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LOCATION Pakipaki is situated southwest of Hastings at the intersection of State Highways 2 and 50A.
Love and
devotion In the Hawke’s Bay settlement of Pakipaki, the connections to the French Catholic nun Suzanne Aubert run deep WORDS: ANN WARNOCK • IMAGERY: TOM ALLEN
A treasure trove, a hidden jewel, a pot of gold – the host of adages cannot capture the significance of a small, steeply pitched church with a soupçon of rural France in the Māori settlement of Pakipaki near Hastings.
8 Ngahuru • Autumn
Situated a stone’s throw from Houngarea Marae – one of three marae in Pakipaki – the tiny timber ecclesiastical building is Gothic Revival in style, without a spire, bell, altar or pews. Outside, weatherboards have
waned. Inside, nesting swallows are having a ball. But the dilapidated condition of the Church of the Immaculate Conception is immaterial in the face of its deep resonance within the terrain of European missionaries, Māori Catholicism and the papakāinga of Pakipaki. Constructed in 1880, the church is the oldest surviving building in New Zealand connected with the French Catholic nun Suzanne Aubert – nurse, social worker, impassioned advocate for tangata whenua, proficient speaker of te reo Māori and one of the most important women in the nation’s historical trajectory. So momentous is Aubert’s footprint on Aotearoa that her current status is Catholic saint-inwaiting as the Vatican deliberates her canonisation. Future glory notwithstanding, the impact of the small-framed Frenchwoman who lived alongside the people of Pakipaki from 1871 to 1883 and reputedly helped to fund the church from an inheritance received on her father’s death continues to be felt today. “We’ve always viewed her as someone very special and, just like the church, she’s part of us and always has been. She lived in a hut not far from here and we understand she never enjoyed good health,” says Hera Ferris, Pakipaki kaumātua and chair
of the Pakipaki Whare Karakia Charitable Trust. The trust is spearheading a full-scale restoration of the church, underpinned by a recently commissioned conservation plan, as a salute to its status in New Zealand’s social and religious landscape. As part of the process, the church has attained a Category 1 listing with Heritage New Zealand. “The importance of Mother Aubert is increasing and a growing number of pilgrims are visiting Pakipaki seeking out its deep connection with this amazing holy woman,” says trainee deacon Charles Ropitini of the Pakipaki Māori Catholic Mission. Suzanne Aubert came to New Zealand from France with Bishop Pompallier in 1860 and initially worked among Māori in Auckland before moving south to Hawke’s Bay, where she was instrumental in re-energising the Marist Mission and growing the region’s Catholic narrative. She later referred to her time in Hawke’s Bay as the happiest period in her life. The construction of the Church of the Immaculate Conception on tribal land gifted by rangatira Urupene Pūhara – whose father Pūhara Hawaikirangi had been patron of the Catholic Māori Mission in Hawke’s Bay – was perceived as the culmination of Aubert’s mahi in the area. Heritage New Zealand Heritage Advisor Central Region Kerryn Pollock says the little church reflects the dissemination of organised Western religion into Māori communities but is framed within te ao Māori. “It captures a dynamism and openness to new ideas so evident in Māori communities, even after the hugely damaging New Zealand Wars period,” she says. “And it’s a great story of Māori agency intertwined with the incredible energy and commitment of Suzanne Aubert.” No concrete information is known about the instigator of the building of the church, and
Heritage New Zealand
