"Tiwha Tiwha te pō, ko te Pakerewhā, ko Arikirangi tēnei rā te haere nei' | 'Dark, dark is the night, there is the Pakerewhā, there is Arikirangi to come."
"A prophecy that foretold the coming of strangers and a time of darkness. Toiroa drew his prophecy in the sand depicting the arrival of Cook and the Endeavour, strangers with red or white skin, and also Arikirangi, a grandchild of Toiroa, still to be born.
This prophecy would come true 3 years later with the arrival of Cook and his men. Decades after, Toiroa's descendant Te Kooti Arikirangi led the resistance movement to free our people from foreign oppression.
On October 6th, 1769, Cook’s Endeavour arrived off the East Coast of Aotearoa, Cook and his men sailed into the mouth of Tūranganui River, October 8, 1769 and Toiroa’s vision came to life. During the 48 hours of interaction between Pākehā and Māori, a series of deaths, injuries and kidnappings befell the people of Raukawa and Ngāti Oneone. The Endeavour moved on shortly afterwards, having traumatised the community, and as a final insult Cook chose to refer to the area ‘Poverty Bay’.
AA - 06101769 is a reflection and timeline of these events from the shore point of view and a narrative that still haunts the shoreline and people of Turanganui a kiwa."
