Pākinga Pā

Duration: 2:50

Ambient music plays.

[Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit logo appears, then fades out]

[Rick Coleman, a farmer, walks through a field of long grass at the top of a hill. A brown and white dog runs beside him.]

[Rick looks out over farmland from the top of a hill.]

Rick: In 1966, the Coleman family moved up North here, and that's the main homestead over there. And this is Ngāti Tautahi. And in those days in the seventies, she was a booming area…

[drone footage moves over trees, showing land for farming, heading towards some hills]

Rick: …a lot of small dairy farms, this side and also on Ngāti Ueoneone's side and up to Hokianga, where a lot of small Māori families were self-sufficient off the farm.

[wide-shot of Rick standing on the hill as he tells his story to camera.]

[drone footage of dense forest, moving up towards the top of the hill.]

Rick: We used to come up as kids onto the pā. And when we had visitors we used to come up and play around in there as well. It would be half a day's activity because you had to walk through all the gorse and the scrub and climb up the steep silings.

[mid-shot of Rick standing on the hill as he tells his story to camera. A dog plays in the background]

Rick: Because I went to school, with everybody on this side and that side, played rugby with them.

[drone footage from a height, overlooking the farming landscape]

Rick: And it was great time as a kid. And when I come back in 80s, I was sharemilking down there and I got involved with the younger generation. We had a good time at their places for kai and staying the night,

[mid-shot of Rick standing on the hill as he tells his story to camera]

Rick: and one thing I liked is that at that time, there were elders who were still alive. And I loved their stories. And I loved the simplicity of way they would solve their problems.

[rotating drone shot, circling the pā from above. You can see a small road leading up to the pā. The pā is covered in forest]

Rick: And yeah, so that got under my skin. So then I went away for a few years. And when I come back on the home farm, I could see the destruction of the pa through animals and through erosion.

[panning shot from the top of the pā, moving through tree trunks, overlooking the countryside.]

[another rotating drone shot, circling the pā.]

Rick: So I thought oh, we're gotta do something about this. I started learning a lot more the stories with the elders, I thought, well, wouldn't it be neat if we can somehow have it so the hapūs could run it, look after it.

[Rick walks through the long grass, down a hill, as the dog leaps about and follows him.]

Rick: Also, what helped push that for me was I had some mates that come up. And they're pretty well-to-do sort of guys, and they come up here and they said, "Coleman, you should be sticking houses up here because of the view".

[drone footage from the top of the pā, showing the view from the top. You can see miles of flat countryside around the pā, with more hills in the far background.]

Rick: And I said to myself, nu-uh. That's not gonna happen. You're not going to destroy a beautiful area like this. And the pa here is a very important part to the people that live around here because their ancestors lived here.

[mid-shot of Rick standing in the grass as he continues his story.]

Rick: So it made it real simple. The ancestors lived here. Let's give it to them.

[a slow moving shot of forest along the sides of the pā.]

[Text: Ngāti Ueoneone, Ngāti Tautahi and the Coleman Family are currently in the process of transferring ownership of the whenua where Pākinga Pā sits back to the hapū.]

[Text: $750,000 was provided from Kānoa-RDU’s Provincial Growth Fund to support restoration and improved access to the site.]

[Text: Pākinga Pā is a symbol of partnership and restoration.]

[A still shot from the top of the pā, overlooking farmland and a blue sky.]

[Logos appear: Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment Hīkina Whakatutuki, Te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa New Zealand Government]

Music and visuals fade to black.

Duration: 2:44

Ambient music plays.

[Drone footage flying over Pākinga Pā and farmland in Te Tai Tokerau Northland]

[Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit logo appears, then fades out]

Tip: Welcome, welcome to Pākinga Pā.

[mid shot of Ngapaki Tipi (Tip) Nikora as he speaks to camera. He is a Māori man, who wears a navy blue beanie and an orange hi-vis jacket. He stands on the hillside of Pākinga Pā. In the background are trees and a blue sky]

Tip: Ah, yes, so we are, we are part of this pā here which is very special to all of us, but not just to Ngāti Ueoneone and Ngāti Tautahi…

[Drone footage heading towards Okorihi Marae]

Tip:…but also the all other surrounding hapū around this area in Ngāpuhi.

[Rick Coleman, a pākehā farmer, walks up a hill through long grass. A brown and white dog leaps along in front of him]

Tip: It was three years ago that the Coleman whanau, their son, Rick Coleman, actually approached me at my homestead and said,

[mid-shot of Tip as he continues his story]

Tip: “Oh, I hear you're the kaitiaki of Pākinga Pā”. I said, “No, I'm not. I said the hapū are, Ngāti Ueoneone and Ngāti Tautahi”.

[mid-shot of Rick Coleman, as he stands on top of a hill and looks out over the farmland]

Tip: He said that his whānau wanted to return the pā, Pākinga Pā, back to the hapū.

[drone footage circling Pākinga Pā, showing the pā from above. It is covered in forest.]

Tip: It involves around about eight acres of whenua, which is unbelievable. Yeah, for someone to hand it back to us.

[mid-shot of Tip as he continues his story]

Tip: Yeah, I can't take my hat off enough to thank them very much for what's been done.

[drone footage moving from the top of the pā, revealing an impressive view of farmland with hills in the distance]

Tip: So over the last three years we've been on this journey, going through the transformation of handing back Pākinga Pā to our hapū. Through the process of gifting it back, government couldn't put it back into Māori land without access to the pā.

[mid-shot of Tip as he continues his story]

Tip: So I had a kōrero with my whānau and so more or less we put our hand up and said look, we can put a road directly through here.

[drone footage moving forwards along a gravel road, moving up towards the pā at the top of the hill]

Tip: We offered our whenua as access to Pākinga Pā, for public and the hapū.

[mid-shot of Tip as he continues his story]

Tip: But it's been a good journey and it's getting better.

[various shots of the trees and bush from the top of the pā.]

Tip: It's amazing what's going to happen in the future with with the pā you know, it's all about our tamariki, our mokopuna, learning the history and it's overwhelming actually. You know, and to share it with everybody.

[drone shot moving from the car park at the base of the hill, up and over the pā]

A lot of people knew about, heard about, Pākinga Pā, but they didn't know where it was.

[mid-shot of Tip]

Now it's sort of coming to the light from the dark, into the light, so yeah, that's amazing.

[A slow-moving drone shot, travelling across the tree tops to the top of the pā. Text overlaps the visuals.]

[Text: The Nikora whānau are currently in the process of gifting access to Pākinga Pā.]

[Text: $750,000 was provided from Kānoa-RDU’s Provincial Growth Fund to support restoration and improved access to the site.]

[Text: Pākinga Pā is a symbol of partnership and restoration.]

[Logos appear: Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment Hīkina Whakatutuki, Te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa New Zealand Government]

Music and visuals fade to black.