HE MAUMAHARATANGA TENEI KIA...
Te Aumihi Enoka nee Wihapi Born: 1932 Left us: 11July 2006
Daugher of Watene and Ani Wihapi (Mohi Toma).School Teacher, Daughter, Sister, Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Aunty, Friend, Scholar, Investigator, Marae Pillar, Karanga Kween. When my sister Ripeka ventured on getting the marae registered onto the NaumaiPlace.com website, she barked a few orders about “old photo’s”, carvings, meetings and then mumbled something about write something about our Aunty Mihi.YES I said with glee, after all I am a dab hand at writing proposals, and contracts and thought to myself “this will be easy”. Well sadly the website has been up for nearly four months and here I am finally getting my act together, to write about my fabulous aunty. Its not that this exercise is hard, on the contrary, its because its emotionally challenging. Its been one of those sad, bad and glad experiences, but here it goes.
Aunty Mihi was famous for knowing lots of things and asking lots of questions, especially about things that we didn’t want anyone to know. I guess it was that old school teacher in her. I can’t remember who exactly gave her that name Mihi-Jack. I think it might have been Paul Keepa on one of his “No it wasn’t me Officer” moments, or maybe it was one of my other adventurous boy cousins. But nevertheless we all woke up one day to hear someone call her that name and it stuck. We didn’t seem to complain too much about it, having all suffered or endured a thorough grilling about our childish and teenage antics that she somehow found out about.The Te Teko Tavern was infamous for handing over all our trade secrets as her children, nieces and nephews can attest, and I think most of the patrons who happen to be at the pub at the time, just added more drama than necessary. I remember the first time our brother Sam pinched some lollies from the Te Teko shop, well by the time the story got to the hotel, then to her, he had committed grand larceny. But to add insult to injury, who got the telling off, NO... not the culprit, but me and the older cousins who should be more responsible, and if we had of feed him more regularly then he wouldn’t need to go to the shop. Apparently the boy was hungry, not mischief.
As children we loved going to the Enoka house for holiday’s, because they had their own real house that they owned and didn’t have to share with anyone else. It was great, sleeping on the floor in the lounge watching black and white windows (no curtains til years later). When they got a black and white tv that was exciting, because the screen was so huge and the picture so small. We also arrived without any spare clothes cause the Enoka’s had heaps and we would just dress ourselves.Breakfast was always a bit of a circus, but I guess that was true of all our families. It was newspaper tablecloths, and we would all fight over the space where Murray Ball cartoons were featured. The boys would look at the pictures and crack up, and of course the girls would read the story and say “O Whatever”. The Enoka’s like the Monika whanau always had a vegetable garden. Not one of those miniature for the household only ones, oh no they had paddocks, really big whoppa’s. Riwa, pumpkin, kamokamo, watermelons, corn and other vegetables. Its no wonder those kids all hate gardening now. But those kai were for sharing. I remember when the locals started selling their vegies, that seem to be a bit of crime to my aunty, particularly if there was no contributions to the marae. It caused a hell of a scene.
One of the projects that was dear to her heart was the marae. As one of those who worked along side our nanny Ani, she watched the marae grow slowly to where it is today. She saw all the highs and lows, and often talked about the whanau from Waimana who came and volunteered their time to build the marae. I recall she cried thinking about them not ever being paid for that work because the fundraising money went to “rahaki”. In fact she raised that very issue at the last wananga that we held at the marae just before she left us. When she came to see me to go onto the marae trusteeship, I agreed never considering that she would be gone too soon.There were several projects that she wanted to see flourish. One was that some of us would write up our Te Kakara whakapapa, another was to finish the whare carvings, upgrade Hinerauhuia and lastly that we would honour our debt to the whanau at Waimana. Aunty Mihi was famous for her beautiful karanga. It was easy for her, the words were simple, nothing flash or ancient, just practical. Of course when the sun set, well she was gone, most times without a loud exit, just disappeared. Why my other aunties were surprised always baffled me. But that was kuia, gone without as much as a bye your leave.When she handed that mauri to me, I felt rather privilleged, scared but honoured nevertheless.
My aunty was really bright, and so we would talk about lots of things including my pet subject, politics. When Tau Henare and Tuku Morgan first approached me to stand in Waiariki for Mauri Pacific, I came to Te Teko to talk to her about it, before I talked to Hakopa or my mother. Four hours later we were on the phone talking to Tuku that they would have to come to Uiraroa marae and receive me, which they promptly did. Well the result of that political party is now recorded in the pages of history. When the Maori Party was born, I did the same thing again, and another four hours later we were organising a visit to the marae by Tariana Turia and the rest of the Maori Party.Aunty Mihi came to all our graduations, birthdays, weddings and celebrations. She was especially vigilant to attend all Ripeka’s functions. I miss her everyday, and honour the times that we have shared. They will always be special, and I will always talk about them, even if my mokopuna get sick of listening about this old kuia who could drink all the young men under the table and still have all her marbles together, and could talk about education, health, the economy and politics with such verse an intellect. I just love her.
E taku whaea, taku kurupounamuTe totara haemata o te waonui a Tane. Moe mai raa i to moengaroa. E kore e warewaretia. Waiho mai ma ou waihotanga iho ou wawata e tutuki. Haere ki te kainga tuturu o te tangata, haere, haere, haere atu raa.
Naku noa na Te Orohi Paul
Page last updated 26 Nov 2008
