Once upon a time, across Aotearoa, from Te Rerenga Wairua to Rakiura, lived a special megafauna. They were large, with snub noses and the bull’s had regal manes. They were curious, playful and surprisingly docile. They were known as pakake.
Then Aotearoa was colonised by people and pakake were hunted intensively for their meat and oil, until they were almost wiped out.
Pakake clung on with a flipper, and sought refuge in the Subantarctic Islands. But their new environment was harsh.
One day in 1993, a golden cow emerged at Taieri Mouth in Ōtepoti/Dunedin NZ, and gave birth to the first pup born on mainland Aotearoa in about 150 years! She was lovingly dubbed ‘Mum’, and she signalled the reintroduction of pakake to southern mainland Aotearoa.
But in pakake’s absence, the people forgot that these taonga species were theirs to cherish and to protect. Some people raced along the beaches, tattooing the sand with tyre tracks and debris, threatening pakake.
… Pakake need our help to survive and thrive. There is enough space for them and us to live harmoniously.
Aroha Sian, Sea Society x
I present to you ‘A Line in the Sand’, a 10 minute documentary about pakake’s plight, by visionaries Millie Gillard and Richard Marks; starring yours truly, Moss Thompson and Dr. Bruce Robertson from the University of Otago, Jane Young from Forest & Bird and Lyndon McKenzie from Catlins Tours. To watch the full documentary click: https://youtu.be/xmCaLBqPbIs
Photo: Sian Mair, May 2020. Taken from 10 meters away and zoomed in on.