Historic Battle of Pakake recalled in misty Ahuriri commemoration

The commemoration of the 1824 battle of Pakake starts in the shadow of one of Napier's newest buildings at West Quay. Photo / Doug Laing

A tract of shingle and asphalt neighbouring one of Napier’s latest commercial developments has been the scene of a commemoration of a fierce tribal battle reputed to have cost hundreds of lives two centuries ago.

The commemoration on Saturday morning on the site of the former Pakake Pā, where the battle took place in 1824 – near what is now the West Quay bar and restaurant quarter – followed a wānanga held the previous day at Waiohiki Marae, near Taradale, exploring the history and circumstances of the bloodshed.

“A lot has changed,” Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi chairman Bayden Barber told just over 100 people gathered in the mist near the old Customs House as he stood on the site of what was a small island in the Ahuriri estuary. The site was transformed in the development of the port railway in the late 1800s, and is now in the shadow of a new four-storey building Customs Quay, which houses hospital, retail, office and apartment spaces and dominates the area’s northern boundary.

Flanked on the southern side by the railway line and Hyderabad Rd, and with Art Deco icon the National Tobacco Building across the road, Pakake is now back in the hands of the people, via Treaty of Waitangi post-settlement governance entity Mana Ahuriri Incorporated (MAI). It is one of three sites for which cultural redress was made in the Ahuriri Settlement Act 2021.

MAI chairman Te Kaha Hawaikirangi said it will be used as a carpark pending decisions on development, possibly as premises for the trust as it develops cultural, social and business interests to benefit the iwi’s people. The redress stemmed from hearings held in the 1990s to address grievances held for as much as 170 years over Māori loss of land and resources due to Crown abuses of the Ahuriri Purchase agreement signed in 1851.

Descendants of some of those who perished in the battle of Pakake 200 years ago attending Saturday's commemoration. Photo / Doug Laing

But it was the 1824 event that dominated the commemoration, having happened as an estimated 500 Ngāti Kahungunu stood to defend the land and people from invasion by a confederation of central and more northern iwi waving hundreds of muskets, after incidents at Te Hauke, Puketapu and elsewhere in the region.

Saturday’s gathering included descendants of those killed, among whom had been significant numbers of chiefs and other leaders.

While the war parties elsewhere had been small and casualties comparatively few, the size of the invasion and the introduction of muskets resulted in Pakake Pā being overcome, with the many killed including women and children.

Barber, a direct descendant of Waimārama chiefs Tiakitai and Mahikai, who defended Pakake, said: “Our ancestors knew there was an overwhelming force on its way. They had discussed it in depth at a war council in the days leading up to the battle. Yet they felt it was their duty to defend the pā, their whenua and their people, and to the last man if need be.”

Waiohiki Marae chairwoman Hinewai Ormsby, who is also chairwoman of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and a sister of MAI chairman Hawaikirangi, said: “The impact of what occurred in 1824 continues to resonate with us. Through education and awareness, we honour the memory of those who came before us, ensuring their legacy endures for generations to come.”

Although Pakake was situated in Ahuriri, there were many rangatira who defended Pakake from throughout Te Matau-a-Māui Hawke’s Bay, she said.

Ngāti Hāwea experienced such loss, with descendant and former Ngāti Kahungunu chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana saying: “Pakake is our Gallipoli.

“When Ngāti Kahungunu became a nation, an iwi from Wairoa to Wairarapa, utter destruction of all our hapū was averted by the actions of Pareihe, and Te Wera Hauraki, who took our people to Okurarenga, Mahia to regroup, rebuild and retake our whenua [land],” he said.

“The origins of the devastation at Pakake were our own inter-hapū warfare and jealousy, which allowed many other tribes to invade our area without real cause,” he said. “The lesson today is to not let inter-hapū differences divide and rule us as an iwi but allow kotahitanga [unity] to keep our future ambitions real.”

Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise was among those looking on as kaumātua and other descendants addressed Saturday’s gathering near the Customs House.

Hawaikirangi said the wānanga was “one of the best” he’d been to, a full day of kōrero with as many as 300 people attending, with accounts passed down over the decades varying but able to be “synthesised” in the way they were understood.