Matai Moana (Mt Crawford)
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
You showed me the photos of those murals
And I can still feel the greyness
Still feel the sadness
Two taniwha
Ngake and Whātaitai
So Ngake broke out into the sea
And Whātaitai
Hataitai got stuck
And that’s what we’re on now
Motu Kairangi means ‘The Exalted Island’
The peak of Motu Kairangi is known as ‘Matai Moana’
Break the spirit. That was really what the systemic approach was
Matai Moana just means “Gaze at the sea.”
Mt Vic on the other side is
The old name for Mt Vic is ‘Matai Rangi’
Which means “Gaze at the sky.”
So they’re twin peaks
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
I kind of remember most of the good times in there
‘Cause the bad times were just boring, you know?
Fucking Dan
I’ve got a problem with Dan
I want to take Dan out
I want to attack Dan
Now I have to look at, who does Dan associate with?
And who do I need to worry about backing him up
Or retaliating on his behalf?
Should I pre-emptively attack them as well?
Or do I think they’ll back him up?
Or is it too strong a threat to me
For actually me to attack Dan?
What do we want?
Land back!
What do we want?
Land back!
What do we want?
Land back!
And I remember being in here
Already feeling like a fuckin’ animal
And just seeing these criminology students
Gazing down at me from this raised walkway
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
Having a prison put on top of the maunga
On Motu Kairangi is a desecration in itself
North of the prison block is four pā
Down from Puhirangi pā
In a easterly direction
Down the same ridge is Te Mahanga pā
And then there’s Kau-whakaara-waru pā
And so these three pā are on the leaward side
Of the northern end of the peninsula
And then the one pā site
On the windward side of the ridge is Te Mata Ki-kai-poinga
In terms of like the old history there, bro
I could sit here for days, literally
There’s something like eight or nine different tribal identities
Have been through here in the last nine hundred years
This whole area is like our Machu Picchu
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
Wellington developed probably the best team of staff
There probably has been in the country
I say that because I’m proud of them
That’s what happens in prison
I can’t explain it
But just say and do things
Which you can’t explain afterwards why you did it
But it just come to ya
And it has the effect
Guys come into the justice system
And get completely fucked up
And then released, right?
That was the whole story behind the carving
So, when the Justice Department came in
You know
“Ooh, that looks really good!”
You know
“That will look great in our boardroom.”
“Tell us about it. What’s it about?”
And Jimi said, “Well, it’s about how guys come in
And they get totally reformed
And then they’re released.”
And we went, “What?”
Kore!
Take!
Kore!
Take!
Koretake, koretake!
Kore!
Take!
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
Please remove those cattle
That are defecating
All over these 600 year old pā sites
That would be great
When you’ve got cattle
Roaming these pā sites
And defecating on them
That kind of sends a loud message, eh
That was a year ago
Cattle’s still there
We just don’t understand
Can you please give some recognition
To these, like, centuries-old pā sites?
Where people actually lived
And fought
And loved
And did everything else humans do
I can understand
If you guys don’t really have much of an affinity
With the Māori sites on here
‘Cause to be quite honest
I have zero affinity
With those concrete bunkers
I couldn’t care less, mate
It’s just a hunk of concrete
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
‘Crims’
Yeah
They’re ‘crims’
Individual crim’s ‘scroat’
“Come ‘ere scroat. Pffft. Pound.”
Just put water in
Sugar and fruit
Tied the lid on tight
And made a nail-sized hole in it
Plus chucked in a vegemite
And just over about four to six weeks
That would turn into a home brew
Maru-Kai-Kuru!
He!
Maru-Kai-Kuru!
Ha!
Maru-Kai-Kuru!
He, ha, aue!
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
Gaze at the sea
We want to get rid of that prison
Apparently it’s going to cost a million dollars
That’s some of the things we’ve got to put up with
In terms of our Treaty settlement
Sometimes we get offered land back
With a huge liability on top of it
I mean
We’d prefer that they got rid of the damn prison
Before we
Before we buy it back
Not buy it back with
I mean
Who wants to keep an ugly prison like that?
You can see in those plans that I showed you
Where they want to build 317 apartments
Talk about, oh, an early childhood centre
And a market
A shop
And then there’s a little station there for a gondola
That goes down to Shelley Bay
Bro, you’re looking at that
You would think that there was no Māori history here
Ever
There’s no thought given to anything Māori about that development
Nothing at all
We see that as a recolonisation
That’s how we see it
It’s like we’re being wiped off that map
They won’t even call it Matai Moana
That’s the oldest
That’s a 700 to 800 year old name
Gaze at the sea
That’s what was wrong with Mt Crawford
We couldn’t make it any bigger
So, it was a niche prison
From the department’s point of view
It was never be able to be expanded on
Because of its location in the land area
Corrections just does stupid shit
And then realises it’s a complete fuckin’ failure
And then gives up on it
The other reason why we want to build up here
Is a coastal retreat plan
With the projections of both polar caps melting
It’s going to raise the global sea level sixty-seven metres
Sixty-seven
We’re up 150 metres here
So even with that amount of sea level rise
We’d still be high enough
But then it’d be coming back to an island
That’s why we call it Motu Kairangi now
It’s going to be an island again
Preserving it? For what purpose?
‘We can make it a museum.’
Well, no we can’t
It’s only thirty percent of the seismic code
There’s probably going to be a ten-story hotel there
‘Crawford, On The Hill, By The Sea’
Yeah
“A criminal waste of space,” as Denusia said
‘Crawford, On The Hill’
Never saw the ‘Sea’
‘On The Hill, By The Sea’
Fuckin’ hell