From: "Philip Merryman" <phil

From: "Philip Merryman" <phil_merryman@hotmail.com>

Date: Sun Mar 31, 2002 10:35:27 PM Etc/GMT

Subject: Extra Info

Hello yet again!

My interest in the Albatross and the penguins reminded me about a bird I foroget to tell you about. The Kea lives in the mountains of New Zealand. It is so called because it has screeching Kee-yaa call. It is actually a parrot and is the only alpine or mountain parrot in the world. They are very funny creatures and so people tend to feed them, so they gather at viewpoints and other such places. There were a few at a photostop just outside the Milford Sound tunnel. However, we are encouraged not to feed them because this disrupts their usual fruit diet. They have sharp claws and vicious hooked beaks. The other reason for not feeding them is that they are so strong that when they are around cars they can rip out the windscreen wiper seal and have even been known to remove hubcaps with their beaks! However they would not make very good pets either because, if taken away from the area they would just lie on the bottom of their cage "Pining for the Fiords"!!! Actually I know how they would feel because the fiords was the main attraction for me to come to the South Island, and having seen them I still want to go back, so like the parrot, I too am pining for the fiords!

Also in my travels around these remoter parts I have come across the small, almost forgotten settlement of Rotomoa. It has an interesting history, especially involving its not too distant neighbour, the settlement of Ovvamoa. Both of these little places were originally settled centuries ago by some people from the South Pacific islands of Aving'u Ona. They had originally set out to go somewhere completely different but a storm blew them off course and after many days adrift in the southern ocean finally washed up in these quiet and remote bays in NZ. In fact the boats got separated in the storm but, unbeknown to each other, they had landed in neighbouring bays. Because the bays were remote, and the surrounding hills high, they were also pretty much isolated from the rest of NZ. Having no idea where they were, or any way to get back, they had no option but to settle there.

These people were a bit of a warrior tribe and so continued their traditions in their new location. They had no one else to fight and continued the training and methods of the past, but over the years these became no more than a ritual activity. However, because they were cut off from each other, and the outside world, over the generations their traditions changed in different ways. The people of Rotomoa would fight their enemies with a flailing arm action and attack their opponents at body and head level. Meanwhile in Ovvamoa the tradition changed to attacking peoples' feet first, in a scything action to bring them down before finishing them off. Also the people of Rotomoa developed the idea of bringing back the dead bodies of their vanquished opponents as a matter of pride, whereas those of Ovvamoa would just leave their opponents bodies on the battle field.

They continued in isolation until one day the people of Rotomoa managed to get over the hills into the valley where Ovvamoa was. Consequently conflict between the two peoples ensued, each having no idea that they orginated from the same people. So after many years they were finally able to put their fighting methods to the test after all the years of ritual which they had so far only been. In the heat of the battle it soon became clear to the people of Rotomoa that they could avoid the scything attack of the people of Ovvamoa by jumping into the air at the critical time. Meanwhile they still attacked them at body level. Consequently the people of Rotomoa were ultimately the victors, and in accordance with their values, carried away all the remains of the people of Ovvamoa back to Rotomoa. They also took the survivors back with them as prisoners. This left Ovvamoa completely empty and so it disappeared into history. However over the years the prisoners became intergrated into the community of Rotomoa.

I have said in my previous mails that somehow there is no escaping the Dutch on my travels and this is no exception. The Dutch were in fact the first to explore Australia and NZ, calling Australia "New Holland". The most famous Dutch explorer of the time is Abel Tasman, hence Tasmania, Tasman Sea, Mt Tasman, etc. etc. but there were others.

The people of Rotomoa continued in isolation until the Dutch explorer Kempe van Heijr discovered them in the mid 1700's. As he and his party approached the settlement of Rotomoa the locals came out to challenge them with a war dance. Following their victory over the people of Ovvamoa they had developed this dance as a tribute to that victory. In this dance they have a series of aggressive arm movements to signify their fighting technique, and it finished with a leap into the air to signify how they avoided the scything attack of the people from Ovvamoa. However the Dutch were armed with modern weapons which the people of Rotomoa had obviously never seen and after a few early exchanges accepted the superiority of their visitors to avoid any further losses.

After a few days the two parties gained confidence in each other because by chance the Dutch party had already been to Aving'u Ona on their explorations which brought them here. Consequently the Rotomoans were able to find some means of communicating and explained where they had originally come from.

Later visitors to the area brought with them some people from Aving'u Ona who was able to translate, so the story of Rotomoa and Ovvamoa became known to the outside world. In consequence the story of the dance became known. By then the British were beginning to colonise New Zealand and when they asked the Rotomoans about their dance and its origins the British described the scything motion of the Ovvamoans as a hacking action. The Rotomoans had never really given their dance a name, so on hearing this they gave it the name of Hacker, or in the local language Haka.

As the story spread around NZ everyone became fascinated by the story of the two shipwrecked tribes and as a consequence the Haka became popular. The modern equivalent of tribal conflict is sport. As a tribute to the original people of Rotomoa, New Zealanders perform the Haka dance as a challenge to their opponents at the beginning of every Rugby game.

1st April 2002

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