October 23, 2014
Takitimu history a gift for next generation
An important history of Ngati Kahungunu is back in print, carrying with it the hopes of rangatahi from Wairoa College.
Since it was first published in 1944, royalties from Takitimu by the late J.H. Mitchell or Tiaki Hikawera Mitira have gone towards a scholarship for graduating students from the college.
Wairoa deputy mayor Denise Eaglesome Karekare says even though the copyright has expired, publisher Oratia Media agreed to continue the arrangement for the new edition.
She says when the original scholarship putea ran out about 20 years ago, her mother borrowed against the family home to fund a reprint so it could continue.
"They gave her a three month mortgage and she printed 1000 copies and then she made her children, and we found out she had mortgaged our family home, she made us race round Hawkes Bay, Gisborne. locally to sell thse books so we could repay that mortgage so they wouldn't take our home," she says.
Denise Eaglesome Karekare says the book needs to continue to be widely available, because it tells the story of the Takitimu canoe’s migration from the Pacific Islands to Aotearoa, and of the descendants who became Ngati Kahungunu,
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