Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei’s top priority over the four days of Te Matatini was to host kaumātua from throughout the nation.
The older folk have been given the best seats at Te Ana Wai/ Eden Park to watch every performance and pampered with mirimiri and seafood banquets each day.
“They are very spoilt, our kaumātua and they are loving it. They are loving the attention and deserve every bit of it,” said Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei team leader Jackie Kataraina Taylor said.
There have been 250 elders in the kaumātua VIP Lounge each day. Thirty staff wearing their Whiria Te Kaha black and orange shirts have been on hand to help, from picking them up from their bus and vans via golf cart shuttles to making continuous flows of cups of tea and serving home-baked Anzac biscuits throughout the day.
Five-star treatment
Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei leading hand Miro Cooper was excited to have the opportunity to care for the kaumātua. As busy as she and her team were each day, starting at 6 am for setting up and finishing at 10 pm after cleaning up, she still found the time and energy to put on a smile and help in any way she could for the kaumātua.
“They come first. I would do this for my parents and nannies, so why not them,” she said.
Each morning Parehuia Dunn from Mitimiti travelled by bus to Te Matatini and she described what happened. Once at Te Ana Wai/ Eden Park in her wheelchair, Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei took over and gave her five-star treatment during the whole day, starting off by finding her a carer who would serve her drinks and food until her day had ended.
She said besides being well cared for and enjoying the comforts of the kaumātua VIP lounge, remembering when they were performers was also on the minds of the kaumātua.g
Reminiscing
“I used to be a cook for Te Waka Huia, I was also a performer for a couple of teams up north one being Ngāti Hine o Hineamaru and we were the bomb,”Dunn said.
Asked if she got fake eyelashes done before competitions, her response was gold: “Hell no au naturelle, boy. That’s all you see - all the makeup and some of them find it hard to open their eyes and do the pukana,” she said.
Whakaue’s last Māori Battalion soldier Sir Bom Gillies was at Matatini to support his beloved Ngāti Whakaue in the Te Ihu section in the morning. He was enjoying the comforts of the kaumātua VIP Lounge and reminisced about when he performed for Ngāti Whakaue as a child before his departure into World WarII.
“We performed at Ohinemutu. It was marvellous but now I see a lot of westernised influence in our performances. Let’s remain tuturu Māori as best we can,” Gillies.
