Te kaitiake toheroa
- Author
- Carbery, S.
- Year
- 2009
- Journal / Source
- New Zealand Geographic
- Number
- 98
- Summary
- Within minutes of entering a classroom, James Te Tuhi has captivated his young audience with tales of Pingao, how she was placed on the dunes by her father, Tangaroa, to nurture her whanau, the Toheroa. As the story unfolds, the Te Kopuru kaumatua reveals one of the mysteries of the toheroa’s life cycle: where and how the juveniles grow. “The spats roam in the water for up to 21 days, then get into the huka, or foam, when the tide is coming in, and Tawhiri Matua blows the huka into the sand dunes. And who’s there to catch it? Pingao!” He goes on to describe the way Pingao incubates the microscopic young before they catch a ride back to the water’s edge on spinafex flowerheads or the wind. The children are enchanted with the tale, as was Te Tuhi, when his grandmother first told it to him 70 years ago.
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