A return to Whanganui brings back many memories for Sir John Clarke. Photo / Laurel Stowell
A return to Whanganui brings back many memories for Sir John Clarke. Photo / Laurel Stowell
The occasion celebrated a very long process of exterior and then interior restoration, and Heritage New Zealand (HNZ) granting the church and its hall a Category 1 historic places ranking.
The first stage of restoration replaced the roof of the church and concentrated on the exterior. There was a pausewhile more funding was raised, and in 2018 HNZ trained volunteers for the restoration of the interior.
Mariana Waitai gave the karanga as people filed into the 1937 building at 11am. Extra chairs were needed, and a series of speakers and waiata began.
Whanganui kaumātua John Maihi said a lot of work has gone into the church restoration. Photo / Laurel Stowell
Kaumātua John Maihi began the kōrero, with acknowledgements of Sir John Clarke, the man who mediated between Whanganui Iwi and the Crown after the occupation/reclamation of Pākaitore.
Clarke went on to be involved with the Waitangi Tribunal and Whanganui's Treaty of Waitangi settlement, and is now the chairman of HNZ's Māori Heritage Council.
In his own speech he talked of Tapuwae, the council's visionary document on safeguarding Māori heritage. The word tapuwae refers to Māori heritage 'footprints' in the landscape.
The restoration of St Paul's is a wonderful example of the principles of the Tapuwae document in action, Clarke said. It encouraged the participation of local communities to lead conservation.
Whanganui women Huia Kirk and Margaret Tauri were recognised for their efforts in this, and Kirk's speech gave a history of the church, starting from pennies collected in 1929 for a stained glass window.
She said visitors to the church have included bishops and Governors-General, the mother of Queen Elizabeth II and her grandson, Prince Edward.
Another speaker was Dean Whiting, a Māori heritage manager for HNZ and the son of Dr Cliff Whiting, who painted a modern interpretation of traditional Māori art in the Putiki church hall in the 1960s-70s.
He talked about the relationship of Whanganui people with Clarke's iwi, Ngāti Porou, and the way Ngāti Porou man Sir Apirana Ngata influenced church decoration with his revival of traditional Māori arts.
Descendants of Wiremu Te Tauri were chosen to accept a document about St Paul's. Photo / Laurel Stowell
In another historic relationship, two descendants of Wiremu Te Tauri, the Ngāti Tūwharetoa man who brought Christianity to Putiki, were chosen to accept a manuscript about the church written by HNZ heritage assessment advisor Blyss Wagstaff.
Whanganui Mayor Hamish McDouall talked of being in the church with his father, with former councillor Sue Westwood and with kuia Dardi Metekingi-Mato.
Cementing all those historic relationships, the archdeacon asked those assembled to close their eyes in prayer and "feel the presence of those ancestors, tupuna, looking over us".
