Hika past haunts present

Hongi Hika is a revered ancestor in the North, but down in Te Arawa territory they haven't forgotten how the Ngapuhi chief 's warriors, armed with muskets, ran rampant around Rotorua in 1823.
And now Ngapuhi are riled because Hika has been compared with Hitler and is being downsized in status in the Te Arawa rohe.
The historic significance of the Ngapuhi raid led to a 2m by 1.5m picture of Hika being included on a "history wall" in the new $27million Rotorua Events centre which Prime Minister Helen Clark is to officially open tomorrow.
But the Rotorua District Council was today to replace the big picture with a smaller one following criticism by members of the council's Te Arawa committee, made up of three councillors, three iwi representatives and three elected members. Discussing the picture, committee member Cr Bob Martin said this week: "You might as well fly a flag of Hitler outside the RSA on Anzac Day. It's insulting."
Committee member and iwi representative Hawea Vercoe suggested a picture of Te Ao Kapurangi would be more appropriate. Te Ao Kapurangi was a Te Arawa wahine who pleaded for the lives of her people when Ngapuhi took Mokoia Is. in Lake Rotorua. Hika told her he would spare all the men who could fit between her thighs and she outwitted him by straddling the entrance to the island's meeting house, allowing many to pass between her legs to safety in the whare.
The council's director of kaupapa Maori, Mauriora Kingi, said yesterday he and Bay of Plenty historian Don Stafford had compiled the information covering the past 250 years that was displayed on the 65m-long "history wall". He had fielded scores of telephone calls - some from Ngapuhi - about the comparison of Hika with Hitler and was trying to "calm the horses".
Cr Martin had been "voicing his personal view, not speaking for Te Arawa", he said.
Mr Kingi said Ngapuhi "had every right to jump up and down" as he would not like any of his ancestors likened to the Nazi leader. Also, many Te Arawa women had been taken by the Ngapuhi and many leading Te Arawa families today had links with Ngapuhi through those women.
Mr Kingi said the big picture of Hika would today be replaced with a smaller image and a backdrop of Mokoia Is. with a man, Te Awa Awa, holding a musket.
A Ngapuhi senior lecturer in Maori Studies at Auckland University, Hone Sadler, said the issue was very sensitive and reducing the size of image "doesn't make it right". He considered descendants should be consulted over the use of images of such a nature.
Comparing Hika with Hitler was "abominable". England had "supported Hongi Hika, but not Hitler". Mr Sadler recalled that when Te Arawa was considering renaming Hongi's Track years ago the late Sir James Henare had said if they did he would have Te Arawa ancestral names removed in the North. Those included Kawakawa, Ihenga Ahipupu Rangi (Whangarei Town Basin) and Whatitiri maunga west of Maungatapere.
Mr Sadler said he wouldn't mind taking the discarded big picture of Hika "back home".