Historic Waikato war battle site to be returned to descendants of Māori fighters

A memorial to the battle at Ō-Rākau, near Kihikihi, which was the final conflict of the Waikato invasion. Photo / Mike Scott

Onlookers seated in Parliament’s public gallery wiped away tears and performed haka and waiata to mark the return of a sacred piece of land their ancestors died on during the invasion of Waikato 161 years ago.

They were witnessing the final reading of the Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill, which vests the 9.7ha battle site, 5km east of Kihikihi, in a body representing the descendants of ngā tūpuna o Ō-Rākau (the ancestors of Ō-Rākau).

The invasion of Waikato started on July 12, 1863, when Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron directed hundreds of troops to cross the Mangatāwhiri River, the boundary between Crown and Kīngitanga lands.

Tainui-Waikato was invaded by colonial troops in 1863 on the orders of Governor Sir George Grey when they crossed the Mangatāwhiri River, pictured above. Photo / Mike Scott

The Crown wanted the fertile central North Island lands but the Kīngitanga did not want to sell them.

Historian Dr Vincent O’Malley, who has written several books on the invasion, has previously spoken to the Herald about the battle.

He said the Crown had as many as 12,000 imperial troops to call on, alongside naval units, while Kīngitanga had around 4000 people.

The British had firepower, technology, steamers and gunboats, while the Māori defenders had muskets and had built a series of elaborately deceptive pā at strategic locations to slow Cameron’s advance south.

The war culminated in a three-day battle at Ō-Rākau from March 31 to April 2, 1864.

Around 300 Māori defenders were encircled at Ō-Rākau pā by about 1400 British troops. It is estimated about half of the pā’s occupants were killed.

Those remaining refused to surrender – and this is where Rewi Maniapoto made the immortal call: “Ka whawhai tonu mātou, ake, ake, ake! (We shall fight on forever, and ever, and ever!)”.

After the war, the Crown confiscated more than 1.2 million acres (486,000ha) of land, including the site at Ō-Rākau, with much of the land sold to settlers who developed farms.

Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka said the loss of life experienced by whānau, hapū and iwi was compounded by the loss of whenua (land).

“A year after the battle the Crown confiscated in this whare [house] hundreds of thousands of acres of land in the Waikato, 1.2-plus million acres.

“This legislation seeks to return the whenua to those who were present, those who were there on the day during the battle, or have traditional connections to that whenua.

Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka (left) and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at Tūrangawaewae Marae in Ngāruawāhia last year paying their respects to Kīngi Tūheitia. Photo / Kīngitanga

“As a country we have not always recognised the complexity and significance of the New Zealand Wars to our nation’s history. For many years, many of our communities forgot about those wars but some of us always retained that memory.”

The battle site would be managed by a body representing the descendants of the tūpuna (ancestors) who fought at Ō-Rākau, which as well as Waikato-Tainui, Maniapoto and Ngāti Raukawa, includes tūpuna from other parts of New Zealand that went to tautoko (support) the defence of Ō-Rākau, Potaka said.

“There are many whānau, hapū and iwi for whom this site carries a very deep personal significance because they descend from the traditional owners of the land.”

Read about the Waikato Invasion in more detail here: ‘We used to live in the castle’ - Waikato-Tainui tell their story

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.