Heke relative sets deadline for museum

By TIM WATKIN

A descendant of Nga Puhi chief Hone Heke will write to the Auckland War Memorial Museum this week seeking the removal of two taiaha from its collection within 28 days.

The letter will bring to a head a complicated 18-month debate between the museum and Nga Puhi hapu over who has the right to speak for the chief - famed for chopping down the flagpole at Russell - and to decide the future of his taonga.

Heke descendant David Rankin publicly attacked the Auckland museum last month when he delivered Heke artefacts to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.

Claiming to speak for Nga Puhi and Heke's descendants, Mr Rankin was angry the museum had refused to release the taiaha for the exhibition. Back in New Zealand this week, he called the museum's Maori advisory committee, or taumata-o-iwi, "a dictatorship" which was refusing other iwi access to their own taonga and the right to tell their own stories.

He wanted Nga Puhi's history shared more widely and said the Auckland museum had no right to censor them.

Mr Rankin claimed authority as Heke's "senior descendant" because he is the guardian of Heke's mere, handed down from father to son through five generations. He also had support from 40 Nga Puhi kaumatua.

But the Auckland museum's director-Maori, Dr Paul Tapsell, said: "David, with all due respect, may have had a number of people behind him, but there's a lot more people in Nga Puhi who claim to belong to Hone Heke than just himself".

He said other Heke descendants, who he claimed were more senior, did not want the taonga sent to Australia.

The Canberra exhibition, now simply called Outlawed, was titled Outlaws, Rebels and Legends when the taumata considered his request.

Dr Tapsell said taumata members consulted Nga Puhi kaumatua and found they did not want Heke, the first chief to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, to be labelled an outlaw or associated with others in the exhibition, such as Ned Kelly.

Those elders believed Heke's "demonstrations were actually within the law in so much as he was pointing out to the Crown that they weren't honouring the treaty," Dr Tapsell said.

Nga Puhi kaumatua Renata Tane initially signed his name to Mr Rankin's letter but said he changed his mind when he learned what the exhibition was about.

He said other descendants, himself included, were more senior than Mr Rankin. Heke had no children, so his legacy was cared for by the many descendants of Heke's brothers, including Mr Tane, who is Rankin's uncle.

"He's got the wrong mandate. He's got people who acquiesced and don't know the true story."

Dr Tapsell said: "The taumata wanted to protect the museum from being attacked by Nga Puhi. If they had allowed the taonga to go to Australia, people up in Nga Puhi said, 'watch out'. That was weighed up against one David Rankin."

Descendants' rights of access to artefacts are a growing concern for museums throughout the country.

Museums throughout the North Island said requests for items to be loaned for other exhibitions, tangi and anniversaries were increasing, and each museum had established its own protocols.

Most, however, see themselves as the guardians rather than owners of artefacts, and go out of their way to allow descendants' access so long as the items are secured and cared for to professional standards.

Requests to Te Papa, holding artefacts from all over New Zealand, are handled directly by management without consultation to the local tribe.

"We have a policy of mana taonga," said acting director Te Taru White. "The cultural intellectual property rests with the creators of the treasures so it's incumbent upon us that [descendants] have a say and have access to these treasures."

Mr Rankin accused the Auckland museum of being "archaic" and it does have a more customary marae-based approach. The museum works not according to mana taonga, but according to mana whenua - that the Auckland iwi represented on the taumata are accountable for the taonga held on their land.

Maori seeking access to its collection are expected to make their requests to the taumata on the museum's marae, thanking the local iwi - Ngati Whatua, Tainui and Ngati Paoa - for carrying the burden of care for their taonga. The taumata then advises on access.

Mr Rankin said this amounted to censorship of other iwi by Ngati Whatua, who have three representatives on the five-person taumata. Iwi should have the right to decide what happened to their own taonga.

Dr Tapsell said the taumata refused access only if there were questions of mandate. "We facilitate access so long as they [descendants] demonstrate that they have the mandate of the people. If they have the support, the taumata's not going to get in the way of that."

"The ball's in David's court," Dr Tapsell said. "If he wants to get his people and come down, he's welcome."

Mr Rankin said he wanted the taiaha moved permanently to Te Papa, but Mr Tane said others in Nga Puhi wanted a whare taonga built in the North and the artefacts moved there.

Heke and the flagpole

* Hone Heke chopped the British flagpole above Kororareka (Russell) down four times in 1844-45.

* He and his fellow Nga Puhi resented the withdrawal of the seat of colonial government from Kororareka to Auckland.

* Heke claimed that the flagstaff was his property because it had been cut from the forest of his people.