Remembering Waerenga-ā-Hika Nā Vince O'Malley
As the 150th anniversary of the siege of Waerengaā-Hika fast approaches it is timely to consider this conflict in a wider context. If this really was the hinge of fate for the district, as one historian has written, then how did things change? In order to answer this, we need to consider the broader history of Tūranganui-ā-Kiwa in the decades before and since. The period from 1840 to 1873 was a tumultuous one for the Iwi and Hapū of Tūranga. British sovereignty was nominally extended over the Tūranga tribes in the former year by virtue of the Treaty of Waitangi. In reality, however, Tūranga Māori remained the real sovereigns, and it would be a further 25 years before the Crown would begin to make serious inroads into this state of affairs. Siege warfare would achieve in a week what two decades of paper rule had failed to do. Yet the process of disempowerment and eventual marginalisation was never a straightforward one. Tūranga in the 1860s was indeed, to paraphrase one of the key players from this period, Donald McLean, an entangled web which could not be easily unravelled. The complex and often confusing events of these years reflect the interplay of various personal and political plans for enrichment through the colonisation of Tūranga on the Pākehā side, and on the Māori side strategies designed to prevent, or at least limit the impact, of this.
and many Tūranga Māori either killed, exiled or on the run, the balance of power shifted dramatically in favour of Europeans.
It has been estimated that as many as 40% of Te Aitanga-ā-Māhaki were illegally sent to and detained on the Chatham Islands without trial in the months following Waerenga-ā-Hika. There they and other Tūranga Māori were held under the most horrific conditions, subject to regular abuse and beatings, expected to provide their own food and lodgings and left without adequate warm clothing to cope with the harsh and unfamiliar cold climate. Their ongoing mistreatment and illegal detention would eventually give rise to the escape and return to the mainland of 298 men, women and children under the leadership of Te Kooti in July 1868. What followed was a further round of violent encounters, including the summary execution of approximately 128 Tūranga Māori at Ngātapa in January 1869 and the enforced deed of cession that finally cleared the way for land confiscations in the area. Military and political subjugation paved the way for English law to finally be imposed over the Tūranga district. It also enabled the introduction of the Native Land Court that would see most of Tūranga that had not already been confiscated pass to the Crown or Europeans over the next few decades. In 1840 the Crown had solemnly promised to respect the rangatiratanga of those who had signed the Treaty of Waitangi. In November 1865 this was brutally and suddenly undermined by conquest. The consequences of that conflict were devastating for local iwi, for whom the painful legacies of war and confiscation resonated over many generations. The Waitangi Tribunal heard many of these stories in the course of its Tūranga inquiry that began at Manutuke in November 2001.
Despite all the complexity, however, the key theme remains clear: Tūranga by 1873 had become identifiably part of a British colony in a way unimaginable just three decades earlier. Tūranga Māori had been unseated from power and subjected to various retributions – including land confiscation, Tūranga Iwi Area of Interest heavy loss of life, and exile – as 1.195 million acres of land a consequence. Māori chiefs obtained under duress were made supplicants to Pākehā politicians for the first time, and customary Māori law supplanted by the British judicial system. Local Iwi and Hapū lost control over their own affairs and over those of Tūranga, which was symbolically renamed to reflect its new status as an outpost of the British empire. This transformation of the cultural, political, economic, environmental and social world of Tūranga in the space of just eight short years began with – and would not have been possible without – the events that took place at Waerenga-ā-Hika. It was a six-day long siege that sealed the fate of Tūranga for at least the next century, resulting in the marginalisation of those Māori communities that had formerly been in control of the district. It was not so much that Tūranga Māori had suffered a crushing defeat (though the losses were certainly heavy given the relatively small population base). It was more that the events of that week finally enabled the Crown to impose its political will over the district. With military and other settlers subsequently introduced,
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In its 2004 report the Tribunal upheld the arguments advanced by Iwi, their lawyers and historians that the Crown had acted unlawfully in attacking Waerenga-ā-Hika in November 1865. It concluded that there had been no rebellion at Tūranga and that local Māori were entitled to act in self-defence when confronted by the Crown and its allies. The Tribunal condemned the subsequent land takings, illegal executions without trial or charge, and the pursuit and harassment of Te Kooti and his followers after 1868. These actions, the Tribunal found, "... were not just arbitrary and capricious. They were brutal, lawless, and manipulative, and they were committed in the name of the Crown in New Zealand". The Tribunal added that the story of contact and conflict between the Crown and Māori in Tūranga in the three decades from 1865 contains some of the darkest and most dramatic moments in our history as a country. Yet that history was and is remembered only by tangata whenua and a few historians who specialise in New Zealand history. As one of those few historians, I have often reflected on the need to share these stories with a wider audience and how best to reach them. It would be great to see the government putting some resources into supporting such a kaupapa, not just here at Tūranga but also more broadly. Few people read Waitangi Tribunal reports. The challenge is to present the stories of the past – of Wi Pere, Anaru Matete, Hirini Te Kani, Riperata Kahutia, Te Kooti and others – in ways that resonate today. And although there are tales of great sadness along the way, there are also examples of undoubted bravery and other positive attributes. Those stories also deserve to be remembered. I have argued elsewhere that a mature nation needs to own its history, warts and all, and that remembering does not require guilt or shame, or any other such reaction, but merely honesty and a willingness to confront difficult topics.
The SIEGE of Waerenga-ā-Hika 17 - 22 November 1865
Just over half of the Tūranga Māori population of 800 lived at Waerenga-ā- Hika Pā. Following the siege: * 71 defenders of the Pā were killed * 186 men, 87 women & 60 children were illegally detained & imprisoned on the Wharekauri/Chatham Islands. Approximately 15% of these detainees died due to the very cold & harsh conditions
ILLEGAL IMPRISONMENT Of 25% of the Tūranga Māori adult male population
THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE TŪRANGA WARS There was a l oss of 43% of the Tūranga Māori adult male population - including the illegal execution of a third to half of this number at Ngātapa. "They were marched up the hillside again under the outer wall - as it were - of the Pā they had defended so long and so heroically, stripped of every vestige of clothing they possessed and SHOT - shot like dogs" - Excerpt from Redemption Songs by Judith Binney, pg 145
IT'S TIME TO TELL OUR STORY A T RIB A L IN F OG RA PH IC
Waerenga-ā-Hika and the events that took place at Tūranga between 1865 and 1873 form part of that troubled history that is too widely ignored or forgotten today, beyond the descendants of those involved. As the Tribunal commented, while only one side remembers the suffering of the past, dialogue will always be difficult. One side commences the dialogue with anger and the other side has no idea why. Reconciliation cannot be achieved by this means. The Tribunal might well have added that, important as the Treaty settlements process is, it is no excuse for the rest of New Zealand to simply forget. Tūranga's troubled past is what scholars term a difficult history. But it is also a past that needs to be remembered and acknowledged if we are to avoid repeating its mistakes. Moving confidently into the future requires us to keep sight of where we have come from and been. It is this that makes it important to commemorate the tragic events that took place at Waerengaā-Hika 150 years ago, even as Hapū and Iwi contemplate or have entered a post-settlement world.