'Globally significant' fossils help bond Te Papa and iwi

The relationship between iwi and Te Papa is being mended after three million-year-old fossils (kohatū) were discovered on Taranaki iwi land.

An eroding cliff has unearthed fossils between Ohawe and Hawera on the shared land of Ngāti Ruanui and Ngāruahine.

The cliff has slowly crumbled away leaving treasure for local fossil hunters to find.

Over the last three years, these iwi have been working with Te Papa, to collaborate with tangata whenua and share their knowledge and experience with one another.

Ngāti Ruanui representative Nicola Coogan says the relationship between Ngāti Ruanui and Te Papa has improved as the process grows.

Last week the newly collected fossils were welcomed back to the land and onto the marae with a pōwhiri.

Nicola says having the pōwhiri is important to “welcome the fossils back to their space.”

Te Papa and the iwi have a mutual interest in ensuring that tikanga is followed to mark the importance of taonga.

Ngāti Ruanui and Ngāruahine help Te Papa to reach locals who have discovered fossils in their rohe.

For the pōwhiri two curators from Te Papa, Felix Marx and Alan Tennyson travelled up to Taranaki, collected the kohatū from the private collectors and meet the iwi at Ngāti Ruanui’s Marae Taiporohenui.

Marx says that the uniqueness, richness and diversity of the fossils in Taranaki are of “global significance”.

He and Tennyson explained the new fossils and discussed the findings/progress of the previous year's discoveries with the iwi representatives and iwi students who were invited to join this year.

Since this partnership began they have collected a dolphin, a penguin and the oldest monk seal fossil, thought only to exist in warmer northern hemisphere waters.

The newest discovery is a type of sheerwater seabird that is thought to have a wingspan of six metres.

The eco-system shown through the fossils is estimated to be around 3 million years old, meaning the curators can find out about the interactions between the species and what they mean as a whole, not just individually.

“The nice thing about this assemblage is that it’s so tightly dated, relatively speaking, that we can be reasonably confident that all of these things did kind of overlap. So together inform what the environment there was like at the time.”

A formal arrangement is in the works to ensure ownership of the respective iwi taonga.

After the Taranaki pōwhiri, the iwi then travel down to Wellington with the fossils and welcome them into the new setting and place a karakia over them.

Representatives and students from Ngāti Ruanui and Ngāruahine visit Te Papa. Photo: Nicola Coogan

This year students were involved as well, as the iwi are eager to offer environmental science pathways to students.

The relationship between the respective iwi and Te Papa is developing as the cliff continues to erode, more fossils are found, and now iwi are preparing to give the newfound species their Te Reo Māori names.