Tokorua ngā wahine nō Ngāti Porou kua whakanuia i te hui nui e whakahōnore nei i ngā mahi tuhi pukapuka a te hunga o Aotearoa, e kīa nei, ko Ngā Tohu Pukapuka Ockham. Nā Ngaino Ellis i tuhi, nā Natalie Robertston i whakaahua te pukapuka "A Whakapapa of Tradition" e aro ana ki ngā whare whakairo o Ngāti Porou. Ka mutu, i riro i a rāua te tohu o Judith Binney mō te putanga tuatahi o tētahi pukapuka kōrero pono, whai whakaahua.
Kua whakanuia a Ngārino Ellis rāua ko Natalie Robertson mō te pukapuka "A Whakapapa of Tradition", e whakamānawa ana i ngā whare whakairo o Ngāti Porou.
Hei tā Ngarino Ellis, “Ngāti Porou are so much into education into knowledge into literature and so it's really about our intellectual whakapapa that we would write a book, and to have it with really good images, a little bit of text I'll say and to have it as a book that people would treasure is really important for us.”
Nā Natalie Robertson ngā whakaahua i hopu. Hei tāna, he whare whakairo, he pātaka kōrero. E ai ki a Natalie, “For me, it's really affirming for our rangatahi to be able to see how precious their whare whakairo are. To see the histories within them and to see that the knowledge contained within a whare is as rich as any library if we take the time to learn the stories.”
Ka aro te pukapuka ki ngā tauira a Iwirākau, te tipuna nāna te whakairo i whakahaumaru ki Waiapu, ki te Tai Rāwhiti. Ko Ngārino Ellis te kaituhi. Hei tāna, waiho mā te Māori ōna ake hītori e kōrero, arā, “One of the goals of the book is to encourage other hapu and iwi to write their own art histories of carving and I think it's really critical that we as hapu and iwi own that knowledge.”
Ahakoa he tāne ngā tohunga whakairo, te tokomaha o ngā whare tipuna o Waiapu he wahine, e eke ai te kōrero, Waiapu kōkā huhua.
E ai ki a Natalie Roberston, “So for me the women are really important, the meeting houses are named for women, but it was also Te Ao Kairau who dreamed those houses into being, the houses are named for her grandughters and in some instances grandsons, she's a grandughter of Pōhatu and Pōkai from Tikapa.”
Mua te haere, ā, kei te whai whakaaro a Ngārino ki tētahi pukapuka e pā ana ki ngā mahi whakairo a Hone rāua ko Pine Taiapa, he tohunga whakairo nō roto Ngāti Porou.
