Cultural collision at Cape Kidnappers: 250 years on, what have we learned?

250 years on from the fateful events at what would become Cape Kidnappers, what have we learned? Photo / Paul Taylor

Despite having a mountain, a county, a beach, streets and so much more named after him, James Cook, remains a polarising personality 250 years after he first sailed into Aotearoa with the HMS Endeavour crew.

Cook has been applauded for his navigational and mapping prowess at previous commemorations.

With this commemoration, however, the replica Endeavour has been denied access to Mangonui and refused a Māori pohiri in Gisborne, and the Cook has been pilloried as a white supremacist, murderer and "barbarian" for paving the way for the worst excesses of colonisation.

The sombre consideration that at least eight lives were lost in his first eight days in the country has dominated this year's Tuia Encounters 250 as Māori and Pacific Island perspectives are taken more seriously.

When Cook made initial landfall at Turanga-a-Kiwa (Gisborne) on the morning of October 8, 1769 several lives were lost (most reports say at least five and as many wounded) over two days through his response to perceived threats.

Just over a week later at least two more Māori were killed aboard a waka that included high chiefs shortly after he and his crew became the first Europeans to set eyes on what Māori named Heretaunga and Ahuriri on October 15, 1769.

Scapegoat for land loss

More than $20 million has been invested to mark Tuia 250 which begins in Gisborne on October 8 and will attempt to honour Pacific navigators and give Māori and Pacific Island peoples a chance to tell their ancestral stories.

Organisers, acknowledging the impacts of colonisation, hope the mamae (hurt) of Māori is heard and understood and that stories can be shared in an honest way during the commemoration.

The Tahitian Va'a Faafaite left Tahiti on August 20 using ancient star navigation and oceanic knowledge with Ngāti Kahungunu navigator Piripi Smith on board supporting two Tahitian navigators who represent their ancestor, HMS Endeavour co-navigator and interpreter Tupaia. The Va'a Faafaite joins double-hulled waka from Auckland and Tauranga, the Endeavour replica from Australia, the Spirit of New Zealand from Auckland and the R. Tucker Thompson from the Bay of Islands as they circumnavigate the North Island and parts of the south. After muskets and gunpowder overtook botched trading intentions at Turanganui the area was named Poverty Bay with Cook hauling anchors on October 11 and heading due south intending to complete the charting efforts of Dutchman Abel Tasman 127 years earlier.

As the Endeavour moved down the East Coast dozens of waka came for a closer look with Tupaia managing to entice some brave chiefs on board for bartering.

James Cook's ill-fated journey to what he would name Hawke's Bay took place nearly 250 years ago. Portrait / Nathaniel Dance

The general response, however, was "a prodigious shouting and threatening", shaking of spears and paddles and showers of stones thrown at the ship.

After rounding Mahia Peninsula toward what was to become Napier, five waka with about 90 men on board threatened to seize one of the ship's boats until Cook's men fired a four pounder over their heads.

On October 15, now desperate to trade for water and food, Cook veered south toward the far end of the large bay, where there were steep white cliffs on either side and two large rocks resembling haystacks near the headland. A large canoe approached, followed by seven others containing about 160 men.

As they gathered under the Endeavour's stern, Tupaia communicated with them, "a war dance" was performed and gifts were given by the ship's crew. The next morning at 8am, several boats approached the Endeavour offering "stinking fish". They were well behaved, and as Cook wrote in his diary, "we should have parted good friends if it had not been for a large canoe, with two and twenty armed men on board, which came boldly up along side of the ship".

They had nothing to trade but the Endeavour's crew still gave them "two or three pieces of cloth". Cook was taken by a black skin thrown over one of the men in the waka "somewhat resembling that of a bear" and was curious to know "what animal was its first owner?" He offered a piece of red baize (felt-like material) which seemed to be satisfactory. Cook believed a deal had been done but when the owner pulled off his cloak he refused to hand it over.

Incomplete trade

In good faith the cloth was handed down, then with amazing coolness the Māori crew packed everything into a basket "without paying the least regard to my demand or remonstrances".

Soon after the "fishing boats" drew together at a distance and returned offering more fish. Among those placed over the ship's side to hand up the fish was Tupaia's young musician companion and religious initiate Taiato. He was seized by one of the men, dragged into the waka and held down while the others "with great activity, paddled her off" with the rest of the canoes following.

Cook's crew were ordered to fire. "The shot was directed to that part of the canoe which was farthest from the boy, and rather wide of her, being willing rather to miss the rowers than to hurt him."

One man dropped and others quickly let go of the boy who leapt into the water and swam toward the Endeavour. The large canoe turned in pursuit but musket fire rained on them and the big gun was bought into action.

Cook says the boy was hauled back aboard unhurt, but terrified. Those watching the retreating waka through their glasses said they saw three men carried up the beach, "who appeared to be either dead or wholly disabled by their wounds."

Immediately after this unfortunate engagement Cook rebranded Te Matau a Maui (Maui's hook) as Cape Kidnappers and the bay he anchored in for the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Edward Hawke. Limp for a legacy In 1851, missionary and botanist William Colenso interviewed Zechariah Ngarangikamau who named those killed by Cook's crew as Whakaruhe and Whakaika.

Zechariah (Hakariah) was the great-grandfather of Te Ori who limped until his death, possibly around 1813, with a musket ball lodged under his knee. He was a direct descendant of Whatuiapiti and Hikawera II, who in his later years lived on a cliff top pa at Te Awanga.

Hawke's Bay historian Pat Parsons suggests other prominent chiefs Rangikoianake and his son Hāwea were also among those on board the waka that fateful day.

An impression of the waka that went to greet Captain Cook and the Endeavour near what would become Cape Kidnappers.

Zecharaiah and the other old men told Colenso their fathers were warned by Tupaea (sp) not to approach the ship "hostilely" or they would be killed but the priests and chiefs didn't believe they had any serious weapons.

After the "Kidnappers" incident Cook sailed south to what he called Cape Turnagain, between the mouths of the Porangahau and Akitio Rivers, then tacked north again to eventually find supplies and better relations with Māori at Akito Bay and Tolaga Bay. He then hoisted the British flag at Mercury Bay on November 15 before carrying on with his circumnavigation.

Cultural misunderstanding

Many questions remain with the answers lost in the mists of time. Was the encounter with this strange waka simply part of a wero, a challenge, to determine whether Cook and co were friend or foe? If the gift Cook was seeking to trade was a dog skin cloak, that puts another spin on the story. Dogs weren't plentiful and a waterproof cloak made from dog skin was a prized possession (taonga) of a high chief.

Considering the high rank of those aboard the large waka that pulled Taiato on board it has to be asked whether they were simply asserting mana over their territory like they might have done with any other encroaching outsider?

The locals certainly didn't seem afraid of confronting these strangers. Did they think they were rescuing Taiato? Was the Māori response shaped by news of the deaths at Tairawhiti and why did they not believe Tupaia when he warned them of the danger? In Gisborne Cook had forcibly kidnapped several Māori and taken them aboard the Endeavour to give them gifts and try to understand more about this people ... were local chiefs attempting to do the same?

There are many reasons to put this down to cultural misunderstanding, a conflict of world views, an over-reaction to what was perceived as a threat.

Regardless, all seemed to have been forgiven on Cook's second visit in 1773 in the Resolution, when he again made contact with the people near Te Matau-a -Maui and gave them pigs, chickens, nails, yams, wheat, and vegetable seeds.

It's true that Cook's navigational and map making abilities, ably assisted by his Tahitian companion Tupaia, opened the way for whalers and traders and ultimately colonists to head down to the edge of the Pacific world in succeeding generations.

The real troubles for local Māori came a decade after the goodwill signing of the Treaty of Waitangi at the Tukituki river mouth on June 20, 1840 with the alienation of large blocks of land through the Ahuriri, Waipukurau and Mohaka purchases.

Chiefs who sold or leased the land encouraged European settlement believing this would lead to tribal prosperity but the terms of that promised partnership are still being worked through 180-years later.

* Keith Newman is a freelance writer and trustee of the Cape Coast Arts & Heritage Trust. He is also running for Hastings District Council