tahurangi. He rua tā Ruataranaki

Maruwhakatare had a pillar. Tahurangi had a fire. Ruataranaki had a cave. 

Te Rere o Tahurangi (also known as Bells Falls)

While the name of the maunga itself remembers his father, Ruataranaki, Te Rere o Tahurangi remembers the name of the son, the first man ever to climb to the top of Taranaki Maunga. This feat is commonly recalled when clouds surround the maunga, the clouds compared to the smoke from the fire that Tahurangi lit atop Taranaki Maunga, at that time known as Pukehaupapa and Pukeonaki.

Panitahi (also known as Panatahi and Fantham’s Peak)

As it stands on its own, this southern peak upon Taranaki Maunga is described by mana whenua as being orphaned. It is renowned as the location where, on his descent from Taranaki Maunga, Tahurangi said these words:

Koia tēnei te mihi nui kei runga o kōpūtauaki. Me he tangata pea koe e whai muri i āu, ka noho a Tahurangi i runga o Taranaki kai atu he pikopiko mouku, he pikopiko mamaku, he pikopiko panako.

This is the great tribute I speak on the exposed belly of the earth. If you are a person who would want to find me, I remain upon Taranaki eating shoots of mouku, shoots of mamaku and shoots of the panako.

Te Iringanui (one of the highest peaks along the Kaitake Range)

Through kōrero preserved through waiata, Kaitake is remembered as one of the most important geographical landmarks of the beginning of the First Taranaki War. As tensions escalated between the crown and mana whenua over land sales in Waitara, north Taranaki, it became increasingly obvious that war would soon break out. One of the challenges mana whenua faced was alerting those on the other side of Kaitake if and when the first shots were fired.

In the end, it was a young girl who was tasked with the responsibility, seemingly because she would draw little suspicion from the colonial troops. When the crown fired at Te Kohia Pā on March 17, 1860, the girl was sent from Waitara to Te Iringanui to light a fire, signalling to those on the other side of Kaitake that the land wars had started in Taranaki.