Te Rauparaha Brought to Life
Te Rauparaha: Kei Wareware launches October 31. Image supplied.
Reporter
Nearly 175 years after his death, Te Rauparaha remains an intriguing character. He’s been immortalised in fiction, poetry, film, waiata and haka, and his name features on the side of an arena.
A new 5-part podcast series Te Rauparaha: Kei Wareware tells the story of the life and times of Ngāti Toa leader Te Rauparaha, a compelling figure in the history of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage commissioned award-winning podcast producers Popsock Media (The Lake, True Justice) to create the series, which is based on Tamihana Te Rauparaha’s account of his father’s life, written by Tamihana in the 1860s and published in a bilingual edition in 2020.
Podcast host, Ross Calman, is a descendant of Te Rauparaha and editor and translator of the book.
Ross Calman host of Te Rauparaha: Kei Wareware with interviewee Matiu Baker. Image Kirsten Johnstone.
The series closely follows Tamihana’s account, with vivid descriptions of Te Rauparaha’s upbringing, his rise to tribal leadership and how he led the Ngāti Toa people on a migration from their Waikato home to the Kapiti region. It explores Ngāti Toa’s decade-long war with Ngāi Tahu, incorporating perspectives from both iwi, as well as early interactions between Māori and Pākehā in the Cook Strait region.
“Learning about Te Rauparaha’s life is a way of entering into a fascinating era in New Zealand history, in particular the dynamic time of tribal movements and cross-cultural contact in the twenty or so years before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. He was a central figure in the early years of colonisation of New Zealand by Britain and the armed conflict that broke out in the 1840s at Wairau and in the Hutt Valley,” says Calman.
“Te Rauparaha’s story needs to be considered within the wider context of te ao Māori at the time he was alive. This podcast delves into the tikanga of the time, how utu operated in practice, and the impact of muskets on Māori warfare, as well as the ways that history can be shaped by personal agendas and misinterpretations.”
“We have endeavoured to incorporate perspectives not only from tribal historians of those iwi associated with Te Rauparaha, but also from tribal historians within those iwi who fought against Ngāti Toa in the 1820s and 1830s,” he says.
The podcast retells potent parts of Te Rauparaha’s story in both te reo Māori and English, and includes new interviews with leading iwi historians, dramatised readings from Tamihana’s narrative by Ngāti Toa actor Toa Waaka, with music from Mokotron, Ariana Tikao, Alistair Fraser and Phil Boniface, incorporating taonga puoro (traditional Māori instruments).
Check out the trailer above. The series will be available from 31 October via Podbean, Spotify, Apple podcasts and nzhistory.govt.nz
You also might like
