The Tipuna of Toko - A Tui Story Retold

The Tipuna of Toko was no ordinary bird, no ordinary ancestor. Toko's Tipuna was a gate keeper, a guardian; a kaitiaki to the twelfth heaven and it was from this role that Toko's Tipuna learnt much to give much to the next generations.

 The 12 heavens were institutions. They were levels of knowledge, kura of learning, steps of knowledge. It was Tane, the son of Papatuanuku and Ranginui who managed to climb the steps for want of attaining the three baskets of knowledge. The first basket, the "kete aronui" represented all knowledge, arts and crafts, and all good things humane and peaceful. The second basket, the "kete tuatea" represented evil, war and dark magic. The third basket, the "kete tuauri" represented ritual, incantation and much ceremony of all things performed or wanted by man.  

Toko's Tipuna stood at the gate of the twelfth heaven, which is the highest of all learning institutions and listened carefully to the talk of the wise ones graduating from it. He also memorised well those things that were taught to him and when prompted by the wise ones he could retell their knowledge word for word. Eventually his ability to preserve that knowledge through accurate recital brought fame and importance to him and for this special skill he was given a special gift to mark his importance. In acknowledgment of his learning, a white ruff of twelve beautiful white feathers that represented twelve levels of knowledge was placed upon his throat.

So Toko's Tipuna was no ordinary bird, no ordinary ancestor and to this day a white feather curving forward upon the throat remains to be a distinctive feature of the tui.

Acknowledgment: For background information, which involved a few hours reading thanks to the availability of 'The Maori School Of Learning - volume 6' by Elsdon Best, published in 1974 and thanks also to Murdoch Riley who wrote a beautiful book called 'Maori Bird Lore - An Introduction', published in 2001 by Viking Sevensen NZ Ltd. I want to also thank my wonderful extensive Maori whanau and friends, living and or passed on. I thank them for their memories and similar story lines and for telling them as they do verbally to the next generations, but never got around to writing them down on paper. It's their memories that gave me the style, kia ora.