12 year old Maori boy, Pre-Europeon
I am Te Horeta, also called Te Taniwha from Ngati Whananga. My mountain is [Ngaruahoe]; my river is the Thames. I live in Mercury Bay in the Coromandel. I am aged 12 years old and the year is 1769. In my whole world I think I know 100 people. That’s all. I live in a small kainga on the Firth of Thames, and I’ve never been far from there. My little kainga, my home village, is one of a number of villages along the river. But I have only ever visited two villages, both of them set up by my hapu. There is the river village where we grow our root crops and do our fishing. And there is the fortified pa, where we go for security. But that is our whole world of contact.
Of course I know there are other people. Because I know that up and down the river are other people. I have seen a few of them in canoes exploring the village. And I know that when I grow up I will get to visit a few of these villages. I might get to double the number of people I know. But that is all the people I will ever know in my life...
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