TOHU WHENUA

TOHU WHENUA Ruatara’s legacy at Rangihoua

The entrepreneurial endeavours and world travels of rangatira Ruatara were key to our nation’s first bicultural settlement

WRITER: Claudia Babirat IMAGES: Mark Russell

As you stand in the welcome pavilion overlooking Rangihoua Heritage Park in the Bay of Islands, you know you’ve come to a special place. Two hundred years ago Māori and Pākehā held high hopes for new partnerships between their peoples here, and the land is charged with their stories. Recognised as a Tohu Whenua, Rangihoua Heritage Park encompasses Rangihoua Pā, as well as our nation’s first planned European settlement.

A once popular belief regarding 19th century European contact with Māori stressed its ‘fatal impact’ and the inability of Māori to withstand the technologicallyadvanced European culture. Māori society was given little credit for its ability to adapt to and manage contact. Rangihoua dispels this myth. Here, Māori sought to ensure that interaction was as much as possible on their own terms. At the heart of Rangihoua’s story was Ruatara, a powerful Ngāpuhi rangatira who guaranteed protection to the three families who set up a small mission at the base of his pā, the terraced hill you still see today. Ruatara was well-travelled and ambitious. In 1805, he left New Zealand on the whaling ship Argo with the intention of meeting King George III. Over the next four years he served on several whaling ships, receiving mixed treatment. He never met the King, but in 1809 he encountered the missionary Samuel Marsden who was returning to Port Jackson (Sydney) on the convict vessel Ann. Marsden ensured that Ruatara, who was in poor physical condition, was cared for and supplied with clothes during the voyage. Ruatara ended up spending eight months with Marsden at Parramatta, studying European agricultural techniques, carpentry and other skills with the aim of introducing wheat to New Zealand. After running into some trouble on his way home, Ruatara finally returned to Rangihoua in 1812. Ruatara’s influence had waned during his long absence and Ngāpuhi took some convincing that the new wheat crop was worth growing. In 1814, Marsden sent Thomas Kendall to consult Ruatara about establishing a Church Missionary Society mission at Rangihoua. Kendall’s gift of a hand-powered flour mill convinced Ruatara’s fellow chiefs of the value of wheat and re-established his mana.

Ruatara returned to Port Jackson to further his study of European agricultural techniques. When he arrived back at Rangihoua on 22 December 1814, he made it clear that he was the protector and patron of 'his’ Pākehā – the missionaries Samuel Marsden, Thomas Kendall, John King and William Hall – who had accompanied him with their families to New Zealand and would live at Rangihoua, although he was never completely convinced that allowing the missionaries to settle was a good idea. He’d seen for himself that Australian Aborigines hadn’t prospered through European contact. By 1814, Rangihoua was the major centre in the northern Bay of Islands and Ruatara was its entrepreneurial leader. In Ruatara’s words to Marsden: “I have now introduced the cultivation of wheat in New Zealand. It will become a great country, for in two years more I shall be able to export wheat to Port Jackson in exchange for hoes, axes, spades, and tea and sugar.” Sadly, Ruatara was not to see that vision fulfilled, passing away less than three months after the settlers arrived. n Discover Rangihoua Heritage Park for yourself . • See spectacular views of the Bay of

Islands from Rangihoua Pā • Follow the interpretive walk to the beach (40 minutes one way) • Explore the site of Aotearoa New

Zealand’s first mission settlement, which includes the site of our first European school and a small cemetery marked by a plaque • Stand at the Marsden Cross, which commemorates our first Christmas

Day sermon in 1814 • Meander through the remnants of our first European orchard, which includes the country’s oldest lemon trees (they still fruit!) • For more on the history of

Rangihoua Heritage Park, download the virtual tour at: rangihouaheritage.co.nz

Rangihoua Heritage Park is one of 25 treasured heritage places recognised as Tohu Whenua. The park is proudly cared for by the Marsden Cross Trust Board in partnership with the Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai.

Information sourced from Mark Derby, 'Cultural go-betweens – The first cultural go-betweens', Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 2011

(ABOVE) Interactive interpretation helps visitors gain an understanding of the place where Māori and Europeans learned to live side by side. (BELOW) The Marsden Cross at the site of the first planned European settlement marks the first Christmas Day sermon in 1814. The site of Rangihoua Pā can be seen in the background.