The mana of the tribes of Tauranga Moana has traditionally been associated with their control of kaimoana … The mana of the tribes today is still measured by their ability to provide a wide variety of seafoods at marae gatherings …⁵⁸

Some foods have particular value as the mana kai, or kai wairua, the particular food symbolising the mana of the people and place. For the hapū of Ngāti Pūkenga, Ngā Pōtiki a Tamapāhore, and Ngāti Hē of Ngāi Te Rangi, this special delicacy is the tītiko, the periwinkle or mud snail. For Ngāti Tapu (also Ngāi Te Rangi), it is the pūpū, the catseye; for Ngāti Kuku, it is the kuku, the green-lipped mussel.⁵⁹ The ability to amply provide manuhiri with these traditional foods is critical to demonstrating manaakitanga and whanaungatanga, and to fulfilling the role of kaitiaki. As Ngahuia Mereana Dixon told us:

when people have travelled to Maungatapu or other Rangataua marae, titiko on the table would be their way of gauging manaakitanga or looking after people... The measure of the iwi is the food served out to manuwhiri...⁶⁰

7.3.3 Forests and freshwater

Though kaimoana was vitally important to the diets of all Tauranga Moana hapū, some also relied greatly on the varied resources of the forests of the inland ranges, and the freshwater rivers and streams. For Ngāti Hinerangi, for example, the forests were and are ‘the provider and sustainer of all things’, as Morehu McDonald explained:

It is the provider of food in the form of bird life such as the tui, kakariki, kereru and many more different species of flora and fauna that were known to Ngati Hinerangi as their traditional food sources. These included among others pikopiko, mushrooms, kiore, huhu grubs, fresh water koura, tuna, and many more … It was the provider of shelter in the form of trees such as rimu and kahikatea, totara and also kauri to be used as material for buildings and other forms of construction. It is the provider of clothing in the form of kiekie and harakeke from the sheltering swamps. It is the provider of art and other visual art forms such as wood for carvings for wharenui and pataka and also for providing dyes and colourings for carvings, and clothing. It is the provider of transport with the provision of totara and other trees for the building of waka. It is the provider of the means of war by the provision of hard woods such as kanuka and manuka for the making of weapons. It is also the means of sustaining life by the provision of firewood for heat and for cooking food. It is the provider of traditional and customary beliefs and practices by tribal elders who

58. Evelyn Stokes, ‘Te Raupatu o Tauranga Moana: Documents Relating to Tribal History, Confiscation and Reallocation of Tauranga Lands’, 2 vols (commissioned research report, Wellington: Waitangi Tribunal, 1993) (doc A18), V0l 2, p 39

59. Document A50, p 28

60. Document E4, p 29