Ngā Rauropi Whakaoranga

The tradition of the Kurahoupo canoe. The Kurahoupo and Aotea canoes are the canoes of the Ngāti-Ruanui and Taranaki.

Of ethnobotanical interest: The ancestor Turi, introduced the karaka and the kūmara in the Aotea canoe. "The name of the plantation in which the kumaras were set was Hekeheke-i-papa; there were eight kumara plants planted, in eight ridges, the product of these was eight hundred kumaras. The karaka trees are still growing there (at Patea)."

The author, in an extensive footnote, discusses the many meanings of the word kura. One meaning is "a special kind of kumara, its flesh was like that of a pumpkin in colour, and its blossoms red - this kumara was eaten by the Ariki and Tohunga only, and had some special connection with matitikura [an incantation]".