Once dried, fish was packed into cardboard boxes and stored in a dry place. As children our job was to run up and down with mänuka scaring off the flies, and if we got hungry we could just take a bite out of one of the fish”. “It was a beautiful sight” remembers John Manuel, “every house had a long line of fish hanging outside. Fish would be soaked in a brine of salt and water, filleted and hung on a line, out of direct sunlight, for the wind to dry - this was before the days of the ‘deep freeze’. Nanny Ngarohi Kaa remembers, “I didn’t know much about fish, but I learnt everything by watching the old people”.

Where these days many of us can’t even pick out a fish from the supermarket, back then the women would scale, gut and fillet the fish - sometimes dozens in an afternoon! The men would fish all day, and in the evening the women’s work began. Though women weren’t present during fishing, they still had a major role.

So there goes the myth of sexism, it’s just common sense. Secondly, in the good ol’ days the men used to go fishing in their birthday suits, which could cause women present to develop a roving eye. First is that woman have the ability to neutralise tapu, or make things noa. Understandably many think this is down right sexist but there are two main reasons for this rule. The rule the Waiapu river mouth is probably most well known for is no women where the men are fishing. You could even get carried out to sea and nearly drown”. Some might think these rules sound a bit far fetched, but Nunu Tangaere said, “if you disrespected the rules, you’d see the sea change - becoming rougher. And arguing before going out is a big no-no”. Fish was to be carried by the gills, not the tail, and your first catch should be hung on a Pou (pole) or thrown back as a tribute to the Gods. There are more rules and locals John Manuel, Ngarohi Kaa and Tipuna (Nunu) Tangaere echoed them as though reciting the 10 Commandments, “No yelling, no pointing, no swearing and no horses (vehicles) to be taken right up to the mouth. To ease any concerns that a kete or any equipment had been in contact with cooked kai, it would be urinated on. There was to be no cooking at the mouth, and no cooked food to be taken there. There are many ture (rules) to be adhered to at the ngutu awa and they were strictly enforced in earlier years. The special string the net was made of, which is no longer available, absorbed water ensuring it would sink - unlike nylon. This supplejack frame served a double purpose - it floated which in cases of emergency made it a “lifesaver”, said John Manuel. The centre pole was made of manuka, and flax bound supeljack to create the frame. Rutene and Hannah Reihana were especially good at the craft. Those were the best days”.ĭuring that era traditional fishing equipment was also in use, like home made oval shaped nets called tango which could hold up to 100 fi sh, depending on the design of the creator. But John Manuel who was raised only metres from the river, remembers the 1940’s and ‘50’s as being much busier, “It (Beach Road) was like a motorway when the Kahawai were running! A North flowing current was an advantage to Rangitukia, and a Southern current an advantage to Tikapa, so whereever it was happening we’d just swim over. Kahawai which typically runs from November to March, is the most common catch, and the season still attracts many, locals and visitors alike. Edging onto Rangitukia beach, the ngutu awa (river mouth) has been a kapata kai for the people of Rangitukia and Tikapa since time immemorial, a ‘live fish market’ providing fresh eel, kanae (mullet), tuarenga (whitebait) and of course Ngati Porou salmon - Kahawai. The following article was originally published in the October 2005 Nga Kohinga.Īlong with Hikurangi and Whangaokena, the Waiapu river is one of the symbols of Ngati Porou.

Awa awa fish