URUPA
URUPA
When Walter Mantell arrived at Pūrākaunui in December 1848, he recorded 45 persons as residing in the small kaika situated on the edge of the tidal inlet channel close by the present urupa. Noa Paka is named as the principal man at the time. A number of the families therein originated from the Canterbury/Kaiapoi areas, having fled south to escape the local conflicts occurring there in the 1820’s.
Almost certainly, previous unrecorded burials had taken place at the site; the likely reason for it being legally designated an urupa, by the Court, in 1887.
Rangatira’s Urupa:
There is also an undesignated separate burial site on the edge of the inlet channel nearby, referred to as the Rangatira’s Urupa. It is surrounded by some very old macrocarpa trees and appears likely to be inundated by impending sea level rise. There are no headstones but those believed to be buried there are:
Urukino, Tamati Mohi Tekou, Wiremu Pournouke, Teote or Teone Te Wahia, Noa Paka
The dates of death of these persons are unknown, but all died after 1848. Teote or Teone Te Wahia, younger brother of Noa Paka, was later named, with others, as the claimants when the reserves came to be established by the Court in 1868.
Those known to be buried in the 1887 Urupa:
Miller Whanau, Warren Whanau, Mouat Whanu, Kipa Whanau, Driver Whanau.
Native birds
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