Whenua: Ngāti Toa Rangatira regains control over land at Whitireia 177 years after ‘serious injustice’

Whenua is a New Zealand Herald project to show and tell stories of our land and explain how our history affects the present day. In this article, Julia Gabel hears from Ngāti Toa Rangatira about how regaining control over a piece of land is helping the iwi heal the pain of the past.

Ngāti Toa Rangatira is back in control of a huge parcel of land in Porirua, 177 years after the Crown committed a “serious injustice” and reneged on a deal.

The iwi finalised the purchase of 53 hectares at Whitireia from Radio New Zealand (RNZ) this month, adjoining an earlier settlement acquisition on the peninsula.

The land, north of Tītahi Bay, overlooks Mana Island, Porirua Harbour and the iwi’s Hongoeka Marae. It includes Whitireia maunga, a sacred site of huge importance to Ngāti Toa.

In 1848, Ngāti Toa Rangatira gifted about 202ha (500 acres) at Whitireia to the Crown for the establishment of a school for their children and other children in the area. When a school was not built, the iwi asked for the land back – but it was never returned.

Helmut Modlik, chief executive of Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira, said securing the return of the land was a “hugely symbolic act of healing for the serious injustice”.

Helmut Modlik is chief executive of the Porirua-based Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira. Photo / Mike Scott

“If you meet a Ngāti Toa person and they do their pepehā, they will say ko Whitireia te maunga ... finally, when we utter those words, it will be with us standing on our land with our mana over that land, as well as it being in our title.”

The Whitireia block was the centre of the landmark 1877 Supreme Court case Wi Parata v Bishop, in which Parata sought the return of the land.

In his ruling, Chief Justice James Prendergast called the Treaty of Waitangi “a simple nullity”, influencing decision-making on Treaty issues for decades.

Descendants of Parata and Prendergast will be among those attending an event on Friday to mark the official return of the land.

The remainder of the original gifted block is conservation land, but Modlik says the iwi will seek to get it back in the future. Public access to the land Ngāti Toa has bought will continue.

Existing lease arrangements remain unchanged, including leases held by the Department of Conservation and the Tītahi Bay Golf Course.

In 2012, Ngāti Toa signed a settlement with the Crown that included $70.6 million in financial redress and an apology for Crown actions that “severely damaged” the iwi’s “traditional tribal structures, their autonomy and ability to exercise customary rights and responsibilities, their capacity for economic and social development, and physical, cultural, and spiritual well-being”.

Callum Katene, chairman of Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira, said the land purchase marked the start of a new era for the iwi, 177 years after Parata protested in the Supreme Court in what would become a landmark case in New Zealand’s constitutional and administrative legal landscape.

“Whitireia stands as both a reminder of the promise of Te Tiriti and also as a symbol of reconciliation – reconciliation that becomes possible when we acknowledge our shared history, confront the injustices that have shaped it, and recommit ourselves to being genuine Tiriti partners, whichever side we stand on.”

Callum Katene, chairman of Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira. Photo / Mike Scott

‘It was clearly coercion, blackmail’

Ngāti Toa was initially based in Kāwhia, Waikato, but migrated south, led by Te Rauparaha, in 1820 due to civil war in Waikato and to gain access to trade with settlers.

The iwi eventually settled in the lower North Island, finding a stronghold on Kāpiti Island, and established a powerful position across Cook Strait with settlements in the upper South Island.

During the 1820s and 30s, it built up wealth and mana through farming and trading flax and pigs with Pākehā for things like muskets and nails.

That was not long before the New Zealand Company sought to acquire Ngāti Toa land, starting with the Kāpiti Deed, by which the company ostensibly bought 20 million acres of land covering several iwi areas of interest between Taranaki and North Canterbury.

The translation of the English deed into te reo did not accurately convey its meaning and effect, according to an agreed history between the Crown and Ngāti Toa.

As part of this deed, the New Zealand Company claimed to have bought vast tracts of land in the Wairau Valley, in Marlborough, from Ngāti Toa. Ngāti Toa disputed the sale.

Ngāti Toa has an area of influence in the southern North Island and northern South Island, including Kāpiti Island (pictured). Photo / Mike Scott

It opposed the company’s surveys in the Wairau Valley and, in 1843, the tension erupted in a violent clash during which 22 Europeans and up to nine Māori died. Te Rauparaha and others saw the surveyors off and burned down their huts, Katene said.

The surveyors’ property was returned, but it marked the first conflict over land between Māori and settlers since the signing of Te Tīriti o Waitangi three years earlier.

At the same time, Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s New Zealand Company had shiploads of immigrants on their way who had been promised access to fertile land.

“Despite the fact that they’d attempted to make purchases such as the Kāpiti Deed, such as the Port Nicholson Deed, it wasn’t clear title and they weren’t able to use it,” Katene said.

Back in Nelson, the Wakefield brothers and a constable called Henry Thompson were outraged about the Wairau clash. They raised a posse and directed the group to arrest Te Rauparaha.

“Henry Thompson tries to arrest Te Rauparaha and this doesn’t go very well, and gunfire starts. There were a number of people killed on both sides, including [rangitira] Te Rangihaeata’s wife.

“Te Rangihaeata couldn’t let that sit, so, in accordance with the tikanga of the old ways, he executed all of the hostages [they had taken in the incident].

“It had repercussions. We can honestly say that was the first exchange, the first war over land, since the signing of the Treaty and probably the catalyst for the land wars. Today, this is known as the Wairau Affray.”

The southern coast near Wellington included in Ngāti Toa's area of interest. Photo / Mike Scott

Settlers were outraged, Katene said, and pressure mounted for the Crown to do more to ease anxieties and acquire more land. Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata continue to refuse to acknowledge the land sale.

The country’s new governor, George Grey, deployed soldiers to Boulcott, in the Hutt Valley. Conflict broke out between the soldiers and Māori, in which at least six Europeans were killed. Grey declared martial law.

“By declaring martial law, he didn’t have to stick to anybody’s rules,” Katene said. “He took his ships around to Plimmerton, which is where Te Rauparaha was staying. I think 200 soldiers early one morning went in there and captured Te Rauparaha and put him aboard a ship.

“The ship would eventually sail north, and he’d be held captive without trial.”

After Te Rauparaha was captured, the attention of Grey and his soldiers turned back to Ngāti Toa and its land.

Grey approached other members of the iwi.

“Our version is, to paraphrase, ‘You want your chief back, okay, sell me that land down in Wairau’ ...

“It is clearly coercion, blackmail. And so obviously the remaining chiefs agreed to that particular sale.”

An 1845 sketch of Te Rauparaha.

When Te Rauparaha was eventually released and realised the iwi had lost that land, he was devastated.

“His son and nephew convinced him that the only way forward was to adopt the ways of the European to get a European education. They said that’s what we need – we need a school here.

“A number of chiefs of Ngāti Toa agreed they would give around 500 acres at the northern end of the Tītahi Bay Peninsula, called the Whitireia block.”

The iwi gifted the land to the Anglican Church so a school could be built for its children to attend.

“The school was never built, so that became a sore point … It’s not just the loss of the land. The giving of that land was a big sacrifice,” Katene said.

“But in 1877, Wi Parata took this issue to the Supreme Court.”

The judge ruled that the courts could not consider claims based on native title and dismissed the Treaty of Waitangi as worthless because it had been signed “between a civilised nation and a group of savages” who were not capable of signing a treaty, according to the New Zealand History website.

Since the Treaty had not been incorporated into domestic law, it was a “simple nullity”.

Hongoeka Marae near Plimmerton, which overlooks the Whitireia block. Photo / Mike Scott

Shane Parata, a descendant of Wi Parata, acknowledged the significance of the return of whenua at Whitireia.

“We celebrate this milestone as part of a collaborative journey between whānau and Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira, ensuring that the mana and stories of the whenua continue to educate the descendants of Ngāti Toa, Āti Awa and Ngāti Raukawa, and are preserved for future generations to come,” he said.

“Our work continues through education, storytelling and truth-telling to ensure our history is accurately told and remembered.”

RNZ previously owned the land before selling it to Ngāti Toa. A spokesperson said while it is an important transaction for RNZ, it was hard to overstate the significance of the outcome for Ngāti Toa.

“You have to understand the history of Whitireia to understand how meaningful this outcome is for the iwi.”

The Crown’s 2012 apology to Ngāti Toa included recognition that holding Te Rauparaha for 18 months without trial undermined his power and influence, as well as that of Te Rangihaeata. It also recognised that Ngāti Toa chiefs were pressured into agreeing to the Wairau purchase in the absence of Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata.

Whenua is a New Zealand Herald data-led project, supported by the Public Interest Journalism Fund, in association with Māori land legal expert Adrienne Paul (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tuhoe) from the University of Canterbury law school.