2003 AT OWAE WAITARA’S FENTON CLAN EMERGE
The idea of meeting the family of Nana and Pop was a bit scary to me. I made sure that the website was operating to the best of my ability and thought that would be my sum contribution. Then the fact that the movie films taken from 1956 to the 1970’s were on DVD format and VHS tapes became the next objective. I knew that there were scenes from the tangi of Nana’s brother-in-law, that of Nana herself were on the films and they became a goal to have the 8 mm films put onto disk and tape.
The quick glimpses of scenes of the swimmers at the Waiongonga River in 1962 was a reward when we would all view the exploits of the diving and swimming Aunty Tuppence, a sport in which she did well when she was a pupil at the Waitara Central School. At the funeral scenes we could see Hughie Taylor as a pallbearer and the grandchildren of Nana being flower and wreath bearers to her graveside. At the tangi of Jimmy Manu held at Owae on the same day as Nana’s burial, our fathers and mothers were evident having come from their mother’s urupa of Tokitahi. Uncles Jack, Fred, Tui and Hip gathered by the sleeping house and on the nearby lawn were Aunties Tuppence and Rita. A few metres away was their cousin Marj Harper and her husband Bill Bedggood, who had traveled from Auckland to attend Nana’s funeral. There was a short bit of Aunty Allison wearing her gumboots and holding one of her daughters whilst the others stood with Laura and viewed the camera in return.
THE pa becomes a place for many to turn up and see what’s going on and greetings were made to the many who came into the kitchen area. Belle Tupe, nee Bailey, made a huge batch of fry bread for our lunch even though she was not a whanau member and she let us join her in the cooking.
This kind of co-operation became the mainstay of our four-day stay at Owae. We learned to help each other.
The morning of Thursday, 6 February, and a bit tired after the 11.30 pm arrival from Auckland the night before of Roger, Sherrie and Rangi and Margret, Richard, Aynsley and Darryn and Mum answers the phone. ‘Here she is’, she says to me, a whispered ‘who is it”, a reply, ‘It’s Baba’. “Hello, Baba, whatsup?” ‘I don’t know if I can get up to the pa to do the karanga, I’ll try and make it, but I don’t think I can. Here’s the karanga, yeah, write it down on a card and hold it in your hand”‘ Baba recited a simple karanga and I wrote it on a used Christmas card, small enough to fit it into the palm of my hand. I asked Richard to accompany me to the back of the house to practice the calling on and he gravely saw me through the rehearsal. All through the rest of the afternoon, whether getting kai ready, waiting, wondering, and Baba, the youngest daughter of Aunty Polly Billy, younger sister of Nana, and still she didn’t come. I re-read the card time and again, forgetting the sequence and re-read it. The final moment had come and Mum, who went into the city with the borrowed van from cousin Marj Urwin’s son, Arthur Sadler, I was told that the Karanga had to happen now. So I went to the steps of the carved house and waited. I went into the kitchen, walked, back to the carved house. Spoke to Dennis; spoke to sisters Brenda and Gloria; back to the kitchen area and found out that the ‘visitor’ party was waiting for the arrival of Dad from his Rhapsody Home in New Plymouth. As soon as his van arrived, his wheelchair was lowered, and on the ground, he was whipped into the inside of the carved house and Baba hadn’t arrived! Waiting inside with Dad was Mum, and on the seat Dennis and Richard.
I looked over to the corner of the dining room, KoTamatane, and saw Aunty Ruby waiting. I glimpsed at the words and wailed out, ‘Haere mai Nga Uri ….a bit more, pause and hear Aunty Ruby replying and bringing on the party with her as I made a small retreat, the second call from me and from Aunty again. By this time, I was running out of words as their journey was longer than I thought, they should have been walking fast to lessen my agony. Kerry was the media watch and cameraman and his pictures and sounds will surely reveal my moments of bewilderment. I made the final retreat as the visitors came up onto the paepae and they seated themselves inside the carved house settling into the males in the first row. Dennis spoke for the welcoming party and the eldest grandson, Hugh, made the reply. Our ceremonies were simple, humble and a successful first time. The visitors came over to meet the home people with a hongi, a kiss, a hug and hello and went down the line to the next person. As Dad’s expected pickup time had been somewhat delayed his almost imperative departure had to take place within some 15 minutes of his arrival, with the speeches of welcome being succinctly put by Dennis.
Gaining a bed in the carved house was the first priority for me. Mum has said that she wanted one on the platform, on the edge, so that she could roll off the mattress and gain purchase without crunching her knees. Joining her on the platform were Roger, Sherrie and Rangi and I put the mattresses on the floor for Richard and me, near to the door to the toilets but far enough away for foot traffic not to be a problem.
In the adjoining corridor, the mountain of mattresses was like a magnet for imagination as the littlies used them tirelessly. At nighttime, the beds beckoned and the kids went to sleep comfortably in beauty of the carved house. On the second night of the reunion, I slept for first time in the carved house without the stress of a tangi, and the glowing light of the new day brought warmth into the beautiful room as it saturated the red carpet. The first night was spent in the kitchen dining room as Aunty Elsie Kearns, nee Nicholas, suggested that the computer be not left alone for security reasons. My considerable weight bent the leg of the camp bed and so I transferred my wriggly self to the sofa and listened to the night go by as the freezer/chiller room switched on and off, and the self-motivated interests of the refrigerators joined in with their cycles.
Kerry, an early morning riser, had checked the status of the toilets for everyone, before he came into the kitchen. The first morning’s breakfast included porridge, scrambled eggs, recycled sausages from the night before, toast, and hot beverages. All the cooks and waitresses worked like a team, the tables having been set in the main dining room the night before. The white china had the Owae symbol in blue set out properly and they added to the dignity of the meals.
Some casual meals were held in the kitchen dining room, mostly lunchtimes and one memorable fish and chip meal. First of all, the procurement of sheets of newspaper were straightened, second, the origami of making parcels was abandoned as those old enough to remember the satisfaction of ripping a hole in the top of the newspaper settled on the design. The cooks were lined up, Vicki on chips, wielding the scoop net to bring out the golden fries. Margret and Aynsley were the frying fishers cooking two battered fish pieces for each person whilst Hugh made up the requisite batter as the demand grew. His wife, Robyn, enjoyed seeing his work ethics in action Always, in the background, Aunty Mona kept an eye on the pace of things, more chips/no more chips, no more fish/more fish, new batter, etc.
We had our own areas of expertise and the knife hand experience of Malcolm played a part when he boned out the side of pork before Dennis added the stuffing and rolled the roast. Fish caught by Trish, kahawai from the Waikato near Waiuku, became the basis with unused fillets from the fish and chips dinner to make Poisson cru marinated raw fish salad and Lynn helped with the filleting done by Dennis.
The celebratory dinner, with the photographs of the siblings on the cake was a magic touch as Uncle Hip cut the cake and his eldest and youngest nieces, Mari and Vicki, joined him. Thereby hangs a tale as Val-Jane endeavoured to get the photos printed from disk, in her many attempts, her computer printers would not print the photos in the sequence she set and the photos would move. One of the hard copies had an untold amount of gibberish characters except where the outlines of two photos were meant to be. Two computer printers gave Val-Jane problems before things settled down and she could get the hard copy readied for the printing onto rice paper for affixing to the top of the cake. It was a successful cake.
The family appreciated the daytrips as they had the knowledge of Dennis, Roger and Kerry to draw upon at the stops made at Rona Road, Pukerangiora, Pekatu, killing rock, etc. Richard and I were kitchen mates for Mum and set out the tables and got things ready for the late in the day lunch. We greeted a visitor who, with his daughter, was making his first visit to the marae, seeking contact with the people’s he didn’t know. I think that he was lucky that Mum was able to tell him that she knew his grandfather, described him, what she knew of him, the visitor was the son-in-law of the head teacher of Waitara Central School. So, I don’t really know of what people enjoyed at the guided tour of Waitara and its environs except that every participant came back with glowing reports of their journey.
The Saturday was another day I stayed at the pa, thinking that Richard was around to help me with cooking or kitchen or whatever duties. I couldn’t believe that he managed to escape my clutches, but he did. He went to the St Saviour’s church where my Dad, Hip, our children and myself too had been baptised and the cemetery visits, everywhere, without a hat. I saw the evidence of Jack’s idea of a hatless day as he had a redhead and nose and Richard glowed as well. So, again, I’m reliant on others and to read of Mari’s and Jack’s feelings about the cemetery visits was a good sign that it was a moving experience.
Lorraine’s partner, Graham, had an adventure in the morning as upon his return from the town he related his surprise as to the reactions of the locals to himself. He walked downtown and back and in between, everywhere he went everyone smiled and said hello or asked how he was. It was quite a pleasant experience for him to have a greeting from everyone.
On Saturday evening, the whole family was called to the meeting to discuss a proposal regarding shares issued in the name of Nana Fenton of the Parininihi-ki-Waitoara Incorporation. Parininihi is known as the White Cliffs, north of Pukearuhe and the coastline from there to Waitotara includes property inland managed by the PKW. About 1982 I attended the AGM of the PKW held at Parihaka having been invited by Charlie Bailey to do so. The list of shareholders was read out and in the list of unclaimed shares was that of the names of Nana, her maternal aunts, my maternal grandmother as well. The shares issued in their names were made up to 20 years later in the case of Nana, perhaps 40 years in her aunts’ names and my maternal grandmother had died in 1970. The PKW had moved into issuing scholarships to the proven descendants of the shareholders and some families have created a trust to enable all the descendants’ access to funds. Val-Jane had been an awardee and Darryn had achieved the top prizes for two years. Darryn became the guest speaker as a recipient of the Charles Bailey Scholarship at the 25th anniversary Celebration of the Parininihi ki Waitotara Incorporation’s AGM in the latter part of 2002. Whilst the discussions were going on, the brothers of Lorraine and myself, Richard and Aynsley were looking around town for missing Graham, who, when found, didn’t know how to get back to the pa.
After the meeting, although quite late, there was the continuing reading of Granddad’s Tales, the childhood-based memoirs of Uncle Hip, read by myself. I had originally written the story from his notes done in 1995 when he was able to devote time to reminiscing, and re-working them into chapters was a challenge. The first night I read them, and the second night, when Roger read them he had enthusiastic participation from his listeners. His much more light-hearted approach was welcome.
During the three days we got to meet:
Children of Aunty Rita:
o Hugh, his wife Robyn, daughter Tracey, her husband and their baby Louis
o Bryan, his wife Pam
o Kerry, his wife Erlene, daughter Tanya and her three children
o Lynn
o Lorraine and partner Graham
Child of Uncle Jack
Mari and her husband Jack
Children of Hip
Margret, her husband Richard, daughter Aynsley
Val-Jane, her husband Malcolm, children, Keegan, Courtney and Fraser
Roger, his wife Sherrie and son Rangi
Darryn
Children of Ike
Michelle, her children, Amy-Cherie, Joseph, Cameron, Gina and …. Grandchildren Kahn and
Trish and her daughter Erana
Vicki and her children Nouatu and Ahumai
Jackie
Children of Tuppence
Dennis, his wife Irene, daughter Nicola and her children Serafin and Ferris
Laura
Rona
Children of Tui
o Gloria
o Brenda
o Grandson, Verban who is the son of Rosalie
Reporters from the ‘Taranaki Daily News’ and ‘The Waitara Angle’ visited the pa to meet family members attending the re-union.
There were many ‘firsts’ for most of us. It was our first reunion. It was first time that Jack has had more than one night’s complete sleep in three years. It was first time for many to sleep at Owae. It was the first marae stay for Mari, let alone Sherrie and Rangi from California. It was first time for many to meet the eldest grandchild, Mari. We were lucky not to have had a tangi interrupt our reunion; in fact, one of our first day visitors, Bobby, had to deal with the death of her partner a few day’s later. The last morning of the reunion, the very sad and incredulous news that Tony Nikora Patuwairua, the eldest son of Dennis and Irene, had died as a result of severe injuries sustained after his motorcycle accident in New Plymouth. Twenty-eight year old Tony’s tangi took place at the Hungaririki pa, up Kairau Road, the marae of the Pukerangiora hapu to which we all belong.
HERE’S SOME POSERS
1 Who was cruising on her Harley Davidson machine?
2 Who helped make the glass plates of jelly?
3 Who scanned photos for me, and if wasn’t Richard as he doesn’t know how to?
4 Who got to cut up Watermelon into pieces for the 60 or so eaters?
5 Who got parking three places away from the gates to Pukekura Park?
6 Who kept on wearing a hat in case she forgot her name?
7 Who is a current volunteer fire brigadesperson?
8 Who latched onto Fraser as a small shadow?
9 Who was the cool dude whose name starts with K who could fold away his jama’s neatly?
10 Who was the baby who was a gem inside the carved house when sleep time came?
11 Who was the first snorer who continued to make sound waves a problem?
12 Who was it that did not expect to sleep but couldn’t believe that he slept, first night, second night and, the third night, too?
13 Who was it that would not try kina when they were visiting in Waiuku?
14 Who was born up at Rona Road in Nana’s old house?
15 Whose middle name is after Nana’s tipuna?
16 Who travelled from California to the reunion?
17 Who was a mower boy of the pa during the 1960’s, mowing those huge lawns?
18 Who was involved in the creation of the bell tower next to the carved house?
19 Who got promoted from sandwich maker to Fish and chips shop owner?
20 Who called their first karanga?
21 Who organised the reunion?
22 Who brought their carpentry skills to the cucumbers in the salad?
23 Who has catered for 500 people as a matter of course?
24 Whose sister works for the newspaper ‘The Waitara Angle’?
25 Who once lived virtually streets away from each other in Wainuiomata?
26 Who became the speed merchant in the wheelchair?
27 Who thought that Darryn was a spunk whether you’re 42 years of 12 years?
28 Who fixed up the igniter gadget for the non-performing roaster after the official guy couldn’t do it at all?
29 Who was very proud of maker of the quilt used in the carved house?
30 Who enjoyed wearing the t-shirt with the nude babe right in the face of the lay minister?
31 Who wished that they could have re-arranged their work schedule and returned to Akarana on Sunday as they were having such a great time at the reunion?
32 Who provided the apparel for the lingerie display?
33 Whose great-grandfather has his photo up at the head platform area in the carved house?
POSSIBLE ANSWERS:
1 Erlene, HOG owner
2 Aunty Elsie
3 Keegan
4 Mari
5 Richard
6 Aunty Mona
7 Vicki
8 Gina
9 Kahn
10
11 Roger
12 Jack
13 Jack
14 Mari
15 Mari
16 Roger, Sherrie, Rangi
17 Roger
18 Dennis
19 Margret
20 Margret
21 Trish
22 Hugh
23 Robyn
24 Robyn, her sister, the reporter, is Rene Sharman
25 Rona and Mari
26 Irene
27 T and A
28 Darryn
29 Graham of Lorraine’s skills
30 Lynn
31 Gloria
32 Nicola
33 Aunty Mona
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