More is revealed about the second curse placed on the Vaimaanga hotel site, a curse said to be more powerful than the first

Recent media reports have re-opened interest in the Vaimaanga hotel site and the curses upon it. Many will already be familiar with the story of the two curses put upon the site in Vaimaanga where the partly completed, now derelict Sheraton Hotel now stands.
A second curse was put on the site in 1990 amid great secrecy. Now further information has emerged about that second curse.
The first curse was placed in 1911 by Metua A More, a daughter of More Uri Atua, after her father, who lived nearby, was shot on the land by planter William Wigmore on Sunday March 12 1911 during an extended drinking session.
The two had a history of differences over ownership of the land, which Wigmore had leased for 20 years from More Uri Atua. According to old records, Pa Ariki later claimed the land under Gudgeon’s Rules and Regulations of the Cook and Outer Islands Land Titles, which had been introduced in 1902 without More Uri Atua’s knowledge.
More Taunga, a direct descendant of the victim, maintained in February 2006 that he would not lift the curse until the present Pa Ariki agreed that his family are one of the real landowners.(Three clans; Ngati More, Ngati Apai and Ngati Tangiiau claim ancestral ownership of the land).He claimed that only More Taunga can lift the curse which declares that no business enterprise will ever succeed on the land. The central issue is ownership of the land, not money and the Ngati More clan had no problem with a project to redevelop the hotel, going ahead.
The first curse was reinforced by More Taunga’s uncle More Amoa on the night of May 25, 1990 when he entered the hotel development site dressed in traditional tapa cloth cloak, planted a carved tokotoko (stick) and again cursed the land. Prior to planting the tokotoko, he struck the commemorative stone with it and the stone cracked to the left of the plaque.
More Amoa has since passed away.
Now for the first time since 1990 an eyewitness to the placing of the second curse has come forward to advise of additional information. He has declined to be identified.
According to the witness, the tapa cloak had been covered with about 10kg of tumeric (renga) to get the colour. Red was then used on the yellow of the cloak for the designs and the final designs were overlaid in black.
The cloak was tied around More Amoa’s waist with several metres of senit and he wore traditional sandals.
The tokotoko (stick) came from the site and was actually the underground root of an iron wood tree. It was about the thickness of a broom stick, fairly straight for about five feet then curved slightly to one side for about eight inches. It was this eight inches that was carved in the form of a phallus. It was buried at a secret location on site.
The witness said the curse was powerful and had been rendered as though More Amoa knew he was going to die and was prepared to pay the price for the curse.
According to the witness, there is no-one in the Cook Islands who can lift this curse except for the family but that is not likely because the family wants the land returned.
In February 2006 during celebrations to mark the start of developer Tim Tepaki’s project to redevelop the hotel, then Pastor Tutai Pere of the Apostolic Church conducted a prayer to bless the site. According to Tepaki at the time, the blessing was so that the restless spirits of warriors who had died fighting on the land in old times, could rest in peace.
Today, the site remains undeveloped. -Charles Pitt

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