MĀORI HERITAGE
WORDS: JENNY LING • IMAGERY: DEAN WRIGHT 1
Standing
STRONG
The history of one of Northland’s most significant battle sites is being kept alive 175 years on through the sharing of stories and wānanga
20 Ngahuru • Autumn
St Michael’s Anglican Church in the Far North looks like any quaint, modest church, with its white, vertical boarding, steep pitched roof and small arched windows. But take a closer look and you’ll find that Te Whare Karakia o Mikaere, as it’s also known, and the site upon which it sits, is loaded with history and wairua. Perched on top of a hill near Ngāwhā, it’s where one of Northland’s most important battles, the Battle of Ōhaeawai, took place and where local Māori inflicted heavy casualties on British forces.
Heritage New Zealand
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St Michael’s Anglican Church in Ōhaeawai is surrounded by the urupā and is the site of one of Northland’s most significant battles.
2 The urupā houses a memorial marking the interment spot of 47 British soldiers.
The church occupies most of the original pā of rangatira Pene Taui, around which Te Pakanga o Ōhaeawai was fought in the winter of 1845 during the third major engagement of the Northern Wars. Surrounding it is the urupā, encased in stone walls that house a memorial marking the interment spot of 47 British soldiers. Inside the church is an account of the battle and a plaque listing the names of those same British dead.
Heritage New Zealand
With particular input from Heritage New Zealand Senior Pouārahi Northland Atareiria Heihei and Kaiwhakahaere/ Manager Māori Heritage Policy and Recognition Xavier Forde, in 2018 the battle site Te Pakanga o Ōhaeawai was recognised as wāhi tapu by Heritage New Zealand. Under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, wāhi tapu is defined as a place sacred to Māori in the traditional, spiritual, religious, ritual or mythological sense. There are many accounts of the battle around the pā site, which is now a peaceful place of worship that holds great significance to local hapū Ngāti Rangi. Local historian Edward Clarke cautions that any accounts of the battle involving his tūpuna have not yet been written and recorded; they remain stories within an oral history, passed down from one generation to the next through whakapapa, whakataukī, kōrero and waiata.
The great-grandson of chief Heta Te Haara, who succeeded Pene Taui as the local rangatira after his death, Edward has spent much time with kaumātua absorbing these stories. Edward and Adrienne Tari, who is Chair of the St Michael’s Church and Urupā Committee, acknowledge other rangatira and hapū who were involved in the battle. “It’s part of our history; we have all grown up knowing it,” says Edward. “There’s a lot of humility in this hapū and in Ngāpuhi in general. We totally respect this place, it’s very special for us.” The story began in June 1845 when Lieutenant Colonel Henry Despard attempted to wear down a division of Ngāpuhi over one week. On 25 June about 600 troops from the 58th and 99th Regiments, the Royal Marines and militia, as well as approximately 300 warriors of Tāmati Wāka Nene, besieged 100 men at the Taui pā.
Under the leadership of Ngāpuhi leader Te Ruki Kawiti, the warriors successfully defended the pā, which featured ground-breaking fortifications, including communication trenches, that gave their occupants maximum protection, and rua that were set into the ground and covered with logs, stones and matted flax. The pā also had three palisades, including a strong inner fence made of pūriri logs set almost two metres into the ground, with five metres standing above ground covered in flax leaves that worked as a screen, preventing the British seeing inside. The British, having established a four-gun battery on the nearby hill of Puketapu, opened fire and continued until dark. By the end of the day, minimal damage had been done and the bombardment continued, just as ineffectually, for another two days. On 1 July a raiding party from the pā successfully overpowered the camp of Tāmati Wāka Nene and took the Union Jack, which
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MĀORI HERITAGE was flown within their pā in full view of the British, upside down and at half-mast below a kākahu. Enraged by the insult, Despard ordered the storming of the pā, against advice from Wāka Nene, who refused to take part in the attack. Within a matter of minutes 47 of the attackers lay dead and another 70 were left injured. Only a handful of defenders were killed. By 8 July the pā was abandoned, the defenders having disappeared into the night. The church – which is listed as a Category 1 historic place – was built by Messrs Neilsen and Cook in 1870 as a symbol of peace and a tribute to the Pākehā who had died in battle there. It was opened by Bishop Cowie in 1871, the same year that Heta Te Haara obtained permission from the government to reinter the bodies of the British soldiers in the Ōhaeawai urupā.
On 1 July 1872, 27 years after the battle, the troops were honoured by Māori at a service and a memorial cross was erected. The site is now registered under the Historic Places Act 1980. Over the years, gravediggers have come across artefacts such as cannon balls, pipi shells and charcoal, along with pieces of the pūriri palisades. In the lead-up to the 175th commemorations of the Battle of Ōhaeawai in 2020 there has been much community activity at the site. Adrienne says commemorations will be held over the first weekend in July 2020 to acknowledge the battle and will include kōrero and a hākari, along with a church service. A number of guests, dignitaries and representatives from various agencies will be invited, she says, including the New Zealand Defence Force.
HANDS ACROSS THE WATER The tale of how St Michael’s Anglican Church came to be built is a story in itself. In 1863 Wesleyan lay preacher William Jenkins took a party of 14 Māori men and women, mainly from Northland, to England in a bid to improve Māori/Pākehā relations. Once there, the group received invitations from England's most eminent people, including Queen Victoria, and were lavishly entertained. Queen Victoria was still mourning Prince Albert’s death in 1861, so Ngāpuhi rangatira Hare Pomare and his wife Hariata, who had given birth to a son, composed a waiata, which they performed in front of the Queen, placing a heitiki at her feet. Touched by these gestures, Queen Victoria adopted their child, Albert Victor Pomare, as her godson. Within several months of their stay, however, funds were dwindling and the group, now stranded, were wondering how to finance their return to New Zealand. It was Birmingham woman Dorothea Weale, who, upon hearing of their plight, paid for their passages home. Wanting to acknowledge her kind gesture, they set about fulfilling her wish to provide churches in their home communities. Enough money for two churches was raised. One is St Michael’s Anglican Church in Ōhaeawai; the other, Te Hēpara Pai, Church of the Good Shepherd, was located in Mangakāhia but was destroyed by a fire in 1915. n
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22 Ngahuru • Autumn
Heritage New Zealand
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hākari: feast hapū: tribe heitiki: a type of greenstone pendant kākahu: a type of cloak kaumātua: elder kōrero: talks korowai: a type of cloak mātauranga: knowledge rangatira: chief rua: anti-artillery bunkers tūpuna: ancestors urupā: cemetery waiata: song wairua: spirit wānanga: tribal knowledge/conference whakapapa: genealogy whakataukī: proverbs
Heritage New Zealand
The whānau of Dorothea Weale, whose kind gesture inspired the building of the church (see sidebar), have been invited from England and Ngāti Rangi are commissioning a korowai to be made as a gift for her family. With funding from Te Puni Kōkiri, the Ministry of Māori Development, they also plan to create information boards in both te reo Māori and English so that visitors can learn about the battle and the history of the site. It is expected that these boards will be erected outside the church before the commemorations take place. The church has undergone minor renovations and general maintenance over the years, including in the 1970s to celebrate its centenary. It was in tip-top shape for the filming of Mesmerized,
a 1986 drama directed by Michael Laughlin in which the characters, played by A-list actors Jodie Foster and John Lithgow, were married. But the history of the site is being kept alive mainly by sharing stories and wānanga, led by Edward and other local historians, Adrienne says. These include national commemorations called Te Pūtake o te Riri, The Cause of the Anger, which took place in the Bay of Islands over a weekend in March 2018. It was the first time a national commemoration had recognised the New Zealand Wars, which led to the loss of 3000 lives across the country. During the event, Ngāti Rangi hosted a wānanga on the Battle of Ōhaeawai, which attracted
six busloads of people to their Ngāwhā marae. Adrienne says it was an impressive event, and one in which she heard the full story of the battle for the first time. “It was really special,” she says. “It started a bit of an epiphany; we need to embrace it and learn more about it. It’s not just a story, it forms part of our history and we are the people who hold on to that mātauranga. It’s entrenched and we have a responsibility to learn it.”
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The church was built in 1870 as a symbol of peace and a tribute to the Pākehā who had died in battle there.
2 Local historian Edward Clarke (left),
St Michael’s Church and Urupā Committee chair Adrienne Tari and Heritage New Zealand’s Tautiaki Wāhi Taonga Director Mita Harris.
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