Hocken Digital Collections

Kāi Tahu

Details

DescriptionThis collection includes taoka (or taonga) relating to Kāi Tahu whānui (or Ngāi Tahu whānui) from across the Hocken Collections.
Included are historical photographs of Kāi Tahu people and places, and a selection of art works by Kāi Tahu artists. A number of photographs are from Dr Hocken’s own collection, reflecting his interest in Māori history. Other digitised taoka are from the collections of Te Rūnanga o Moeraki, George Craig Thomson (who had a strong interest in the history of Otago prior to 1848), and Magda Wallscott (Kāi Tahu, and a founding member of the Māori Women’s Welfare League).
Hocken Collections staff are working in collaboration with local Papatipu Rūnaka and the Ngāi Tahu Archive Team to digitise further taoka Kāi Tahu held by the Hocken Collections. Future additions to the Kāi Tahu digital collection include the papers of ethnographer and historian James Herries Beattie (1881-1972), and Sir Frederick Revans Chapman (1849-1936).
History / BiographyKāi Tahu whānui (or Ngāi Tahu whānui) is the collective term used to describe the individuals who descend from the primary tribal groups described as Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe and Kāi Tahu. Members of Kāi Tahu whānui can trace their ancestry back to a census of Ngāi Tahu kaumātua alive in 1848.
Through a series of ten land purchases (between the years 1844 and 1864), the majority of Kāi Tahu whānui’s takiwā (tribal territory) in Te Waipounamu (the South Island of New Zealand) was acquired by the Crown. The Crown failed to honour their obligations stipulated in these land purchases, however, and generations of Kāi Tahu whānui were ostracised from their land, language, and traditional practices.
In 1986, Henare Rakiihia Tau submitted Te Kerēme, the Ngāi Tahu Claim (WAI 27) to the Waitangi Tribunal on behalf of the Ngaitahu Maori Trust Board. Waitangi Tribunal hearings took place from 1987 to 1989. Four separate Waitangi Tribunal reports relating to Ngāi Tahu whānui were released between 1991 and 1995.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu was incorporated through the Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu Act 1996, formally establishing eighteen Papatipu Rūnaka (self-governing tribal councils). The Ngāi Tahu Deed of Settlement was signed in 1997, and the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act passed in 1998. As part of the settlement of Te Kerēme, Kāi Tahu whānui received cultural and economic redress, as well as a formal apology from the Crown.
External links

Further taoka Kāi Tahu are held by the Ngāi Tahu Archive:
https://kareao.nz/

Ngāi Tahu Kā Huru Manu Cultural Mapping Project , and digitised maps can be found at:

https://kahurumanu.co.nz/map-stories/

See more information about Te Kerēme (the Ngāi Tahu claim) at:

https://ngaitahu.iwi.nz/ngai-tahu/te-whakataunga-celebrating-te-kereme-the-ngai-tahu-claim/

Collection SummaryTaoka Kāi Tahu from across the collections

Photograph