Waituhi is a small settlement in the Gisborne District of New Zealand's North Island. It is northwest of the city of Gisborne, on the western bank of the Waipaoa River. It is notable as the historic site of Popoia pÃÂ, and as the setting for several novels and short stories of Witi Ihimaera. Members of the Te WhÃÂnau-a-Kai Te Aitanga-a-MÃÂhaki iwi (tribe) are the tangata whenua (âÂÂthe people of the landâÂÂ). In 2009 a project to develop a community drinking water supply was started.
Ruapani was regarded as the paramount chief of all the Tà «ranganui-a-Kiwa tribes around 1525. His influence also extended widely around the region. It is said that the aristocratic lines of descent from PÃÂoa and Kiwa of the Horouta waka converged upon him and his rule was undisputed. Ruapani lived at a pÃÂ, Popoia, near Waituhi.
He had three wives. His first wife was Wairau. His second wife was Uenukukà Âihu and his third wife was RongomaipÃÂpÃÂ, who was a daughter of Kahungunu and Rongomaiwahine. When Ruapani died, Tà «hourangi took RongomaipÃÂpàas his wife and founded the present Tà «hourangi tribe in Rotorua, which is part of the Te Arawa confederation of tribes. The importance of Ruapani is clearly shown in the whakapapa (genealogy) lines of all the tribes in the Tà «ranganui-a-Kiwa district. With the emergence of these tribes, like Te Aitanga-a-MÃÂhaki, Rongowhakaata and NgÃÂi TÃÂmanuhiri â Ruapani's influence began to wane and he retreated inland to the home of his relations in the Lake Waikaremoana area, where he lived out his days. NgÃÂti Ruapani still consider themselves the descendants of Ruapani.
Rongopai is a great painted wharenui (meeting house) built at Waituhi for Te Kooti in 1887 by the WhÃÂnau-a-Kair hapà « of the Te Aitanga-a-MÃÂhaki iwi. Local leader and politician Wi Pere was part of the process in creating the wharenui. Rongopai has paintings rather than carvings and is significant to MÃÂori art because of this. Eria Tutara-Kauika Raukura (1834/5 â 1938), the leading tohunga of the Ringatà « church, founded by Te Kooti, became a guardian of Rongopai in 1913, and he was still active there as a guardian and tohunga in the mid-1920s.
Another marae at Waituhi is Pakohai.
Another marae at Waituhi is Takitimu.
Waituhi is the setting of several of Witi Ihimaera's novels, including Tangi (1973), The Matriarch (1986), Bulibasha, king of the Gypsies (1994) and Band of Angels (2005).
As Millar states, much of Ihimaera's fiction is based on fact, but his work is never simply autobiographical. Waituhi, for example, the village setting for many of his narratives, is an imaginative recreation of the actual place. The fictional Waituhi's âÂÂphysical cohesion [providing] an "objective correlative" to the ethos that binds the tangata whenua togetherâÂÂ.
Waituhi â The Life of the Village was an opera with music from Ross Harris; libretto by Witi Ihimaera. This four-act opera is based on the novel Whanau and is the story of the writer's life in an East Coast (New Zealand) village. It is scored for 23 soloists, chorus, and full orchestra. The opera was first performed at the State Opera House in Wellington in 1984.
Waituha has some different meanings in MÃÂori: