Coromandel Life Magazine 2015 Winter V3

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Kauri... In mythic awe
F ew could fail to be affected by the awe-inspiring majesty of the
giant kauri, one of our most revered national treasures. Sadly,
having survived thousands of years with no challenge to its might,
logging in colonial times wreaked a huge toll on the miles of kauri-
cathedral forests that formerly clothed the north. The Waipoua Forest
in Northland, one of the few remaining sites of major stands of this NZ
native, is home to our largest and best known, Tane Mahuta, credited
in the Maori legend to have brought light to the world (see left).
Trees are still seen by Maori as performing the role of maintaining light
in the world, holding the sky and earth apart. The widespread felling
was viewed as contrary to the Maori world view, fearing the sky and
earth would reunite, bringing the world into darkness.
Filmmaker Mathurin Molgat (see previous page) tells us that in 1918
the NZ government invited Sir David Hutchins, a leading botanist, to
come and educate NZ about their forests. Hutchins later reported “the
felling of the kauris is one of the greatest crimes of the Anglosaxon
peoples”. Molgat also notes that over 96% of the kauri trees have now
been lost, most within a century’s time.
MAORI AND KAURI
Maori held kauri in mythic awe; it was ‘king of the forest.’ These tall
trees, and the awesome experience of being in this cathedral like
environment, were metaphors for their understanding of living life.
The word ‘ tika’ means erect and correct – as a tree is upright. It forms
the concepts of tikanga – correct behaviour or action – and whakatika,
which means to arise. Correct behaviours arise from within a person,
as a tree rises from the ground. The powhiri(welcome ritual to a
marae), takes place upon the ground in front of the meeting house
and is a re-enactment of the creation legend described at left.
MAORI WOOD CARVING. Even before the Europeans came, Maori
used kauri and other trees to construct buildings and boats, hollowed
and shaped with stone adzes. Rituals were required to fell trees such
as totara and kauri. Once carved into poupou (carved posts), these
sacred timbers were believed to take on the properties of the chiefs
and other figures they represented. The paua-shell used in the eyes of
the figures came from the sea, the source of carving knowledge.
These wide-girthed trees allowed tribes to build more diverse and
stable waka (canoes) than those in their Polynesian homeland, where
waka were narrow, often needing outriggers. A variety of vessels for
coastal and inland waterways were created – from handy rafts for
fishing to massive waka taua for war parties. Up to 40m long, these
war canoes held 80 warriors who paddled fiercely to ram and overturn
the enemy craft with its tall ‘knife blade’ bow.
KAURI FORESTS, FEW PRESERVED
Surely the tribal Maori who sold off their land’s timber rights, and
indeed helped cut kauri for trade, did not foresee how quickly the
devastation would accelerate with the Industrial Age’s machinery.
Estimates have been made that some of NZ’s largest kauri are
over 2000 years old, and many of these ancients reside on the
Coromandel. Slow growing in the wild, kauri may take 30 years to
reach only 10m in height. The distinctive smooth grey bark lasts 50
years through the juvenile phase. As the trees age the lower branches
break off, leaving a clear trunk covered in distinctive corky rounded
scars resembling a hammer mark.
continued on next page...