9 minute read
The ongoing promise
In the lead-up to Waitangi Day 2022, two of those charged with overseeing one of our most important historic sites reflect on their connections to the Waitangi National Trust estate
WORDS: CAITLIN SYKES • IMAGERY: ERICA SINCLAIR AND JESS BURGES
Nga wai hono i te po Paki
Waitangi National Trust board member since 2020
Commemorations for New Zealand’s national day are known to start early. But for Nga wai hono i te po Paki, a particularly memorable Waitangi Day started earlier than most.
“It was 2009, when I was around 12 years old, and I remember getting up at what felt like 3am a day or two before Waitangi Day and heading down to Tūrangawaewae Marae for karakia and to prepare the waka taua,” she recalls.
“It was my father’s first visit to Waitangi after being anointed King, and six waka taua, more than 200 paddlers, and more than four busloads of us travelled from Waikato to Waitangi alongside him. It was a huge kaupapa – unforgettable.”
The daughter of the Māori King, Kiingi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII, Nga wai is the most recent appointee to the Waitangi National Trust Board, but her connections to it stretch back generations and beyond its origins.
She picks up the thread of connection in the 1850s with the formation of the Kiingitanga itself, a movement founded on a principle, amongst others, of kotahitanga – to unite iwi across the motu. When the trust was established in 1932, the Māori King was among its first members, and the board position now held by Nga wai – representing the Māori people living south of Auckland in the North Island – went on to be occupied alternately by members of the kāhui ariki and the Te Heuheu lineage.
“I feel this is an important role, and it represents a lot of people. I’m using it as an opportunity to learn and create different ways of connecting people – much like our tīpuna and absolutely aligned with that notion of kotahitanga.”
While helping to direct the care and preservation of one of the nation’s most important historic sites is part of her role on the Waitangi National Trust Board, Nga wai says heritage preservation is a strong theme running through her wider mahi.
Her main day job is overseeing the Kiingitanga collection, which contains more than 3,000 taonga.
“We have taiaha, patu, whāriki, korowai, diaries dating back to the 1800s, chandeliers, gifts from across the Pacific – it’s a vast array. These taonga contain significant kōrero and heritage that pertains not only to Waikato but also across the motu and the wider Pacific, and we want to capture and share that.”
She and her partner also own a business that offers tours of the Waikato Wars battle site of Rangiriri, which they have run for more than three years. And she is a highly experienced kapa haka tutor.
“I’m very involved in my culture and my heritage. It’s how I’ve been brought up, it’s who I am, and it’s how I choose to live.”
At 25 years old, Nga wai is the youngest member of the Waitangi National Trust Board. She says she’s grateful for the support she’s received as its newest member, but that her youth is also an asset.
“My hope is that I can bring the views of my generation to the board and that future focus will influence the board’s decisions in how we care for the land.
“Prior to coming into this position, I really didn’t know much about what the Waitangi National Trust did, or that there was this huge estate at Waitangi that belongs to the nation. So I’d really like to look at how we can raise the profile of the trust and its kaupapa, particularly among my generation, because it’s a nationwide kaupapa, and an important one.”
While a Covid-19 scare meant she wasn’t able to travel to the Waitangi Day 2021 commemorations, Nga wai says she’s hoping to be there in 2022.
“I definitely see myself participating in all the traditional events of Waitangi Day, and immersing myself in the experience. I’ve been brought up surrounded by my culture, I thrive on it, it’s who I am, so being involved in the day will be another way for me to recharge my batteries.”
Pita Tipene
Waitangi National Trust board member since 2016 and chair since 2018
The vast body of water surrounding the Waitangi National Trust estate is but a trickle where the Taumarere catchment begins at Mōtatau, the home of Pita Tipene.
But the small Northland community has very close connections, explains Pita, to Te Pitowhenua/the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and particularly one of its most iconic buildings – Te Whare Rūnanga.
In the years leading up to the 1940 centenary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi, the MP for Northern Māori Tau Hēnare, of Mōtatau, and Minister of Māori Affairs Sir Apirana Ngata proposed the construction of Te Whare Rūnanga as one of the contributions to the centenary commemorations.
Te Whare Rūnanga was to stand next to the Treaty House as a tangible symbol of partnership and nationhood.
“Those leaders asked our Ngāti Hine people to mobilise and provide the timber, so people like my dad, Kohekohe Tipene, set about the task. There are even photos of my dad pit-sawing the timber,” says Pita.
“They cut the timber into slabs, which were taken to our marae at Mōtatau where they were prepared and fashioned by carvers commissioned by Ngata, who had brought them up from Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, and several were even from Rarotonga.
“All of the carvers stayed on site at our marae and were taken care of by the local people in the six years leading up to the centennial in February 1940.
“I remember sitting around the table as a child hearing these stories; as you get older you see things with greater depth and understanding as to why our grandparents, aunts and uncles did what they did. I sit in that whare now and look at those carvings and go ‘āe mārika! [amazing!]’.”
As a descendant of Ngāti Hine rangatira Kawiti, Pita has been on the board as a trustee since 2016 and became its chair in 2018. The tohu of Kawiti is found at the very top of the treaty, despite his not signing on 6 February 1840 – instead getting his two sons to sign as a type of limited concurrence. He signed later, on 13 May 1840, and within five years saw that the treaty was not being upheld so, together with Hone Heke and other rangatira, waged war on the British forces and their Māori allies.
It’s a legacy, says Pita, that still resonates strongly today and drives him in his role as chair. He points to ‘Te Tangi o Kawiti’ – the well-known lament delivered by Kawiti in January 1846, following the battle of Ruapekapeka – and in particular a line Pita translates as “Look to the horizons of the sea”.
“It was a metaphor,” explains Pita, “for always maintaining a global orientation, remaining strategic and staying optimistic, and we hold tight to those words.
“The mission statement of the Waitangi National Trust Board is ‘To illustrate the ongoing promise of Waitangi to the world’. That kaupapa means everything we do here needs to illustrate the promise, which is Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and importantly where we’re going as a nation.”
In the tradition of the foresight exemplified by Hēnare and Ngata, conversations about how the promise of Te Tiriti o Waitangi will be illustrated to the world now and as we approach 2040 are already happening.
It’s an important opportunity, he says, because the bicentennial represents a symbolic time to reflect on the nature and state of our nationhood. He also emphasises the important role the trust plays in upholding the intangible values of the estate.
“When people think about Waitangi, they tend to think about the Treaty Grounds only. But it’s actually a 506-hectare estate, and we need to manage that in a way that is balanced and fits with the wairua, the spirit, of the land.
“Many people, when they come here, find solace just through walking in the bush. As the guardians of a national treasure, we have a huge responsibility to protect that.”
kāhui ariki: royal family karakia: prayers, blessings kaupapa: mission korowai: cloaks kotahitanga: unity, solidarity mahi: work motu: land, country patu: weapons, clubs rangatira: chief taiaha: long wooden weapons taonga: treasures, prized things tīpuna: ancestors tohu: signature, mark waka taua: war canoes whāriki: floor coverings
WHERE WE STAND
It’s the place where some of the most momentous events in New Zealand’s history occurred: the choosing of the first national flag, Te Kara o Te Whakaminenga o Nga Hapu o Nu Tireni, in 1834; the signing of He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tīreni/ The Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand in 1835; and the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840.
Te Pitowhenua/the Waitangi Treaty Grounds – the first to be named a Tohu Whenua in 2019 – is one of our most nationally significant historic sites and part of a wider 506-hectare estate that is administered by the Waitangi National Trust.
The trust was established by an Act of Government in 1932, after the estate was gifted to the nation by then Governor General and his wife, Lord and Lady Bledisloe. A century on from the appointment of the first British Resident, James Busby, who was housed at Waitangi, one of the trust’s first priorities was the conservation and restoration of Busby’s house, which was renamed the Treaty House.
The Waitangi National Trust comprises descendants and representatives of those directly associated with the site, including signatories to the treaty.
The members of the trust have cared for and preserved the site over time in order to tell the story of our nation.
The carved meeting house Te Whare Rūnanga, which stands facing the Treaty House – symbolising the partnership between Māori and the Crown – was opened on the centenary of the signing of the treaty; visitors can also see the ceremonial war canoe Ngātokimatawhaorua, built to mark the centenary.
More recently the estate has become home to Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi, which opened in 2016 to tell stories of the historic site and share taonga associated with it.
On Waitangi Day 2020, Te Rau Aroha was opened. The museum honours Māori members of the armed services, with one of its three galleries dedicated to members of the 28th (Māori) Battalion’s A Company, most of whom came from Northland.
