Tiarne Gush talks about her booklet on the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi at Tawhirihoe, near the mouth of the Rangitīkei River. Photos / Laurel Stowell
Tiarne Gush talks about her booklet on the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi at Tawhirihoe, near the mouth of the Rangitīkei River. Photos / Laurel Stowell
The 181st anniversary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) in Rangitīkei was marked by the launch of a booklet about the way Ngā Wairiki Ngāti Apa participated.
On May 21, 1840 three Ngā Wairiki Ngāti Apa chiefs signed the Māori language version at Tawhirihoe, a fishing kāinga (village) near the present town of Tangimoana.
It was the eighth of nine sheets signed, and was brought to the village by missionaries Henry Williams and Octavius Hadfield. People in the kāinga knew Williams, because he had been there on a mission before.
The koha they got for signing was a red blanket.
Speaking before the launch, Ngā Wairiki Ngāti Apa CEO Grant Huwyler said one of those who signed, Kawana Te Hakeke, went on to initiate the Turakina land sale.
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"It wasn't about money. It was about relationships and opportunity. There's a whole rich history that we are happy to share. Our perspective hasn't really been heard, and we are looking forward to that."
The booklet, titled Nā wai o Ngā Wairiki me Ngāti Apa i Hainatia Te Tiriti o Waitangi, will be a resource for schools, and tribal researchers Dr Mike Paki and Dr Cherryl Smith will take that forward.
It will be available to all the schools in the region. Children from both Tangimoana School and Rangitīkei College were present for the occasion.
Paki was another speaker. He said the missionaries crossed the river and went on to Whanganui on May 22, 1840. Te Tiriti was signed there on May 23, at Pākaitore, by the flagpole there.
Dr Mike Paki spoke to about 50 people at the Tawhirihoe monument. Photo / Laurel Stowell
"Not many people know or realise that."
The speeches took place at a monument the iwi erected in 2015, on a stopbank within sight of the former fishing kāinga. Children planted trees there, before everyone moved to Tangimoana School for a presentation by Tiarne Gush, who wrote the booklet.
Her marae is Parewanui, across the river from Tawhirihoe. She has lived in Wellington for 11 years and works as an assistant to Te Tai Hauāuru MP Adrian Rurawhe.
She wanted to reconnect with her iwi and took on a summer internship with its Te Roopu Rangahau (research team). The task of researching the booklet was easy, she said, because so much research was done for the Ngā Wairiki Ngāti Apa Treaty settlement.
The booklet on the signing will become a resource for schools. Photo / Laurel Stowell
The research team spent three days at Tangimoana. They crossed the river at low tide and got a feeling for the place. Her booklet talks about the signing, the 2015 monument and the three who signed - Kawana Hakeke, Hāmuera Te Raikōkiritia Taumaru and Mohi Mahi.
There were no photographs of them, and they were depicted in drawings.
The women who signed the same sheet of Te Tiriti and the events of the 20 years before the signing end the account.
In those years Ngā Wairiki Ngāti Apa shared that area with a lot of other iwi, Gush said. They were turbulent times, with pakanga (battles) and conversions to Christianity.
The booklet will now be worked over with kaiako (teachers) and community, to fit it to the New Zealand curriculum.
