What we can learn from Rangiaowhia
For more than 20 years Rangiaowhia in the Waikato was a thriving village where the promise of the Treaty of Waitangi was beginning to be realised.
Maori and Pakeha lived together. They shared languages, trade, education and religion.
All that changed on February 21, 1864, when British Crown soldiers raided the prosperous village in the Waipa district, as part of an overall plan to destroy the Kingitanga movement.
Many were killed, including elderly, women and children. Some sought refuge in a church which was duly set on fire by soldiers.
Those details still burn in the hearts of descendants of Ngati Apakura, the iwi which was displaced following the attack, and has never been able to return home. One of those descendants is kaumatua Tom Roa who led this year’s commemoration event yesterday.
It started with a dawn karakia service on the corner of Puahue and Rangiaowhia roads, about 5kms east of Te Awamutu, overlooking a paddock where women and children perished in the burning church.
‘‘I ask you all to keep women and children as the focus of today,’’ Roa said to the service.
‘‘We call upon the powers that be, to recognise the spirit of reconciliation, the spirit of remembrance, that this was a place which was starting to realise the potential, the promise of the Treaty of Waitangi.’’
Roa is also the Associate Professor of Maori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato.
Speaking later in the morning, Roa said he was hopeful the Crown and politicians would begin speaking to Ngati Apakura about the possibility of a reconciliation package.
‘‘Ngati Apakura remains largely homeless and it is hoped those descendants alive today might have a place here for them.
‘‘What that might be, we need to work on and talk about.
‘‘We understand this land is no longer their home. It belongs to someone else now and in no way do we want those people undone.’’
Roa said reconciliation was not a Treaty matter but in fact a matter of treatment of a ‘‘war crime’’.
‘‘And I use those two words deliberately. We remember the massacre in Christchurch but Rangiaowhia doesn’t seem to be part of the national conscience. We don’t seem to realise that Rangiaowhia, this sad event which happened 100 years before Christchurch, that the mistakes of that time are still being made.
‘‘We must remember but also move forward into the future, to make sure an event like Rangiaowhia never takes place again on this land.’’
Roa said the efforts of a group of Otorohanga ¯ students, at the 150th anniversary of Rangiaowhia, helped put the deadly attack at Rangiaowhia on the nation’s radar.
Waipa¯ District Council had also worked hard to put a bigger public focus on Rangiaowhia and other important events from the New Zealand Land Wars. It included the council’s Te Ara Wai Journeys a self-guided tour of culturally significant sites in Waipa¯ .
‘‘We can now have an adult conversation about our history, our past. Actively engaging in our past means we will come to know how we got to where we are today.
‘‘Then that narrative will serve as a guide to our future.’’
Speeches and karakia were held at two other key sites along Rangiaowhia Rd following the dawn ceremony.
It included St Paul’s Anglican Church and Rangiaowhia Urupa.
Primary and secondary schools formed a large part of this year’s commemoration and Roa said it’s likely to become more important at schools begin to teach New Zealand history in a few years.
‘‘What will be especially important is how those stories come out of the classroom and into the community. We need to make sure that those stories and memories are shared, not just with one section of the community, but with everyone, so we can come to understand who we are as New Zealanders.’’
‘‘We understand this land is no longer their home. It belongs to someone else now and in no way do we want those people undone.’’
Kaumatua Tom Roa