Te Whaiti or Te Whāiti, formerly called Ahikereru, is a forested area in the
Whakatāne District and
Bay of Plenty Region
The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway ...
of New Zealand's
North Island
The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...
. It is at the northern end of the Ahikereru valley –
Minginui is at the southern end.
The
Whirinaki River flows through the valley.
The area's full Māori name, ''Te Whāiti-nui-a-Toi'', translates as "the great canyon of Toi",
referring to an ancestor of this area, Toi-kai-rākau /
Toi-te-huatahi
Toi-te-huatahi, also known as Toi and Toi-kai-rākau, is a legendary Māori ''tupuna'' (ancestor) of many Māori iwi (tribes) from the Bay of Plenty area, including Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngāi Tūhoe. The Bay of Plenty's name in te reo ...
.
Albert Percy Godber took photographs of
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
art and architecture in the area.
Marae
Te Whaiti is in the ''
rohe'' (tribal area) of both
Tūhoe and
Ngāti Whare
Ngāti Whare is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. It is part of a group of tribes participating in the " treelords" Treaty of Waitangi settlement with the New Zealand government involving Central North Island forestry land and cash.
As part of the ...
.
It has three
marae:
* Waikotikoti Marae and Hinenuitepo meeting house is affiliated with the Tūhoe
hapū
In Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief and normally opera ...
of
Te Karaha,
Ngāti Hāmua
Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...
,
Warahoe, and with Ngāti Whare.
* Murumurunga Marae and Wharepakau meeting house is affiliated with both iwi.
* Waireporepo Marae is a meeting ground of Ngāti Whare; it has no meeting house.
In October 2020, the Government committed $793,189 from the
Provincial Growth Fund to upgrade the Waikotikoti and Murumurunga Marae, creating 20 jobs.
Education
A school opened in Te Whaiti in 1896
and merged with Minginui Forest School in 2004. The school is now Te Kura Toitu o Te Whaiti-nui-a-Toi, a co-educational state, Restricted Composite Special Character School.
See also
*
Te Urewera
Te Urewera is an area of mostly forested, sparsely populated rugged hill country in the North Island of New Zealand, a large part of which is within a protected area designated in 2014, that was formerly Te Urewera National Park.
Te Urewera is t ...
*
Whirinaki Te Pua-a-Tāne Conservation Park
Whirinaki Te Pua-a-Tāne Conservation Park is a publicly accessible conservation park in the North Island of New Zealand. The park is centered on the town of Minginui and part of the eastern boundary flanks Te Urewera. The Whirinaki Forest is on ...
References
Whakatane District
Populated places in the Bay of Plenty Region
{{BayofPlenty-geo-stub