Tikitiki is a small town in

Waiapu Valley Waiapu Valley, also known as the Waiapu catchment, Waiapu River valley or simply Waiapu, is a valley in the north of the Gisborne Region on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is the catchment area for the Waiapu River and its ...

on the north

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

of the

Waiapu River The Waiapu River is a river in the Gisborne District of the North Island of New Zealand, with a total length of approximately . Found in the north-east of the Waiapu Valley, it flows north-east from the joining of the Mata River and the Tapuaer ...

in the

Gisborne Region Gisborne District or the Gisborne Region (Māori: ''Te Tairāwhiti'' or ''Te Tai Rāwhiti'') is a local government area of northeastern New Zealand. It is governed by Gisborne District Council, a unitary authority (with the combined powers of ...

of the

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 ...

of New Zealand. The area in which the town resides was formerly known as ''Kahukura''. By road, Tikitiki is

north-northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, Radius, radially arrayed compass directions (or Azimuth#In navigation, azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east ...

of Gisborne, northeast by north of

Ruatoria Ruatoria ( mi, Ruatōria) is a town in the Waiapu Valley of the Gisborne Region in the northeastern corner of New Zealand's North Island. The town was originally known as Cross Roads then Manutahi and was later named Ruatorea in 1913, after the Mā ...

, and south by east of

Te Araroa Te Araroa (The Long Pathway) is New Zealand's long distance tramping route, stretching circa along the length of the country's two main islands from Cape Reinga to Bluff. Officially opened in 2011, it is made up of a mixture of previously made ...

. The name of the town comes from the full name of Māui, Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga (Māui wrapped in the topknot of Taranga). State Highway 35 passes through the town at the easternmost point of the

New Zealand state highway network The New Zealand state highway network is the major national highway network in New Zealand. Nearly 100 roads in the North and South Islands are state highways. All state highways are administered by the NZ Transport Agency. The highways were ...

. The town is from the smaller town of

Rangitukia Rangitukia is a small settlement 10 kilometres south of East Cape in the northeast of New Zealand's North Island. It is near the mouth of the Waiapu River. The settlement is an important place in Ngāti Porou and the founding place for Christian mi ...

, near the mouth of the Waiapu River. These towns historically had a racecourse, four rugby teams, and several shops fuelled by a thriving dairy industry. In the 1950s and 1960s the towns had a combined population of 6,000, but economic downturn in the area in the mid to late 1960s led to

urban drift Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly the ...

, and 2011 figures put the population of both towns at 528. 95% of the towns' inhabitants identify as

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 ...

. Most people in these towns are either

homemaker Homemaking is mainly an American and Canadian term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping, housewifery or household management. It is the act of overseeing the organizational, day-to-day operations of a hous ...

s, or employed in the roading, forestry, farming, or food industries, or as office workers.

Landmarks

According to ''

Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand ''Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand'' is an online encyclopedia established in 2001 by the New Zealand Government's Ministry for Culture and Heritage. The web-based content was developed in stages over the next several years; the first s ...

'' "Tikitiki’s jewel" is St. Mary's church. It is non-denominational but has historic links to the Anglican Church and is therefore essentially an Anglican. Built from 1924 to 1926 under the guidance of

Sir Āpirana Ngata ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

to remember the

Ngāti Porou Ngāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions of the North Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Porou is affiliated with the 28th Maori Battalion and has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi in New Zealand ...

soldiers who fought and died in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and to commemorate the establishment of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and the East Coast. The church, which integrates Māori architecture into its design, contains references to the fallen soldiers within its extensive carvings,

tukutuku Tukutuku panelling is a distinctive art form of the Māori people of New Zealand, a traditional latticework used to decorate meeting houses (wharenui). Other names are tuitui and arapaki. Tukutuku flank the posts around the edge of the wharenui ...

, and stained glass windows. St Mary's church is of great spiritual and historical significance to Ngāti Porou, and is classified as a Category I Historic Place by

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...

. Above and behind the church is a hill containing the remains of a fortified pā called Pukemaire. The pā dates back to pre-European times, and by 1865 was occupied by followers of the

syncretic Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...

Christian Māori religion,

Pai Mārire The Pai Mārire movement (commonly known as Hauhau) was a syncretic Māori religion founded in Taranaki by the prophet Te Ua Haumēne. It flourished in the North Island from about 1863 to 1874. Pai Mārire incorporated biblical and Māori spiritual ...

. That year, as part of the

New Zealand Wars The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. They were previously commonly referred to as the Land Wars or the M ...

, the pā was attacked by both colonial forces and Ngāti Porou forces loyal to the New Zealand Government (called kūpapa). This was one of the last confrontations between Pai Mārire and Ngāti Porou. While the majority of the area inside the pā's defensive perimeter has been ploughed many times, the eastern end behind St Mary's Church has been left intact, where the remains of

kūmara The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the bindweed or morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable. The young shoot ...

storage pits can be seen.

Marae

The Tikitiki area has five

marae A ' (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan), ' (in Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term a ...

belonging to

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 ...

. Kaiwaka Marae and Te Kapenga meeting house is a meeting place of Ngāti Putaanga and Te Whānau a Hinerupe. In October 2020, the Government committed $5,756,639 from the

Provincial Growth Fund Shane Geoffrey Jones (born 3 September 1959) is a New Zealand politician. He served as a New Zealand First list MP from 2017 to 2020 and was previously a Labour list MP from 2005 to 2014. Jones was a cabinet minister in the Fifth Labour Gove ...

to upgrade the marae and 28 others in the Gisborne District; the funding was expected to create 205 jobs. Rahui Marae and Rongomaianiwaniwa meeting house is a meeting place of Te Whānau a Hinerupe and Te Whānau a Rākaimataura. Tinātoka Marae and Te Poho o Tinatoka meeting house is a meeting place of Te Whānau a Te Uruahi and Te Whanau a Tinatoka. In October 2020, the Government committed $1,686,254 from the Provincial Growth Fund to upgrade Rahui Marae, Tinātoka Marae and 4 other Rongowhakaata marae, creating an estimated 41 jobs. Putaanga Marae and meeting house is a meeting place of Ngāti Putaanga. Taumata o Tapuhi Marae and Te Ao Kairau meeting house, a meeting place of Te Whānau a Tapuhi. The

area also has three marae.

Education

Tikitiki has a

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

full primary school called Tikitiki School or Pae-O-Te-Riri School. The name Pae-O-Te-Riri means "Resting place of a war party on the march". The school was opened in 1887 as a Māori school, and originally had approximately 300 students. This number has dropped substantially, and in May 2012, the school roll stood at 27 students. In 2019, it was a decile 1 school with a roll of 35.

References

External links

Waiapu River valley
article, with a section about Tikitiki, in ''

''
Photos of St Mary’s church
in ''Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand''
St Mary’s church
in the

register
Aerial photograph of Pukemarie Pā
published in 1994
Tikitiki School website
{{Gisborne District Populated places in the Gisborne District

Landmarks

Marae

Education

See also

References

External links