Purakaunui is a sleepy seaside settlement on an inlet about 20km from central Dunedin which has been a popular holiday spot for well over a century, but the area's rich Maori history has not been widely known, until now. Reporter Allison Rudd talks to the pair behind Purakaunui te Turangawaewae, a DVD which shares the area's heritage with the world.
Long-time MP the late Whetu Tirikatene Sullivan could trace her family line back to Purakaunui. So can Booker prize-winning author Keri Hulme. And so can Dunedin social services director Nicola Taylor and Paraparaumu retiree John McLachlan.
Mrs Taylor and Mr McLachlan might not be as well known as their prominent relatives, but it was the same family connection which brought them together and led to them collaborating on producing a DVD about their spiritual home.
Along with several hundred other New Zealanders, all four are descended from Englishman Richard Driver, a sailor and whaler who settled in Otago in 1838, aged 26.
He married Motoitoi, a Kai Tahu chief's daughter, and lived with her in a cave near Purakaunui. Some say it was at Whareakeake (Murdering Beach) while others say it was at another bay nearby. They had three daughters, Maria, Emma and Mere, before Motoitoi died in 1846.
Another child was born of a liaison between Driver and his housekeeper, who might have been Motoitoi's sister.
While on duty piloting the John Wickliffe and Philip Laing into Otago Harbour in April, 1848, Driver met 17-year-old Scotswoman Elizabeth Robertson. They married the following year and had 11 children, the last born when Richard was 64.
Mrs Taylor and Mr McLachlan knew of each other - both are from Motoitoi's line - but did not become close until 2000, when Mrs Taylor, the sole representative of the Motoitoi branch on the committee organising a Driver family reunion that year, needed help.
"The reunion was fraught with difficulties. We were bringing a large Pakeha family together with a much smaller Maori-connected family and there was a big power imbalance and struggles which played out ... I had to turn to Whetu and John to help me through the tensions."
At the reunion and in the months following, she and Mr McLachlan discovered a shared interest in the history of their own family, of Kai Tahu, and of the Purakaunui area.
Later they decided it was time the oral stories and the highlights of the written information Mr McLachlan had collected over decades were preserved in a DVD.
Mr McLachlan has been interested in history all his life, particularly about preserving the Motoitoi-Driver family stories.
In the 1970s he formed the Purakaunui Block Incorporation to look after the 208ha property given back to compensate Maori alienated from their lands. (Mrs Taylor recently took over as chairwoman of the incorporation).
Maori have lived in the Purakaunui area for hundreds of years. Archaeologists have uncovered a permanent fishing village at Long Beach which dates back to at least the 1600s and there are several villages and pa sites in the area.
But Mr McLachlan had a clear vision that the DVD should be concise, about 50 minutes long, and should concentrate on the period since Driver and Motoitoi married. Early on, he sketched a rough draft of the components of the DVD - stories from himself and other Driver descendants and a series of interviews with historians and archaeologists.
The final product, researched and written by noted Maori historian Bill Dacker and Mr McLachlan and filmed and edited by John Irwin, is true to that original vision.
Mr McLachlan says he is delighted with the results.
"The work of John Irwin and Bill Dacker is masterly ... I also like that it has such a visual aspect. It is a modern way of presenting historic material."
Mrs Taylor says the DVD has several themes - Purakaunui, the surrounding coastline, the archaeological significance of the area, and the Motoitoi story.
"In many ways, it is a snapshot of the intermarriage of two races, and the sense of belonging to Purakaunui we still have in spite of all those generations which have gone by ... Right through, the sense of Purakaunui being our home has been very, very strong."
Most of the filming was done over a weekend in 2009 and editing took more than 18 months.
Mrs Taylor says she is "thrilled" with the DVD, which has been distributed to museums, libraries and marae as well as being offered for sale.
"The feedback from younger members of the family has been what has made it worthwhile. We made it for them, and they are saying to have the stories and history presented in this way, in a format they can go back to and think about, is special."
Some were disappointed the DVD was only 50 minutes long.
Mrs Taylor says Mr Dacker is keen for a book to be written from the wealth of material Mr McLachlan has accumulated. She feels some responsibility to make that happen.
"It could well be my retirement project. It might be that I myself don't write it, but I might initiate the impetus for it to happen."
