Divine revelation of M¯aori ‘‘miracle man’’
A vision led Tahupo¯tiki Wiremu Ra¯tana to the religious and political unification of the Ma¯ori people, writes Jessica Long.
It’s 1918 and Tahupo¯ tiki Wiremu Ra¯ tana is 40 years old when influenza becomes a pandemic in New Zealand. The widespread sickness kills thousands and weighs heavily on the mind of this ‘‘ordinary Ma¯ ori’’.
One day in November 1918, standing on the balcony of a small farmhouse overlooking Waipu Lake, the ploughman notices a ball or strange whirlwind-like cloud rising from ‘‘a large pond’’ in front of the house. It flies from the sea over sandhills before ‘‘it burst’’, his friend Reverend Piri Munro tells a Christchurch crowd in 1921.
Ra¯ tana falls asleep and when he wakes, in the evening, he’s struck by a series of ‘‘peculiar fits’’. He crashes through fences and wanders the property alone, fending off anyone who goes near to him, according to the Levin Chronicle.
Making his way back to the house, Ra¯ tana joins his family in their sitting room, where he stays for five hours in stillness until his wife helps him to bed.
Ra¯ tana wakes in a violent mood, breaking furniture in the house, and becomes so violent that ‘‘his wife arranged for him to be sent to the Porirua Mental Hospital’’. He’s strapped to a chair and taken to a nearby railway station, the report adds.
Ra¯ tana wakes before the train’s arrival. Confused by his bonds, he asks, ‘‘What is the meaning of this? If you have any love for me, take these off.’’
He is released and returns to the farm with no recurrence of ‘‘fits’’. But it’s not long before he again sees the strange cloud from the balcony. Again, it busts before him dividing into two forms – one ‘‘a celestial being’’. From this moment forward he is known as Ma¯ ngai, or mouthpiece, of the Holy Spirit.
Ra¯ tana wakes from a sleep, aware his nine-year-old son Omeka is home. He’s ill and awaiting yet another operation after a string of unsuccessful ones.
‘‘The boy will be operated on, but not by doctors. It will be by the hand of God,’’ the Levin Chronicle says.
‘‘The boy was cured of his affliction, and from that time on Ratana did nothing else but attend to hundreds and hundreds of afflicted Natives.’’
Ra¯ tana pa¯
Ra¯ tana was said to have the gift of spiritual healing through prayer. His reputation as a ‘‘Ma¯ ori prophet’’, ‘‘miracle man’’ and ‘‘faith healer’’ rapidly spread, attracting people to his village, which grew to become Ra¯ tana pa¯ .
‘‘His faith healing in 1920 made him famous, not only among his own people and Europeans in New Zealand, but all over the world,’’ The Press reported after his death in September 1939.
In 1924 Ra¯ tana travelled to Europe, which is said to have inspired him to open the Ra¯ tana Church in July 1925. Its followers became part of the officiated religion with the largest Ma¯ ori representation of its time.
Ra¯ tana pa¯ housed about 700 in 200 dwellings. The village had its own post office, picture theatre, church and Ma¯ ori school which was expanded to a site in Te Poi, near Matamata, in 1937 – Te Omera pa¯ , in memory of Ra¯ tana’s son.
‘‘There was of course intense public interest in the sudden rise to prominence of an otherwise ordinary Ma¯ ori. When the frenzy of those weeks waned, Ra¯ tana let it be understood that his intention was to be the saviour of his own Ma¯ ori people,’’ The Press said.
It was said he travelled the country and eventually the world with a bible and the Treaty of Waitangi in hand – as a diplomatic reminder of Ma¯ ori rights. Political movement
It’s April of 1924 when Ra¯ tana flies to England to present King George V with a petition to rectify Ma¯ ori concerns over land ownership.
The petition was not received, but it did contribute to the 1926 Sim Commission – a committee set up to investigate whether the confiscation of land, under the New Zealand Settlements Act 1863, ‘‘exceeded in quantity what was fair and just’’.
On January 19, 1925 the New Zealand
Herald reports the Ra¯ tana Church’s followers had thrown their support behind the Labour Party and would likely influence the next election.
His intention was to be the saviour of his own Ma¯ ori people
It said Ra¯ tana and his followers were strongly opposed to the ‘‘present Government and in the Western Ma¯ ori district they had decided to support a Labour candidate against Sir Maui Pomare, Minister for Health’’.
The relationship continued to build and by the 1930s Ra¯ tana and Labour were entwined after an agreement with Michael Joseph Savage was signed. Four Ma¯ ori seats were held under the Ra¯ tana/ Labour alliance by 1943.
Every year on January 25, MPs attend the annual celebration of the birthday of Tahupo¯ tiki Wiremu Ra¯ tana, who this year would have celebrated the 100th anniversary of his vision.
This week Jacinda Ardern was welcomed at Ra¯ tana, the first Labour prime minister to attend the celebration since Helen Clark.
During the powhiri, the pregnant prime minister was gifted a middle name – Te Waru – for her baby.
It means ‘eight’ and is a reference to that date in November 100 years ago when Tahupotiki Wiremu Ra¯ tana had the divine revelation.