The Family Photo's Ngā Whakāhua Whānau.

I received a photo of a Tupuna from one of my Aunts, I was stoked to be given it by her, I brought it home with me, framed it and put it on my "Dead Wall" a wall that many Māori families have in their homes.

This wasn't the photo that I had been given,I was given a painted version I found this version so the kids could recognize a realistic photo of him. Te Aho ō te rangi wharepū.
 I hadn't heard many stories about him to tell my kids  there wasn't much to tell them because all of the whānau that knew anything about him were no longer alive. So I felt it was up to me to find out his story for the kids. When I put the photo up the kids weren't scared of him in fact they thought he looked like a "Koro" that they wanted to look after. otherwise I believe that if a tūpuna or person fades from memory then it's perhaps time to retire their photo from the wall and put it away or bury it.  But something about this photo made me think that it was worth  finding more on.  So the search began. The name of the blog comes from a Tūpuna that plays a big part of who we are and where my search took off once I found him.
The things that I were told were that Te Aho o te rangi was the older brother of Kingi Tāwhiāo the 2nd māori king but he had not been given the opportunity to succeed to his father because he was believed to be dead at the time but he was being held captive by Governor Grey's army aboard a ship anchored off Kawau Island after the 1863 war of Rangriri.

The Battle of Rangiriri is regarded as one of the most important battles in the New Zealand Wars. The Māori incorporated many fortification techniques which had been used in the northern wars, in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the Colonial Governments advance on Rangiriri, while still the forts were uncompleted, they were still a formidable advantage point when the British attacked it on 20 November 1863.

 The 183 Māori captives were taken north to Kawau Island. Months later, nearly all managed to escape after the war was over. 

This wasn't a story that I wanted to share because there were so many deaths and that it was said that swamp area around Rangiriri home of our ancestral Taniwhā Karu-tahi "One eyed eel"was nothing but blood and rēpo "reeds" due to the amount of bodies that lay dead in it. Although I knew this story I didn't examine it as well as I should of because in it, was some of the reason it took so long to find out what I needed to know.

But before I get in to it, I never just whack anything together and put it out there, Because I now have the gift of 2 languages I also have an awareness for 2 cultures and all the respect that comes with them.  Whakapapa to the Māori is Tāpu "Sacred" as it was believed in Ancient times that Mākutu "black magic" often found a target in a persons Whakapapa and it became a weak point for them.  Mākutu would often show itself as deformities, premature death,sickness but mainly Pōrangi "mental illness" knowing this I always felt that I must be guided by Wāirua "spirit' every step of the way. and I am not scared easily. as to myself through this journey I have always felt good about what I have been doing. one example was when I found out the name of our great great grandmother. Mātana or Riria, I felt like it was a name that I had to say out loud because it was probably a name that hasn't passed anyone's lips for probably over 100 years and I felt sad because after everything that everyone in our whakapapa has brought to this family, as time has gone by we have forgotten them so on this occasion I said her name out loud because without her there would have been no us. so I there I was saying Mātana Te Aho, Riria Te Aho over and over again like a mad person who had just learned a new word for the first time. and It was awesome to remember her like that.  

Anyway you will find that I first go in to explaining how I found out my information and then how things went from there. I'm not going to read through most of this all the time because everytime I read through it I want to change something and I fear that this may never go out. so I apologize for any mistakes that you see but if you like just tell me and I'll correct it. But this is how I talk sometimes so there's no fake commentary here but I don't swear like a trooper either so the only whaka you're going to see is Whakapapa.