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The taonga stolen from the Waitangi Treaty Ground. (Photo: Supplied)
The taonga stolen from the Waitangi Treaty Ground. (Photo: Supplied)

ĀteaNovember 24, 2023

Kaitiaki appalled by theft of taonga from Waitangi Treaty grounds

The taonga stolen from the Waitangi Treaty Ground. (Photo: Supplied)
The taonga stolen from the Waitangi Treaty Ground. (Photo: Supplied)

A kauri gum commemorating Te Tai Tokerau veterans from the Māori battalion was stolen from the museum at the Waitangi Treaty grounds on November 19.

Update 5.45pm: The kauri gum has been returned by a member of the public. Police investigations into the theft are ongoing.

The Waitangi Treaty grounds, where Te Tiriti o Waitangi was first signed in 1840, is one of Aotearoa’s most important historical sites. Within it, taonga are housed that tell important tales of our nation’s story. In 2020, the Treaty grounds expanded its operations by opening Te Rau Aroha Museum of the Price of Citizenship. This state-of-the-art museum highlights Māori military contributions to protect New Zealand’s freedom. The museum strongly focuses on the Pioneer battalion of World War I and World War II’s famous 28th (Māori) battalion. In a gallery devoted to the latter, the theft of a precious taonga has left Treaty ground kaitiaki shaken. 

A 30cm, roughly 2kg kauri gum was stolen in broad daylight from Te Rau Aroha by two adults, accompanied by a child, on Sunday, November 19. The taonga was part of one of two water features that allowed visitors to cleanse themselves of dangerous tapu associated with death present inside the museum. Kaitaia’s Te Ahu Museum gifted it to the Treaty grounds as a poignant representation of the 28th battalion’s A company. Troops from A company were tāne from Te Tai Tokerau, including legend Sir James Henare (Peeni Henare’s grandfather), who eventually became the last leader of the 28th battalion. Each company had a nickname, and A company’s moniker was “ngā kiri kapia: the gum diggers” – hence the kauri gum to commemorate their service.

The kauri gum in questioned, pictured within one of Te Rau Aroha's two water features.
The kauri gum in question, pictured within one of Te Rau Aroha’s two water features. (Photo: Supplied)

Pita Tipene, chairperson of the Waitangi National Trust, is appalled by the theft of the kauri gum. He says it is “unacceptable to take a symbol that demonstrates the sacrifice our Māori soldiers made, particularly the soldiers from up here, on behalf of this country and especially in a place like Waitangi where it’s representative of the price of citizenship.” Te Rau Aroha curator, Chanel Clarke, is also upset by this “shameless act”. She explains that “everyone [at the Treaty grounds] is understandably pretty upset. Generally, we are just freaked out that people would do that kind of thing.” 

While police are currently investigating the theft to reconnect this taonga with Te Rau Aroha, including reviewing CCTV footage, Clarke already has a rough idea of who stole it. “I have no doubt that those people who came in here have tūpuna that are in this gallery,” she says, “they probably have ancestors who served, and this is not the type of behaviour that is becoming of their whānau.” Expanding on that comment over the phone, she explained that the names of all 28th battalion soldiers from across the motu, alongside other WWI and WWII Māori veterans, are commemorated on the walls of Te Rau Aroha. 

Māori battalion soldiers performing a haka in Egypt.
Māori battalion soldiers performing a haka in Egypt. (Photo: National Library of NZ)

As a long-time curator, Clarke has witnessed other taonga stolen and eventually reunited with museums. Because of that, she’s confident it’s more a question of when Te Rau Aroha will get the kauri gum back rather than if they’ll be reunited. But Clarke concedes that she’s unsure whether the Treaty grounds will be playing the short or the long game.

Although she is confident Te Rau Aroha will be reunited with its stolen taonga, she‘s worried about something else concerning this theft. “One thing that is quite disturbing to me is that a child was subject to that display of behaviour from who essentially looked to be their caregivers,” she says. “Kauri gum is replaceable, but what can’t be unseen by that child is the action that took place – you have to think about that cycle. Personally, that is more disturbing than the theft itself.”

Te Rau Aroha and the Waitangi Treaty grounds urge anyone with information about the theft to contact the Police.

This is Public Interest Journalism supported by NZ On Air.

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Kīngi Tūheitia was presented with a photo of his grandfather, Kīngi Korokī Te Rata Mahuta Tāwhiao Pōtatau Te Wherowhero V, being carried atop Taupiri Maunga, the sacred burial ground of Tainui (Photos: Supplied)
Kīngi Tūheitia was presented with a photo of his grandfather, Kīngi Korokī Te Rata Mahuta Tāwhiao Pōtatau Te Wherowhero V, being carried atop Taupiri Maunga, the sacred burial ground of Tainui (Photos: Supplied)

ĀteaNovember 22, 2023

Legacies of peace: Māori king’s Parihaka visit strengthens a special bond

Kīngi Tūheitia was presented with a photo of his grandfather, Kīngi Korokī Te Rata Mahuta Tāwhiao Pōtatau Te Wherowhero V, being carried atop Taupiri Maunga, the sacred burial ground of Tainui (Photos: Supplied)
Kīngi Tūheitia was presented with a photo of his grandfather, Kīngi Korokī Te Rata Mahuta Tāwhiao Pōtatau Te Wherowhero V, being carried atop Taupiri Maunga, the sacred burial ground of Tainui (Photos: Supplied)

Kīngi Tūheitia’s visit to Parihaka on Saturday was the first of his reign, but it followed a long tradition of goodwill between the Kīngitanga and Taranaki that grew out of a shared commitment to peace, writes Airana Ngarewa.

For the first time in his reign, the Māori king, Tūheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero VII, visited Parihaka on Saturday November 18. This follows a longstanding tradition of monthly hui held at Parihaka on the 18th of every month that regularly draws in Māori and non-Māori from across the country. This day remembers the first shot being fired by the Crown on Te Kohia Pā on March 17, 1860, beginning what would be a 21-year campaign of resistance in Taranaki and concluding with the invasion of the pacifist settlement on November 5, 1881.

After the pōwhiri was conducted, a wānanga took place between ngā iwi o Taranaki, taiohi representing every kura kaupapa in the region, and the Kīngitanga. This continued a legacy older than the kura, Parihaka and the Kīngitanga.   

Before his coronation in 1857, the first Māori king,  Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, was a renowned warrior known only as Te Wherowhero. For more than 20 years, he led an ope of Tainui warriors in what is known as the musket wars, a period of fighting between Māori that was catalysed by the introduction of the musket. The wars ended for Tainui and Taranaki with a siege from the future king on a set of twin Pā, Waimate and Orangituapeka, on the southern Taranaki coast just outside of Te Hāwera. 

Over several days, the siege continued, but despite the warriors of Taranaki being vastly outnumbered and having far fewer guns – some accounts recording that they began the battle with only one – the fighting ended with a permanent truce being called between the rival ope. Peace has endured between these confederations of tribes since that day in 1834 and is remembered by Te Wherowhero’s words to Wiremu Te Matakatea, the leader of the warriors from Taranaki.

 “This is my final peacemaking; I have ended – ended for ever; and shall return at once and not come back. Your lands remain with you on account of your prowess. Were I to fight again after this my arm would be broken under the shining sun.”

Pōtatau Te Wherowhero (left) (Image: Alexander Turnbull Library, PUBL-0014-44, lithograph from watercolour by George French Angas (detail)

When Pōtatau Te Wherowhero passed away, he was succeeded by his son Tūkāroto, known also as Matutaera. In respect of his father’s connection to Taranaki and the growing influence of the Pai Mārire movement, a Māori faith combining the tenants of Christianity with traditional Māori beliefs, the second Māori king travelled to Taranaki in 1864 where he would be bestowed the name Tāwhiao by Te Ua Haumene, prophet and founder of the Pai Mārire movement. This ceremony took place at the head of the Kapuni awa, the stream that divides that twin pā where his father made peace with the Taranaki tribes.

In response to both confederations of tribes enduring mass confiscation of land by the crown, Tūkāroto Matutaera Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Tāwhiao II prophesied that these lands would one day return to their rightful owners. “You, Taranaki, have one handle of the kit, and I, Waikato, have the other. A child will come some day and gather together its contents.”

It is the history of peacemaking, shared experience of the unjust mass confiscation of land and commitment to peace that bonded Taranaki and the Kīngitanga. On account of the latter, the prophet Te Whiti o Rongomai III, who founded Parihaka alongside Tohu Kākahi, said “He maungārongo ki te whenua. He whakaaro pai ki ngā tāngata katoa.” Peace on earth and good will to mankind. For his commitment to peace, Kīngi Tāwhiao is remembered as Kīngi o te maungārongo. King of peace. And so, the legacies of Taranaki and the Kīngitanga have long been interwoven. 

Kīngi Tūheitia is welcomed to Parihaka with a pōwhiri (Photo: Supplied)

Over the weekend, leaders of both confederations braved the rain, stood from their respective paepae and shared stories over the day, which oscillated between this shared history, acknowledgement of what each has contributed to the world and then what more needs to be done to ensure the prosperity of all people here in Aotearoa and those suffering injustice overseas. One theme prevailed in all that was shared: unity. To this end, Dr Ruakere Hond, an esteemed leader of Parihaka, stressed that “we need to bring our kōrero together and share our insights.”

Taiohi from all three kura kaupapa of the region travelled to Parihaka, lining up to perform the haka pōwhiri for the king and standing in support of each of the speakers from Taranaki with a variety of waiata that link the two groups. Before the king departed, he was presented with an original photograph of his grandfather, Kīngi Korokī Te Rata Mahuta Tāwhiao Pōtatau Te Wherowhero V, being carried by a group of men atop Taupiri Maunga, the sacred burial ground of Tainui. 

For many of the taiohi, this weekend marked the first time they would have met the Māori king and for all of them, the first time they were able to welcome him under the shadow of their maunga. And so as Kīngi Tāwhiao inherited his father’s deep connections to Taranaki, this new generation of taiohi inherited their connection to the Kīngitanga. 

This is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.

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