A continuation of a series of unedited recordings of kōrero from master carver Pine Taiapa, made in various locations around Te Tai Rāwhiti.
This tape was recorded in St Mary's Church, Tikitiki, as Pine Taiapa explains the carvings and history of the church to visitors (possibly a group visiting from Ngāti Whātua and others from Auckland.)
Pine Taiapa talks about the Purapura Whetu pattern in tukutuku work.
Pine mentions that there are three sets of twins in the Taiapa family with a Ngāti Maru connection. Ngāti Maru have a pēpeha "tini te whetu ki te rangi, ko Ngāti Maru ki raro - Like the millions of stars above us, so are we, Ngāti Maru, on the face of the earth."
Pine's sister, Māheno, learnt the art of taniko at Rotorua. Her name commemorates the Gallipoli campaign, as "Māheno" was the name of the Red Cross hospital ship that brought home the wounded soldiers. He recounts the story of a letter from a local soldier Tawhai Kōhere, about the "Māheno", which was read at the church and that night his sister was born and given the name.
Pine describes the pulpit and the font at St Mary's Church.
Pine recounts an event where Ngāti Whātua and Ngāpuhi came in the 1800's and slaughtered Ngāti Porou. They returned home in the north and took with them prisoners. In 1831, Ngāpuhi decided to send back all the prisoners that they held in the North. This was an act of goodwill.
He tells the story of Mrs George Kirk, a local Pākēha woman, who organised a bazaar. She had only one basket of kumara but collected 800 pounds in one Saturday morning to buy a pipe organ for the church.
Ngāti Porou pleaded with her to instead divert her interests to stained glass windows representing the Ngāti Porou effort in the First World War, depicting the battlefields. She replied "Who's going to play the pipe organ? I have a project, I'm going to see it through." She paid for the stained glass windows and the pipe organ - the effort of Māori and Pākēha