About our Muttonbirds, Journey and Community

Muttonbirds are known to Māori as Tītī (also known as Sooty Shearwater). It is estimated that there are around 21 million Tītī/Mutton Birds in New Zealand. Most of the population is around Rakiura-Stewart Island and other southern offshore islands such as the Snares and the Auckland Islands.

Rakiura Māori are the kaitiaki (guardians) of this Taonga (Treasure). As a community, we harvest around 250,000 Titi chicks per year.

The University of Otago concluded after 13 years of research that our traditional indigenous harvest is 100% sustainable. Mutton Birds are only harvested on the Beneficial and Ngai Tahu Tītī Islands around Rakiura.

Other offshore islands where Mutton Birds are plentiful are not harvested. This means that places like the Snares and the Auckland islands are overpopulated with Titi. There is not enough space for all the Titi to nest. This means that most of the eggs that the Titi lay on these islands do not hatch.

Whereas on the Titi islands around Rakiura that are managed by Kai Tahu Rakiura Māori, we keep the Tītī population down. This means that almost every egg laid by the Titi on our islands turns into a Mutton Bird chick.

Our Rakiura Māori community being Waitaha, Kati Mamoe and Kai Tahu or the collective Iwi-Ngai Tahu have harvested and managed this important taonga for well over 600 years. The Rakiura Tītī Islands or Mutton Bird Islands are our Kaimanu (food source/birding grounds).

My Whanau have always birded Poutama, which is located on the Southwest Cape of Stewart Island. It is an 11-hour boat trip from Bluff. In pre-European times it could take up to 2 weeks to get there by waka as we would beach hop as the weather is so treacherous and changeable, this is the roaring forties. Our Mutton Birds are the Pride of Poutama.

Poutama is one of the 21 Beneficial Tītī Islands surrounding Rakiura. There are a further 15 Ngai Tahu Tītī Islands. These were formerly known as the Crown Islands, as they were sold to the British Crown when Chief Topi sold Rakiura to the Crown. The Crown Islands were returned to Rakiura Maori as part of the Ngai Tahu Treaty Settlement. The Beneficial Titi Islands were not included in the land sale to the British Crown so have never been part of New Zealand. They have always belonged to our Whanaunui and are part of the Nation of Ngai Tahu or Aotearoa.

As a Rakiura Maori Whanau, we have a direct whakapapa link to our island, Poutama. We are the kaitiaki of this important resource that our Tupuna (ancestors) left to us. We manage this on behalf of our Mokopuna (Grandchildren) and the generations that will come after them.

The Rakiura Tītī Islands are the most important and sacred land in the rohe (district) of Ngai Tahu. Most of Kai Tahu’s land in Te Waipounamu (South Island) was too cold to grow Kumara, so we depended on our Tītī to sustain us through the unforgiving southern winters.

Poutama is our Kaimanu, our food harvesting or birding ground. We can always depend on this taonga to provide for our Whanau. Poutama is our Turangawaewae, our connection to the earth. Poutama is our standing point, it is where Te Ao Marama (the land of the living) and Rarohenga (the spirit world) overlap. We can feel our Tupuna who watches over us and guide us when we are on this sacred Titi Island. No matter how tough things get on the mainland, we can always go to our Mutton Bird Island to replenish our wairua and mauri and return to Te Waipounamu strong.

We still manage our Tītī Islands by the Tikanga (principles/customs) of the Rangatira and Ariki of old. These old Māori Chiefs feared that if we lived the whole year on our Muttonbird islands, the birds may not return. This traditional matauranga (knowledge) Māori has now become law and the Tikanga of our Titi Islands.

The first day that we can set foot on the Mutton Bird Islands is March 15. The first 2 weeks are for us to do maintenance on our huts, cut our tracks and prepare for the season. The season begins on April 1^st with the Ngao. Ngaoing is the process of pulling plump Mutton Bird chicks out of their burrows. This is done during the day while the adult Tītī catches fish in the sea around the Titi Islands.

By this part of the Mutton Bird season, the fat mutton bird chicks start to develop very fast and the Autumn weather starts to turn to Winter. The adult Titi or Sooty Shearwater at this point start to leave the islands to begin their annual migration around the oceans of the world.

As the Tītī chicks are no longer getting fed, they are motivated to leave their burrows under the cover of darkness. They do this so they can shed their down, lose fat and build up strength in their wings so that they can jump off the cliffs around the islands to begin their maiden voyage and catch up with the adult Sooty Shearwaters. This part of the Muttonbird season is called the Rama or the Torch. The Torching season begins on Poutama around April 21^st each year.

The rain and the wind bring the Tītī chicks out at night. They love to come out of their burrows during storms at night so they can flap their wings, the rain washes the down off the Titi chicks and exposes their adult feathers. Tītī chicks practise short flights across the manu (birding ground) in the gusts of wind. It is while the Tītī are doing this that we march around our islands with headlamps to harvest most of the mutton birds that we catch for the season. We don’t get much sleep during the torching season as we harvest birds during the night and process them all day.

Sometime around mid-late May, the Tītī chicks leave the island, normally during a big southerly storm. They jump off the cliffs in a big gust of wind and instinctively know where to go to catch up to their parents.

Our Tikanga dictates that we must leave our Titi Islands by May 31^st unless we are trapped down there by a big storm. The Roaring Forties are notorious for ferocious storms at this time of year. Once the Titi chicks depart from our islands, they hikoi around the oceans of the world for the next 7 years.

After this, the now-adult Tītī or Sooty Shearwater return to the same burrow that it was born in so it can reproduce, and the new cycle of life starts all over again.