The Ō-Rākau site of a bloody 1864 battle which helped define the New Zealand wars will be handed back to iwi – Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Maniapoto.
The wero – challenge – commences. Photo: Te Nehenehnui
The Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill passed its third reading in Parliament this week – just days before the commemoration of the attack on nearby Rangiaowhia.
The bill’s passing followed passionate speeches from all sides of the house.
Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka said the 9.7ha battle site will be managed by a body representing the descendants of those who fought as well as their whānau, hapū, and iwi.
New Zealand First’s Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke noted “not often does this House come together — all six parties.”
She also referred to students including Leah Bell from Ōtorohanga who after a 2014 visit to Ō-Rākau joined with three others to petition the government to commemorate the land wars and introduce New Zealand’s history curriculum in schools.
Labour’s Adrian Rurawhe told the House “this is not the end day, though. This is just the beginning of a new journey that starts with the passing of this legislation that enables the people who were most impacted, the descendants of those who were in that battle, to find a way forward and to commemorate what had happened there. Why? So that our future generations will know the truth about our own history. Growing up in Aotearoa New Zealand, I did not learn that at school, and so I wanted to briefly acknowledge the day, acknowledge the significance of it.”
The petition is received by Waimarama Anderson, Leah Bell, Tai Te Ariki Jones and Kiana Ormsby.
Labour colleague Shana Halbert said “today is one of those wonderous days for us in Parliament – for us as Māori, a Māori Affairs Committee, for all members who serve in this House – because we get to do something that’s right, to correct some of the challenges of our past, to apologise for the things that the Crown has done wrong, and most of all to make it right.”
In April last last October more than 1000 people gathered at the site near Kihikihi to honour the 160th anniversary of O-Rākau, the story of which was told in the film Ka Whawhai Tonu – Struggle Without End, the story of the Battle of Ōrākau released last year. There a deed of agreement providing for the transfer of the pa site was signed.
The government history site recounts at least 160 of Ō-Rākau pa’s 300 occupants were killed and British casualties from more than 1400 solders was 17 over three days from March 31 to April 2.
It was reported that women were bayoneted as they lay wounded, and disgust was expressed at the “general obscene and profane behaviour” of troops under Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron.
The same site notes the events of Ōrākau were gradually mythologised, and when a monument was erected on the site in 1914, 50 years after the siege, it was Māori heroism rather than British ferocity that was remembered.
The year after the battle, the Crown confiscated thousands of hectares of Waikato land, including the site at Ōrākau.
Maor Development Minister Tama Potaka said the legislation sought to return the whenua.
Willie Jackson, Labour, also celebrated – he acknowledged the mahi of Tom Roa, a regular columnist in The News – but questioned the compensation – the pūtea.
“$1.7 million for the transfer of the Ōrākau site at no cost to iwi, $75,000 to fund the establishment of managing entity for the Ōrākau site, $306,000 to fund historical research. It’s chump change, really. Both governments can take responsibility for that—I’m not just talking about National here… When are we going to look at proper compensation for kaupapa like this…when are we going to have a re-look at this situation where our people have to go through so much? Yes, they get the apology, and then they’re just about funding the whole thing themselves. Hōhā – hōhā.”
The bill has been passed in time for the transfer of the land to be completed before the 161st anniversary of the battle.
The morning welcome when more than 1000 people gathered at Ō-Rākau in April last year. Photo: Te Nehenehenui.
