Abstract

The above pepeha makes refererence to the journey of Hau, a tupuna known on the West Coast of the North Island for his travels and descent lines. Recalling Hau’s journeys is one of the ways that whanaungatanga and connection is affirmed for iwi along the West Coast, down to Te Upoko o Te Ika and also over to the Wairarapa. In current Crown Treaty settlement processes, relationships with neighbours can provoke tensions as iwi or hapūare forced to define clear, agreed boundaries. The process is similar to trying to unravel the individual property rights and identity rights of each member of a family who all live in the same house, use the same bathroom, the same kitchen, the same garden and mostly descend from the same ancestry. Of course, a family is also creating new ancestry. The complexity of relationships goes beyond only ‘rights’, beyond ‘property’. Relationships cover shared and changing histories, shared memories and storytelling, shared fights, grief, laughter and whakapapa. This paper looks at whanaungatanga (kinships) in the sense of affirming connections and relationships to whānau, hapū and iwi and looks at some of the exclusions and marginalisations that interrupt or disrupt whanaungatanga. By looking at the barriers and constraints to whanaungatanga, researchers might better understand some of the complexities to the relationships that they are engaged in as outsiders or insiders.