“The great and grand cry of the
natives is who will supply us with muskets, lead and powder. For a musket a New
Zealander will make great
sacrifices, he will labour hard for many months to obtain his musket, in fact
it is his idol, he values it above all he possesses. He will not only part with
his slaves for one but even prostitute his children to a diseased sailor for
one of these instruments of destruction,” Missionary George Clarke, who also
happened to be a gunsmith and teacher.1
“The transformation of Maori
culture they (the missionaries) caused was quite spectacular. They firmly
established the image of Christ as the Prince of Peace. They also impressed
deeply the image of the Jews as the Chosen People, their exile, their years in
the wilderness, their guilt and atonement and their continuing closeness to
God. These images were henceforth inseparable from all Maori religious thought
even where it parted company with orthodox Christianity,” Eric Schwimmer.2
“(Forgiveness) represents our
ability to change course, reframe the narrative of the past and create an
unexpected set of possibilities for the future,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference.
Peace-making in the
Musket Wars
Forgiveness as a circuit-breaker
Keith Newman
Author of Bible & Treaty (Penguin 2009), Beyond Betrayal (Penguin, 2013),
Ratana the Prophet (Reed 2009)
Claims that the widespread carnage and cannibalism of New Zealand’s
Musket Wars ended because Maori were exhausted and seduced by the great
civilising influence of British society and the promises of the Treaty of
Waitangi need to be challenged.
It
is my contention that Bible-based teaching on equality and forgiveness and the
empowerment of Maori through reading and writing in their own language was a
more credible influence for peace-making and cultural transformation than any
colonial constraints.
Well before
1814; when Te Rongopai or Christ’s ‘good news’ message was first preached on
New Zealand shores, growing musket power in the Far North was poised to forever
change battlefield dynamics, inter-tribal relationships and boundaries.
It was only after more than 30-years
of relentless attacks and counter attacks costing more lives than all Kiwis in
World War 1, that relief was finally in sight as chiefs gathered to sign the
Treaty of Waitangi from February 1840.
I propose it was the peace-making
efforts of the missionaries, the printing and distribution of Bible books in te
reo (the Maori language) and the eagerness of many chiefs to embrace the
example of Jesus Christ (Ihu Karaiti), that were pivotal in countering the
killing that wiped out up to 20 percent of the Maori population.
Shifting weapons of war
The so-called
Musket Wars comprised around 3000 inter-tribal battles, raids and skirmishes
that rapidly expanded from around 1807 with the growing availability of
flintlock and next generation muskets and fowling pieces or shotguns.
These events were
often a natural extension of generations old grievances between iwi (tribes)
and hapu (family groups) using patu, mere (clubs) and spears and hand to hand
combat. Wars had become an integral part of Maori politics and society, spurred
on by attempts to take land, raids on crops and resources or unresolved
offences.
Lawrence
H. Keeley, an archeology professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago,
specialising in prehistoric Europe, says about 90-95% of known societies
engaged in war and claims that pre-civilisation tribal life was typically
peaceful is mostly myth.
In his book War Before Civilisation, the
close-quarters clashes which characterised warfare in tribal warrior society,
produced casualty rates of up to 60%, compared to 1% of the combatants in
typical modern warfare. “The evidence
shows that tribal warfare is on average
20 times more
deadly than 20th century warfare, whether calculated as a percentage of total
deaths due to war or as average deaths per year from war as a percentage of the
total population.”3
Warfare was a
well-established part of the Maori way of settling grievances well before any
Europeans set foot on the shores of Aotearoa New Zealand. Like many tribal
societies, if boundary or resource issues couldn’t be resolved through
inter-marriage, trade or some other mutually beneficial means to restore
balance or reciprocity, then it required a show of physical strength often
resulting in all out warfare.
Angela Ballara in Taua – Musket Wars agrees warfare was a “cultural response” to
offence or duress if peaceful ways to resolve disputes failed. War “was the
ultimate sanction” and muskets had an accelerating effect… their impact “can
hardly be exaggerated”.4
Wars typically
occurred within a seasonal timeframe, often autumn after winter food was
gathered and stored. These engagements could be dramatic, ritualised affairs. The
desire for payback or utu (reciprocity/revenge) may result in a staged battle
with the best warriors pitted against each other or a well-planned surprise
attack with no mercy shown or atrocity spared. To the victor the spoils,
including the land, and an enhanced reputation with slaves taken, some ritually
cannibalised, and survivors retreating to start over in a less populated
area.
Tools and technology
Maori were
quick to embrace new skills and acquire metal tools to displace their stone
implements for tilling the soil, felling trees, hunting and fishing and to
enhance their wellbeing. Any opportunity to improve trading opportunities with
neighbouring tribes and visiting ships was welcomed. It was only natural that
muskets, supplied by early traders, sealers and whalers for supplies or in
exchange for flax and timber, would soon find uses other than hunting birds and
pigs.
The
first chance for Maori to obtain muskets was around 1791 with whalers calling
into the Bay of Islands for provisions. Maori in the north and on the east
coast had already felt the sting of the musket through encounters with Cook, De
Surville and Du Fresne based on unfortunate misunderstandings where both
parties paid dearly.5
Ngapuhi, the
dominant tribe of the Far North, had acquired a few dozen flintlock muskets
from Sydney-based traders. They became a symbol of mana (personal power and
respect) for chiefs although it took some skill to master these long barrel,
muzzle-loaded weapons which were often unreliable.
They
began experimenting with their use in battle in 1807-08 but were ambushed by
southern rivals Ngati Whatua at the battle of Moremonui at Maunganui Bluff,
Northland, while struggling to reload.
Ngapuhi chief Hongi Hika lost two brothers and an uncle in that
skirmish; he and other survivors only escaped by hiding in a swamp. The fact
that someone could be wounded or die at a distance following a loud bang and a
puff of smoke, gave Ngapuhi the appearance of having harnessed some lethal
spiritual power and Hongi was determined to master the musket and acquire more
weapons to exact revenge.
Maori
at Whangaroa had muskets at this stage and in 1809 the captain of the City of Edinburgh, fearing for his crew,
borrowed muskets from a friendly chief at Kororareka to defend his ship.6 Between 1812 and 1815
Hongi led large Te Pahi
taua (war
party) against tribes in Hokianga, Te Roroa, Te Rarawa and Te
Aupouri in the
north, making him the undisputed warlord.7
Mission plans stalled
New South Wales
prison colony chaplain and magistrate Samuel Marsden had established a strong
relationship with Maori who were either curious visitors or had been stranded
in Sydney (Port Jackson) after working aboard ships. He invited many to stay on
his farm at Parramatta and around 1806 was asked by Ngapuhi chief Te Pahi to
establish a Church Missionary Society (CMS) presence in the Bay of
Islands.
Marsden first
heard of the death of Te Pahi when about to return from London in 1809. Te Pahi
and a number of his hapu had been killed by drunken whalers with muskets who
had mistakenly blamed him for the burning of the Boyd at Whangaroa Harbour.
Te Pahi was
succeeded by his nephew Ruatara who was found near death on the prison ship Ann in 1809 shortly after Marsden had
been granted official permission for the New Zealand mission. Marsden and his
wife nursed him back to health taking this fortuitous meeting as a sign that he
was on the right track. Ruatara reiterated the invitation to come and teach the
children.
After a
training period in New South Wales, artisan missionary and carpenter William
Hall and Thomas Kendall, a schoolmaster and justice of the peace, were sent out
as an advance party to ensure preparations were in order. They arrived in June
1814 bringing agricultural implements, fruit trees, bushels of wheat and
potatoes for Ruatara to secure land and set the scene for a missionary station
at Oihi Bay, Rangihoua (new dawn).
Ruatara
introduced them to his uncle Hongi Hika, a commander of 600 fighting men, who
Kendall described as “a man of mild disposition…remarkably steady and decent in
his outward behaviour”. He had a musket with him and was quick to disclose he
had another eleven.
On the voyage
to New South Wales to bring Marsden, Ruatara acted as interpreter and Kendall
taught Hongi and others how to write and phonetically sound the English
alphabet using a set of cards. A fish hook was offered for every page Hongi
could memorise. Within a week, Kendall claimed Hongi and his brother in law
chief Waikato (Hohaia Parati) knew the alphabet by heart.
On arrival they
headed to Marsden’s estate where twelve other Maori were in residence. Waikato
took a great deal of interest in learning what he could about agriculture while
Hongi kept his eye on the military presence.
Artisan aspirations
The missionary
party including wives and children finally set sail for New Zealand in November
aboard The Active, among them was John King, rope maker, flax dresser, and
shoemaker and three pardoned convicts who were to assist them.
The
first stop was Whangaroa, the scene of the Boyd
disaster, where Marsden learned first-hand of the fate of the ship and the
attack that had been provoked by inhumane treatment of the Maori crew. His
friend Te Pahi had no part in it. He
gathered the Whangaroa chiefs and Te Pahi’s people aboard the Active to end the five year utu (revenge) by Te Pahi’s people. He gave
them gifts and brokered a peace
deal.
“Each chief saluted
the other,” Marsden wrote, “and then went around to each one pressing their
noses together.”8 They also
assured
him that they would never harm another European. In a
risky move Marsden stayed the night among them. “I viewed our situation with
new sensations and feelings that I cannot express— surrounded by cannibals who
had massacred and devoured our countrymen.”9
Marsden, with
the support of the influential Maori who accompanied him, visited a number of
regional chiefs to advise them of the mission plans and invite them to the
historic Christmas Day sermon which was about to take place. Following the
sermon and the powerful response of Ngapuhi through their Te Hari o Ngapuhu
‘dance of joy’; confirming their support for the missionaries, Marsden
continued to meet various chiefs and take on board a considerable amount of
timber to defray the cost of the mission.
As he was
preparing to return to New South Wales late in March 1815, Ruatara, now
honoured as ‘Te Ara mo te Rongopai, the gateway for the Gospel’, continued to
struggle with his health. A deepening fever gripped him and he died only days
after Marsden’s departure.
The role of
protecting the pioneering missionaries now fell to Hongi Hika whose motives
were less clear and his manaakitanga (hospitality) less cordial than those of
his predecessor. Having the missionaries under his wing was good for trade and
his mana. As a warlord, however, he was intent on keeping his enemies in a
state of perpetual fear, expanding his territories and avenging past wrongs.
The CMS
expected its little team in Aotearoa New Zealand should somehow provide a
restraining influence in an environment that was far more complex than they
could have imagined. King, Hall and Kendall and their families were ill
equipped, had meagre resources and were located on unproductive land during
perilous times.
They
struggled with the new language and were frequently intimidated and at the
mercy of Maori for protection, food and safe passage. Private trading was
prohibited which made things extremely difficult when goods provided by the CMS
for bartering were depleted with hope of replenishment possibly months
away.
Rather than these challenges
bringing the missionaries closer together so they could model unity and
Christian love to Maori, they were increasingly at odds. A spirit of
independence and competition set in; they were meant to be sharing their skills
and produce but soon King was no longer making shoes for Kendall and Hall and
after completing his own residence he refused to
Thomas
Kendall build houses for the others.
Kendall, tasked with establishing
the first school was the most innovative
when it came to building relationships
with Maori and learning their language. He gleaned the basics of grammar and
became skilled at bartering for supplies. He was, however, frustrated at the
limitations put on him by the CMS and struggling with betrayal as his wife Jane
had an affair and eventually a child with one of the convicts sent to support
them.10
Food for firepower
Kendall’s willingness to acquire
muskets for Hongi and other chiefs from visiting ship’s captains in exchange
for supplies set a dangerous precedent. Muskets, already standard payment for
Maori who worked on board ships, soon became the only acceptable exchange if
the mission team wanted to avoid starvation. Marsden had condemned the trade
but the CMS eventually gave in, only if there was no viable alternative, a
ruling Kendall and Hall now interpreted liberally.
During his
attacks on various tribes Hongi had captured many slaves to work his land,
cultivate flax and make the most of the imported crops including wheat, corn
and potatoes that Te Pahi and Ruatara and other chiefs had grown before him.
His primary objective was to acquire more muskets.
In 1818 Hongi
headed south to avenge himself from Ngati Whatua for the embarrassment a decade
earlier when Ngapuhi were still new to the musket and ball. His war party took
around 2000 slaves and destroyed 50 villages as far away as Tolaga Bay. In 1819
he returned from an attack on Ngati Porou with 2000 prisoners and many dried
heads (mokomokai) which could also be exchanged for muskets.
More accurate
weapons, mostly ex- Napoleonic wars Brown Bess long-barrel muskets were the
principal weapon used from 1919. With a growing number of these at his
disposal, often affixed with bayonets, Hongi’s massacres became even more
brutal.
Samuel Marsden
returned in 1819 with reinforcements, seemingly unconcerned at how dangerous
life had become in this remote outpost and how strained the missionary
relationships were. He negotiated with Hongi for land at Kerikeri to establish
a new mission station under Rev John Gare Butler.
Kendall
resented Butler’s approach to leadership and the fact he had begun, at
Marsden’s suggestion, an inquiry into allegations of “gun running”. Maori were
by now well aware of the disharmony in the mission camp and had less reason
than ever to listen to their moralising
An unleashing of forces
Kendall
continued to push his own agenda. Although his request to visit England was
denied by Kerikeri mission head Butler and Marsden who had just returned for
his third visit, he took the trip anyway on 2 March 1820. He hoped to be
ordained as a minister and work with CMS linguist Professor Samuel Lee on Maori
language publications.
Hongi, having
convinced Kendall he was an ideal collaborator, joined him along with chief
Waikato of Rangihoua. Professor Lee had two years previously worked with
earlier Maori arrivals Tui and Titere and had been corresponding with Kendall
to try and create the first written Maori vocabulary.11 With Lee’s
support, despite the reluctance of the CMS, Kendall was ordained and made a
deacon on 12 November 1820, the same month their joint efforts on Grammar and Vocabulary of the Language of
New Zealand were sent off to the printers.
Hongi, with his tall
stature and heavily moko’d face made a deep impression on King George IV.
When first
introduced to the King, he and Waikato, dressed in European court costume with
flax cloaks across their shoulders, bowed gracefully, laying their cloaks
before him and saying “How d’ye do, Mr King George”. Intrigued by his exotic visitors, the King
accepted their gifts and arm in arm, escorted them around Carlton House,
showing them its magnificent art collection, conservatory and gardens. As they
walked, he quizzed them about their home country and customs, asking “How many
wives each of them had? How did they rule them etc, etc,” and was highly
pleased with their answers.12
Hongi
listened intently to stories about the Napoleonic wars, closely observed the
palace guard and troops on parade, and took strong interest in the “thousand,
thousand muskets” in the Woolwich arsenal at the Tower of London. His ambitions
should have been clear, when he allegedly stated, “England has only one king,
New Zealand shall have only one”.13
He asked the
King about Marsden and the missionary’s insistence they were not allowed to
sell him muskets. He denied knowledge of any such edict and most likely had no
idea who Marsden was. The King ended up giving Hongi enough gifts to fill a
chest along with a suit of chain mail and two muskets; Waikato was given an
armoured helmet and a musket.
These exchanges formed a
turning point in Hongi’s relationship with the
Europeans and
the CMS. He now knew that despite being urged by Marsden to give up his many
wives, the King had his own mistresses and was trying to divorce Queen
Caroline. While the missionaries urged him to stop fighting, Charles de Thierry
the United Kingdom had been at war non-stop for
almost a century on a variety of military campaigns.14 On the
journey home Hongi uplifted weapons awaiting him in Sydney. When he landed back in New Zealand on 12 July
1821, Butler confirmed he had “a great quantity of guns, swords, powder, balls,
daggers etc etc…and thus they are fully armed to murder, kill and destroy,
without reserve…”15 Where Hongi acquired his muskets remains the
subject of conjecture. Most say he cashed in the King’s gifts in Sydney,
although that is unlikely to have been sufficient to pay for what he
received.
Paul Moon in Savage Country claims Hongi, through an
arrangement with the ambitious and gullible ‘Barron’ Charles de Thierry, with
help from the missionary-magistrate Thomas Kendall, arranged to sell “extensive
territories and the rights of chieftainship in New Zealand” in exchange for 500
muskets plus powder and ball.16
Hongi
and Kendall had met de Thierry at a function in Cambridge and the alleged deal
was arranged some time during their five month visit. Moon says de Thierry may
have placed himself in considerable debt to achieve his ambition of becoming
King of New Zealand as he ended up
in debtor’s jail. According to Binney, Kendall seems to have acted as an agent
in the acquisition of the muskets for Hongi after being entrusted with goods
and gifts from de Thierry who he had encouraged to establish a colony in New
Zealand.17
In 1837 de
Thierry, after failing to win support from Samuel Marsden gained backing from
the French for establishing a colony on his presumed land acquisition. He
sailed from New South Wales, imagining himself as Sovereign Chief, accompanied by
his secretary of State, master of stores and other officers and potential
colonists. When he arrived in Hokianga, however, his claims for 40,000 acres
(16,000 ha) were laughed off. Chiefs Tamati Waka
Nene and Eruera Maihi Patuone,
however, took pity on him, granting him a
Hongi Hika
small
piece of land (100 acres), for a sawmilling business.
Although de
Thierry continued to urge the French to progress their intentions to set up a
colony, but the information they received was wrong and their timing was off,
arriving just after the Treaty of Waitangi had been signed by the British.18
De Thierry eventually moved to Auckland, where he survived as a piano teacher
until his death on 8 July 1864
Unavoidable consequences
Kendall and
Hongi’s unauthorised trip to England set in motion dual events that were to
change the country dramatically. One bought devastation as Hongi escalated his
relentless revenge attacks and the other, the language template he had been
instrumental in establishing, was a catalyst for what would become a cultural
revolution.
The first 500
copies of Lee and Kendall’s Grammar and
Vocabulary, including the Lord’s Prayer in te reo, were quickly distributed
to mission schools with reprints following close behind. The book provided a
firm basis for improved communication, and the teaching and translation of
prayers, hymns and the Bible chapters and books into Maori.
Both Hongi and
Kendall had changed during their time in England. Kendall, already offside with
fellow missionaries, jealous of his role as magistrate and now ordained and
confirmed as head over the Rangihoua mission, was in a darker mood. He rejected
Butler’s order to cease trading muskets, his marriage despite having eight
children to his wife Jane, was on the rocks. And by now he was entangled in his own an affair with the
daughter of a local tohunga and drinking to excess. His missionary, magisterial
and ministerial careers were all but over.
Hongi had been
patient with the literary advice required of him; he tolerated and often showed
pride in being paraded around in high society and had mostly been courteous to
the CMS who were well aware his protection was essential to the future of the
mission. He had fostered an environment of trust and favour to achieve his
ultimate goal, the expansion of his arsenal.
The
missionaries were surprised polite English society had not softened him; his
attitude was now one of contempt. He was annoyed the missionaries had limited
his access to muskets and was advising other chiefs to stop their people
assisting with mission projects unless they were paid with muskets, powder and
ball.
Although the
missionaries were still under his protection, Hongi’s focus was elsewhere. He
had encountered four chiefs from the Thames region including Hauaki and Te
Horeta at Sydney and on learning they planned to travel to England dissuaded
them, suggesting the climate hadn’t been good for his health. In truth he was
planning a formidable attack on their region and did not want to come up
against the same kind of firepower he was planning to unleash.19
Late in 1821,
with his new cache of muskets and the hundreds previously acquired, Hongi
attacked Thames with at least fifty canoes and 2000 men, escalating the Musket
Wars to an unprecedented level, leaving a trail of bloody destruction in his
wake. He then led a force of 2000 men to attack a pa at Tamaki (Auckland)
killing 2000 warriors and their families.
Territorial bloodbath
In early 1822
he took his taua up the Waikato river where, after initial success, he was
defeated by Te Wherowhero and his warriors, who had also become proficient with
the new firepower. After gaining other victories he made peace with Te Wherowhero
in 1823 and invaded Te Arawa at Rotorua as part of a combined force of 3000.
Regular cannibal feasts followed massacres at Thames, Waikato, Rotorua and
Hokianga. Hongi led his troops from the front, often dressed in the chainmail
given by King George.
Ngāpuhi chiefs Pōmare and
Te Wera Hauraki fought battles along the East Coast from the Bay of Plenty to Hawke’s
Bay. The first was in 1820 where they encountered iwi at Māhia Peninsula.
Pōmare defeated Ngāti Porou at Te Whetūmatarau pā, Te Araroa, in 1820 and
in 1822 attacked Tūhua (Mayor Island). Te Wera later made peace with Ngāti
Kahungunu and lived at Māhia, helping to defend them against attacks from other
tribes.20
The trade in
muskets was brisk and visiting ship’s captains were often frustrated that other
tradeable goods now had significantly less value. Maori would do anything to
get hold of more firepower including selling off girl slaves and mokomokai or
shrunken heads, often slaves killed and given facial moko, specifically
designed for sale.21 In 1814 a single musket cost 150 baskets of
potatoes and eight pigs. By 1822 the cost was down to 70 buckets of potatoes
and two pigs22 — Hongi continued to be a major purchaser whenever
the opportunity arose.
Missionary
George Clarke, a gunsmith and teacher, observed soon after his arrival in the
Bay of Islands in 1824: “The great and grand cry of the natives is who will
supply us with muskets, lead and powder. For a musket a New Zealander will make
great sacrifices, he will labour hard for many months to obtain his musket, in
fact it is his idol, he values it above all he possesses. He will not only part
with his slaves for one but even prostitute his children to a diseased sailor
for one of these instruments of destruction”.23
Hongi’s long
memory of the incident eighteen years earlier when he and his people had first
begun using muskets was further avenged at the battle of Te Ika a Ranginui when
he attacked Ngāti Whātua with only 350 warriors. They engaged the first party
of Ngāti Whatua near the road from Kaiwaka. The battle began in February 1825
and the slaughter continued down the Otamatea estuary until the survivors were
driven into hiding. Te Uri o Hau hapü were almost annihilated, suffering up to
1000 fatalities. Hongi lost about 70 men, including his eldest son Hare
Hongi.
Ngāti Whātua
survivors retreated south, and under threat of further attacks eventually left
behind the fertile region of Tamaki Makaurau with its vast natural harbours at
Waitemata and Manukau, which they had conquered 100-years previously. It became
a kind of uninhabited buffer zone between Waikato and Hongi’s own northern
territories.24
D.U. Urlich
says between 1825 muskets had become the object of inter-tribal trade with the
Bay of Islands a ‘propagation centre’ for more southern tribes. The “mana and
survival” of Hongi’s enemies depended on it. Ironically, they were in effect
having to enter enemy territory and even bargain with Hongi’s Ngapuhi chiefs
for their weapons.25
A partial
reason for escalation of the wars and of utu was the plundering of potato crops
which took on increased value not only to sustain war parties on the move but
to trade for more muskets as the arms race escalated. While the initial use of muskets was
sniper-like, as an adjunct to the ongoing use of traditional hand to hand and
close combat weapons, strategies began to evolve that made more disciplined use
of the weapons in controlled volleys.
Changing of the guard
The CMS missionaries,
joined by Methodists from the Wesleyan Missionary Society (WMS) in 1819,
watched in frustration as many promising young candidates for baptism joined
the war parties. Noone dared attack
those under Hongi’s protection, so the missionaries were relatively safe in the
Far North.
Although Samuel
Marsden and several mission leaders had travelled by sea making tentative
visits to tribes wanting a missionary presence, it was still too dangerous to
expand their presence. Marsden returned on his fourth visit in 1823, bringing
reinforcements. He sacked Kendall for his ongoing gunrunning activities and his
infidelity and established new mission head Henry Williams to kick start a
second wave of missionary effort.
Williams, a
former naval officer, stood no nonsense. He quickly won the respect of Mäori
chiefs for his boldness in challenging those who threatened the missionaries
and each other. Rather than Marsden’s ‘civilise first’ approach his goal was to
put the ‘gospel first’ and to accelerate CMS and Wesleyan collaboration on
Bible translation.
He established
a schoolhouse and church at Paihia and convinced a number of chiefs to send
their children. Everything was centred on learning through the words of the
Bible, including the basics of reading and writing, primarily in te reo, with
prayer an important part of the school day.
Williams put an end to missionary musket trading, re-established the
mission station on more fertile ground to ensure self-sufficiency and with help
from the artisan missionaries built their own vessel to bring in supplies and
explore the country with a view to expanding.
Shifting demographics
Although the Maori population was
often seasonally nomadic, Hongi’s invasions significantly altered the balance
of power in the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga, Coromandel, Rotorua and Waikato,
forcing a series of major migrations. From the early 1820s onward the
demographics of Aotearoa changed dramatically.
Tribes under attack had no choice but
to purchase their own weapons for offensive or defensive campaigns as the tide
of bloodletting escalated. Many warriors owned multiple muskets, and there are
records of slaves, particularly young girls and widows, being pressed into
service as ship’s girls in exchange for supplies, particularly muskets.26
Following
battles with Waikato, Ngāti Toa, led by Te Rauparaha, migrated south in 1822.
They engaged in a rolling battle down the island from Kāwhia via Taranaki,
Rangitikei and Manawatu to the Kapiti coast, adding warriors along the way. In
1824 Waikato under Te Wherowhero, joined forces with Te Heuheu of Ngāti
Tūwharetoa to attack Ngāti Kahungunu at Te Pakake (Napier) with Waikato capturing
some of Hawke's Bay most prominent chiefs, who were held for 18 months.
In 1826 Waikato made the first
attacks in a prolonged campaign into Taranaki, although the local tribes put up
a good defence they lived in fear knowing that for every success, Te Wherowhero
and his increasingly determined and well-armed parties would be back. This
series of incursions eventually forced forced several Taranaki iwi further down
country, where they joined Ngāti Toa in the Wellington region and at the top of
the South Island.
In 1830 Ngāi Te Rangi and
Ngāti Hauā under Te Waharoa staged an attack that forced the Ngati
Maru people from the Waikato region
and in 1836 he attacked Te Arawa pā at Maketū in the Bay of Plenty. He and Te
Wherowhero and other Waikato chiefs had successfully defended their territory
from all challengers.27
Territorial transformation
Over two
decades Hongi Hika and his northern chiefs, Te Rauparaha from Kawhia, Te
Wherowhero and Te Waharoa from Waikato and Te Heuheu Tukino from Tuwharetoa in
the Taupo region had crushed their enemies, claiming new territories, plundering
crops and taking thousands of slaves to enhance their mana (personal power) and
economic wellbeing.
On hearing of
an impending invasion, many hapu headed for the hills to avoid judgement day,
or joined with neighbouring tribes and migrated to safer havens. Those who
escaped musket fire and the subsequent hand-to-hand encounters were driven from
their customary tribal lands, many hundreds were left to starve without access
to their traditional food sources.
Some regions were completely de-populated
and further inter-tribal rifts were sparked as exiles moved into neighbouring
territories creating new grievances. Maori were now adapting their pā and fortifications
to withstand musket fire with earthworks, trenches and heavier palisades.
Heavy fighting
also took place in the South Island between Te Rauparaha’s Ngāti Toa and Ngāi
Tahu.
The attacks
bought an end to a bitter internal feud known as the kai huanga (eat relations)
dispute on
Banks Peninsula
in 1826–27. In 1830 Captain Stewart of the brig Elizabeth agreed take Te
Rauparaha and
100 warriors from Kapiti to Banks Peninsula to acquire greenstone and avenge a
Ngāi Tahu defeat at
Kaiapoi the previous year, killing several hundred. In 1835 Ngāti Mutunga and
Ngāti Tama virtually massacred the pacifist Moriori on Rēkohu, the Chatham
Islands. 28
By
1830 musket, powder and ball sales represented 40% of all trade from Sydney to
New Zealand. New South Wales Customs records reveal that over 8,000 muskets,
72,000 pounds (32,600 kg) of gun powder, 42,000 flints, as well as shot, balls,
flasks and belts were imported from Australia from 1st January 1830 to 8th
December 1831.
These weapons
were mostly sold direct to Maori by British and American sealers and whalers
for eight or more pigs or up to 200 bags of potatoes plus an extra pig for 30
musket balls.29
‘Saturation point’ had been reached
in the Bay of Island by 1828 and demand was dropping off. That year Tauranga
and the Kapiti coast had become the two most important secondary supply centres
for muskets with
Henry Williams the
ratio exceeding two muskets for every warrior. Te Rauparaha claimed 2000
muskets on Kapiti Island alone, although with around 400 warriors, Urlich
admits the likelihood of exaggeration.
Waikato had
more than one musket per warrior in 1830 and were able to bring 3000-4000
muskets against Te Atiawa during the siege of Ngamotu in Taranaki; the locals
were only able to muster 100 muskets, three long guns and a swivel gun. Ngati
Haua had achieved saturation point by 1831. “They spoke of their numerous guns
and quantities of lead and powder; each boy had two or three and men ten,” said
Henry Williams in a diary entry on 15 Jan 1834. The East Coast “liberally
supplied by traders after 1831” reached its saturation point by 1835.30
Literary reinforcements
In 1826 William
Williams, the younger brother of CMS mission head Henry Williams arrived in the
country, having trained in the classical languages and as a surgeon. He took
responsibility for the schools and translation work on the complete Kawenata Hou or Maori New Testament.
31 He impressed the other
missionaries with his early grasp of the language. Henry commented, ‘He . . .
appears not to learn it;
it seems to flow naturally from him.’ 32
A combined
effort by both Wesleyan and CMS missionaries under the leadership of William
resulted in the production of Mäori translations of Genesis, Psalms and books
from the New Testament, initially printed in Australia.
When their
mission station was torched by rival tribes the Wesleyans returned to England
for a time and at one stage the CMS missionaries feared they might also have to
abandon their work. Some considered that over a decade without any conversions
was evidence of a massive failure, while others were confident a great
awakening was still ahead.
After Chief ‘Christian’
Rangi’s conversion in 1825 interest in schooling grew and soon an additional
building was needed to house the children, adults and slaves from distant
tribes, now receiving regular Christian instruction.
CMS missionary
George Clarke, noting early signs of progress in literacy, commented: “They are
also gaining a knowledge of the theory of religion; and there are some very
curious inquiries among them, to know who that Great Saviour is that we so much
talk to them about. In addressing them in a body, it is not uncommon thing to
hear them say: ‘Well, this is what my child told me the other day; and though I
do not know much about what the missionaries say, yet my child does’.”33
‘King’ Hongi’s demise
Despite his boastful claims about
wanting to be the king of New Zealand, Hongi never attempted to establish
himself as a long-term ruler or occupier of any land other than his own
northern territories. Securing his reputation as a fearsome and insatiable
opponent and satisfying his need for revenge, along with the bounty of war for
trade and supplies, seemed sufficient.
In 1826 Hongi Hika moved from Waimate
to create a new settlement at Whangaroa, partly in retaliation against Ngāti
Uru and Ngāti Pou for burning the ship Mercury
and attacking the Wesleyan mission station. During a minor engagement in the
Hokianga, in January 1827, a bullet passed right through his chest. He invited
those around him to listen to the wind whistle through his lungs.
Hongi had
frequently heard the gospel of peace and the offer of heavenly forgiveness, but
he never took up the invitation despite many attempts by William Williams in
particular. Although he called on Williams to be with him in his dying hours,
this was most likely for medical rather than spiritual reasons. After 14 months
the infection had so weakened him that he died on 6 March 1828 at Whangaroa.
By all accounts
Hongi held to the view that Christianity was a religion for slaves, although in
his final instructions he told his people to allow the missionaries to stay. In
regard to Hongi’s state of mind, even at the end, William Williams pronounced, “all
was midnight darkness”.
Although Hongi
had protected the missionaries, his constant warfaring was the primary reason
they feared to venture beyond his boundaries. Never again was such power held
by any individual chief.34 It
was only on his death that conversions to Christianity began in any number and
missionaries were free to explore and settle elsewhere but even that took
time.
The Muskets
Wars continued around the country with other warlords determined to make their
mark. Some tribes managed to achieve a balance of power through having a
similar number of firearms or by forming alliances. However, Maori in Hawke’s
Bay, Taranaki and Manawatu and the South Island had few muskets until late in
the game.
Following Hongi’s
demise there was a power vacuum in the Far North and tensions flared as various
chiefs looked to gain ascendency and Henry Williams and the other missionaries
were specifically asked to become mediators. Often negotiations would take days
but when terms were agreed a number of potentially serious outbreaks were
avoided.35
Slow mission progress
Maori were
never a single people with a cohesive culture, although tracing tribal and hapu
connections back far enough through intermarriage and tribal links often
confirms common ancestors and ancient origins. Certainly, language and cultural
differences between different iwi were never so great as to prevent communication
in those formative years.
Octavius
Hadfield observed in 1846 that Maori possessed ideas and customs “so
well-defined and well known” that one tribe could “predict accurately what the
conduct of another tribe” would be in any given circumstance and it was only
after British colonisation that they became “sadly puzzled and perplexed” to
determine how another tribe would react.36
On 7 February
1830, Ngāpuhi chief Rawiri Taiwhanga, the first high-ranking Māori to be
converted to Christianity was baptised and in doing so encouraged many others
to take the Christian faith seriously. In these and later years one of the main
reasons many chiefs didn’t commit was the expectation of giving up warfare in
volatile times which would make them vulnerable to attack by those uninterested
in making peace. Charles Baker, a missionary at Paihia wrote “There are many
who are exceedingly desirous to live a life of industry & quietude,” but
would “render themselves liable to every encroachment & insult their
heathen neighbours may be disposed to occasion them”.37
By 1831,
despite 20-years of missionary effort, there were still only 50 Maori listed by
the CMS as Christians, and although 200 were receiving instruction at the
Paihia mission station, only nine had been baptised.
The Wesleyan
station at Mangungu was also struggling to make progress. In 1832, however, one
chief, when shown the contrast between the savagery of his people and the peace
and industry of a neighbouring Gospel believing tribe, said: “They have
teachers: can we believe through trees? Come and live amongst us!” The
Wesleyans quickly doubled their efforts with the numbers attending their school
growing to over 100 and the demand for catechisms and printed Māori scriptures becoming
greater than they were able to supply.
CMS missionary
William Yate commented in 1833 that whenever Maori sat down to rest, “all take
out their Sacred Scriptures and begin to read. I have actually been kept awake,
in my bed, til after midnight, by the Natives outside reading the Sacred
Scriptures and asking each other questions, or passing comments.”38
That year Samuel Leigh noted that a
Wesleyan Maori in Hokianga, on receiving
boxes of the first edition of the New Testament from the British and Foreign
Bible Society exclaimed: “These are full of knowledge. We have often had things
come which we thought good; casks of rum, barrels of gunpowder and boxes of
muskets. What is now come is to teach us not to drink rum, not to set fire to
powder, not to use muskets but to do us good for ever and ever. Our hearts are
sick for the word of God: we desire it more than axes, hatchets, or blankets.”39
The Gospel message was now beginning
to have a huge impact in areas where the missionaries were once mocked and held
to ransom. One obvious impact was that
chiefs who had acquired slaves to work their crops, having learned from their
children who attended the mission schools in Paihia, Waimate North, Te Kaeo and Hokianga, began to set their captives free.
Progression of peace
As the threat from Mäori civil wars
eased from the early to mid-1830s, the CMS and Wesleyan missionaries were
surprised to discover Maori had begun to evangelise themselves. In October 1833
Henry Williams and his mission team were exploring options for new mission
stations and engaging in peace making between different tribes under the protection
of Te Waharoa. At Thames they witnessed
a gathering of 200 Māori who knew the Anglican hymns and responses to prayers.
Many asked for books and slates for ongoing instruction.
In 1834,
Williams and a number of other missionaries returned a group of Ngati Porou to
their homelands after they’d been blown off course while trading on board a
sailing ship. They had been protected by the missionaries and learned at the
mission school in Paihia until a ship could be arranged to take them home.
Williams was astonished to discover
1000 Maori at a church meeting near Gisborne. They had been influenced by Piripi Taumata-a-kura (Philip the
Teacher) who had returned from the Bay of Islands where he’d also learned at
the CMS mission school while being held as a slave. Under his influence, and
now with the assistance of the new arrivals, the Christian message would
ultimately bring peace and forgiveness and end the generations of warring
between Ngati Porou and Whanau-a-Apanui.
The CMS
missionaries established a presence in Thames, Waikato, Tauranga and Gisborne;
and the Catholics, who had arrived in the Bay of Islands and Hokianga in the
1820s, were never far behind. The Wesleyans, who had returned in 1828, were
also expanding beyond the Far North, scouting out potential mission sites in
Taranaki, Port Nicholson (Wellington) and at the top of the South Island.
As Harrison
Wright commented in Early Years of
Western Contact: “The conversion of the Maoris at the Bay of Islands
greatly facilitated the conversion of the rest of the North Island; for once
Christianity had penetrated the shell of Maori resistance it spread rapidly.”40
The first few
converts in any missionary activity in a foreign culture are vital as was
having Maori teachers accompany missionaries to ensure the message was
presented in a way that made cultural sense. J. M R. Owens in his thesis
Christianity and the Maoris to 1840, says in Methodist areas, baptised chiefs
frequently preached at services and teachers including Simon Peter Matangi or
Tamati Waka Nene went on
missionary tours, sometimes among former enemies. “Maori leadership was crucial
in the diffusion of Christianity.”41
A perpetual print run
The arrival of CMS
missionary printer William Colenso and his equipment in December 1834
accelerated the output, starting with a Maori translation of Philippians
and Ephesians, then 5000 copies of Kawenata
Hou, followed by 27,000 copies of the Book
of Common Prayer in Maori. Within 5-years he had produced over 74,000 books
and pamphlets.
The Wesleyans were also printing New Testament books on
their press at Hokianga and the Catholic Mission at Kororareka had by October
1842, produced 6,000 copies of the 648-page Teachings
and prayers of the Roman Catholic Church.
Te Rongopai or
the ‘The Good News’ was progressively being studied, memorised, copied and
shared across the land. The demand was so great that larger CMS and WMS print
runs were eventually handled by British & Foreign Bible Society’s London
presses.
The CMS, having engaged in
peacemaking between neighbouring tribes
William Colenso around Waikato, had set up three stations in the Bay of Plenty with
the support
of chief Te Waharoa. In 1836, however, the
relative peace with Te Arawa was disrupted by the deliberate act of an
individual, rekindling old animosities. The
mission stations were right in the
path as Te Arawa war parties attacked, forcing the missionaries to flee. One
party escaping from Rev Brown’s Matamata station was surprised at their
overnight camp and an 11-year old girl named Tarore, the daughter of chief
Wiremu Ngakuku, who lost her life in the attack.
Rev. Alfred
Brown wrote that after evening prayers at the chapel, Ngakuku stood before his
tribespeople and quoted John 14:1, urging them not to be troubled because God
had prepared a place of ‘many mansions’ for the faithful. The next day Tarore
was buried and Ngakuku, despite his grief, surprised them with his words of
forgiveness:
“There lies my child; she has been
murdered as a payment for your bad conduct. But do not rise up to obtain
satisfaction for her. God will do that. Let this be the conclusion of the war
with Rotorua. Let peace be now made. My heart is not sad for Tarore, but for
you. You wished for teachers to come to you; they came, and now you are driving
them away. You are weeping for my daughter, but I am weeping for you — for
myself — for all of us. Perhaps this murder is a sign of God’s anger towards us
for our sins. Turn to Him; believe, or you will all perish.”42
Challenging encounter
Paora
Te Uita who had ripped the little book from a small flax kete (bag) around Tarore’s
neck, wanted to know what the strange markings were on the well-read edition of
St Luke, printed on the CMS press at Paihia by William Colenso. Ripahau (aka
Matahau), a former slave originally from Ngatiawa in Taranaki and well known to
Henry Williams as a promising student at the Bible school at Paihia, was among
those sharing the Te Arawa campfire when the inquiry was made.
He read the
stories, most likely the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, which speak of
forgiveness; a concept unfamiliar in Maori tradition, and reconciliation. This
made a deep impression on Te Uita who became ashamed of what he had done and
determined to take a dangerous course of action, to visit Tarore’s father Ngakuku
and ask his forgiveness. The result of his actions and Ngakuku’s restraining
influence, resulted in many years of peace being established between Waikato
and Te Arawa. Tamihana Te
Rauparaha
Meanwhile
Ripahau, the messenger who shared the “good news” with Te Uita, took portions
of Tarore’s Gospel of Luke and continued south to meet up with his people who
were now located on the Kapiti coast. Here others took an interest in what he
had learned from the missionaries and his ability to read from the little book.
Among those in his Bible study group were Katu Te Rauparaha, the son of warrior
chief Te Rauparaha and his cousin Matene Te Whiwhi-o-te-rangi, Wiremu Kingi Te
Rangitaake (Wi
Rangitaaki), Riwai Te Ahu, Rota Waitoa who was to become the first ordained
Maori minister, and several others.
Ripahau taught
these influential young men from Tarore’s gospel and eventually they went to
Kapiti Island to be separate from the continual preparations for war, acquiring
pencils and paper from a whaling station. They were determined to grasp the
essentials of writing and reading in their own language using any Bible-based
material they could obtain as their primary source.
Katu (later
baptised Tamihana) Te Rauparaha refused to follow his father into war and
instead pursued the gospel of peace. After going north to bring missionary
Octavius Hadfield to their territory, he and Te Whiwhi went to Ngai Tahu in the
South Island to apologise for the earlier slaughter by Ngati Toa.
In Waikato a
similar story had played out when Tamihana Tarapipi Te Waharoa, the son of
warlord Te
Waharoa, a student of Rev Alfred
Brown and his wife Charlotte, became a Christian convert in April 1835. He also
refused to follow in his father’s footsteps and dedicated himself to learning
the true meaning of this message of peace and forgiveness, gaining basic
literacy in his own language within six months.
When the
Waikato and Bay of Plenty mission stations were abandoned following the
skirmishes that cost Tarore her life, Tamihana remained behind teaching his own
Ngati Haua people and neighbouring tribes until peace was made and the
missionaries returned. He later established a village for fellow believers
called Peria, named after the Bereans in the book of Acts (Acts 17:11) who were
known for searching the scriptures daily to determine whether what was being
taught to them
was
true. A pre-requisite for living in Peria, a self-reliant model for peaceful
Maori co-existence, was obeying the 10 Commandments.
Tamihana, a
poet, statesman and influential leader, was responsible for founding the King
Movement, using his Bible in the coronation ceremonies of three Maori kings.
That same Bible, which was in his arms when he died, is still used for that
purpose today.
Trusted relationships built
Trusted relationships between
missionary and Maori were only achieved through daily interaction and the long
process of listening and observing in order to grasp the language and customs.
It wasn’t until the missionaries achieved economic
Tamihana Te Waharoa independence
and were no longer beholding to Maori for their security and supplies that real
progress was made.
The fact the
framework for the Gospel message was a tribal one (12 Tribes of Israel) based
around land, commandments, prayers, hymns and religious ritual (well Anglican,
Wesleyan and Catholic initially), must have resonated, along with the fact that
these literacy skills were not only useful for moral, behavioural and spiritual
guidance but assisted smarter trading and understanding of a rapidly changing
world.
Initially the
Gospel was dismissed as ‘an idle tale’; “Will you give us blankets if we
believe?” Then it became “we value the Word of God more than blankets and axes”.
The tide had begun to turn in a dramatic way from around 1834, as Māori went among
their own people with Christian ideas, stories and principles that were a
catalyst for powerful moral and social change.
Many of the old guard, hardened in
battle and holding fast to the advice of the old tohunga, resisted but in most
cases they still respected the missionaries. The next generation, grasping the
heart of the message, were now in ascendency and often refused to continue the
endless utu that was decimating their people.
In the end
Maori evangelised themselves; hundreds familiar with the gospel message,
prayers and hymns shared the Gospel down the East Coast to Wairarapa and
Wellington. In the South Island Rawiri Kingi was preaching from 1838 and with
assistance from Methodist, Anglican and Catholic teachers and their Maori
associates that region also responded strongly to the message of Jesus Christ.
By 1836 the
impact of the Christian message was so dramatic that New Zealand was considered
one of the most successful mission fields in the world. Across the country
Maori attendance at public worship services continued to grow. Even in areas
where missions had once been plundered and pillaged, the demand for books and
baptism grew exponentially. After 5000 copies of the New Testament printed on
the Paihia mission press had been distributed, the next print run of 10,000
from England also found an eager audience.43
One man who
walked 250 miles from Rotongia, Waikato in November 1839, is reported to have
said: “One thing only do I desire; it is
not a blanket, it is not anything that will pass away, but this is my great
desire — the word of God.”44
By September 1841 William Williams
put in an order for 3000 copies of the New Testament but only 497 had been
allocated for the East Coast. The message was similar elsewhere we want more
Bibles and writing equipment. By 1845 another 60,000 New Testaments had been
printed and by 1860 that print run had doubled.
The numbers game
There has been
a tendency for historians, including Keith Sinclair, to blame the missionaries
for “wrecking” the Maori social system with their “ideas...as destructive as
bullets”45 If the ‘wrecking’ had to do with bringing an end to
cannibalism and the constant cycle of utu or continual fear of breaking some
ancient tapu or offending the gods or tohunga then he may have a point.
The culturally challenging news that
all were equally loved by one God was indeed disruptive because it challenged
the hierarchical pantheon of gods (atua Maori), the role of ancestral spirits
and the often attendant fears and superstitions. It also had a levelling impact
on the ‘class’ system which elevated warriors, tohunga and others with
specialist skills above workers and slaves and in some cases women.
There was less
perceived need to take slaves, end the lives of female infants to bolster the
male population, or engage in cannibalism, which was typically related to utu
and the spoils of war. Māori, having been decimated through the Musket Wars and
disease, began to place more importance on the important role of women, not
only to replenish tribal numbers but to balance tribal life, which was
increasingly becoming agriculturally based.46
As the concept
of forgiveness caught hold, there was less inclination for neighbouring tribes
to go to war and they began to settle back into the old seasonal patterns,
spending more time raising crops and trading. You have to ask why prominent
chiefs would allow such sweeping changes to long-held customs such as utu or
freeing slaves when they did all the hard word in the fields to help tribes
prosper? The answer can only be because such chiefs were so convinced of the
message of the Gospel, they had a change of heart.
Quantifying Maori conversions to
Christianity is a contentious topic. According to Owens there were a great
variety of responses from Maori to Christian ideas. Some estimate 50% or more
considered themselves Christian but that definition can vary from “superficial
conformity” to “complete transformation” depending on denomination, the
missionary or mission school involved and the period of mission work in which
this commitment might have occurred.
CMS baptism
candidates were expected to abandon warfare, end cannibalism and polygamy,
observe Sunday (the Sabbath) as a day of rest, desist from other traditions
disapproved of by the missionaries, and release slaves. The Ten Commandments
were to be favoured over the principals of tapu (sacred, holy, set-apart), utu
and muru (plunder, confiscate,
take ritual compensation).47
Proving their
commitment was at times a relatively gruelling process, requiring a reasoned
knowledge of the redeeming work of Christ, familiarity with scripture,
recitation of prayer and catechisms and evidence of behavioural change. That’s
something many professed 21st Century Christians would struggle
with. The Catholics, and at times the Methodists, often took a more liberal
approach and were more forgiving of elements of Maori customs which the CMS
deemed unsuitable for Christians.
According to Erik Olssen and Marcia Stenson, around 30,000 Maori had been baptised by 1840.48 In 1845 George Clarke, who had become chief
Protector of the Aborigines, estimated that out of a total Maori population of
110,000, about 43,000 attended Anglican services regularly, 16,000 attended
Methodist services and 5,100 were associated with the Catholic mission.49
There is clear
evidence those early exchanges between missionary and Maori went deeper than
literal words on the page. The scriptures were considered sacred because they
related to the spiritual realm Maori were well familiar with, and they were
greatly revered by those who could grasp the insights, decode the parables and
recognise the timeless wisdom and truth.
What ended the wars?
While some have
suggested the growth of smartly constructed and heavily defended pas, military
parity between the main warlords, depletion of resources and sheer exhaustion
ended the Musket Wars, this fails to address the impact of the Christian faith
as a prime motivator of peaceful coexistence.
Wright, Belich,
Sinclair and others have challenged the idea of the missionaries as principal
peacemakers, claiming large scale interest in Christianity only followed when
peace was made. It was “quite clear” to Wright, that Christianity did not cause
the decline50 and Belich asserts, ‘peace … made Christianity more than
Christianity … made peace’.51
This appears to
be an almost deliberate attempt to minimise missionary impact, along with
similar claims that Maori simply decided to stop engaging in the centuries old
practices of cannibalism or taking slaves because they thought it was a good
idea. The evidence is unconvincing.
Moon declares
that from the 1820s the missionaries reforming efforts were on the cusp of the
forces for civilisation that put cannibalism, “a socialized, cultural practice”,
in retreat.52
From 1823 Henry
Williams and others literally took their lives in their hands confronting
chiefs on the warpath or stepping between warring tribes to try and convince
them of a better way to resolve their differences. The fact that they were
often successful added to the mana or respect they commanded. From 1827, after
Hongi Hika had died, Maori began actively seeking missionary mediation, first in
the Far North and then in Waikato and the Bay of Plenty, where a number of
conflicts were ended, averted or significantly reduced in scale through
missionary intervention.
These were
still early days for Maori conversion, but the message of peace prepared the
ground for negotiation. Incentives included having a missionary come live among
them and the promise of refocusing their energies on achieving prosperity
through increased trade opportunities.
In some cases
it was Maori Christians themselves, for example Piripi Taumata-a-Kura,
promoting the concept of peace and forgiveness, who bought an end to enmity
between Ngai Porou and Whanau a Apanui.
Christian
influence created space for missionary mediators to work with chiefs to find
common ground, often achieved that through acquiring land being fought over as
a buffer zone. In several prominent cases this later became a source of
misunderstanding and contention with that land then seized by the Crown or
claimed as personal property.
Peace not pieces
Peace is not
something that just happens when both sides are worn out, it requires
negotiation and agreement on equitable terms so no-one loses face, otherwise
when strength is recovered, accusations resume and weapons are picked up again.
The fact that many Maori initially
heard the message of love, forgiveness and peace from their own people in a way
that made cultural sense was an important part of why Christianity was a major
factor in ending the Musket Wars.
According to
Michael King, the Musket Wars peaked between 1822 -1836 with some serious
activity in 1832-33 when the whole country was being ravaged by its impact.
Over 30-years at least 20,000 Maori lives were lost, many more than any other
war New Zealanders have taken part in since.53
At the time of
the Treaty signing there were less than 2000 Europeans in the country and a
rapidly diminishing Maori population, possibly 70,000 to 90,000,54
at least 50% having made some Christian commitment.
While
inter-tribal skirmishes continued around the country until around 1842, the
Musket Wars were well and truly over, peace had broken out at least until new
reasons were found for dispute. These were mostly ignited by ill-informed or
unscrupulous European land claims and a failure to agree on the protections and
promises afforded in the Treaty of Waitangi as the founding document for a new
era.
Conclusion
Restoring the faith
While the
Musket Wars were almost entirely a Maori business; a climactic and horrific
30-year extension to centuries of unfinished business, there was inflammatory
European interference along the way.
The willingness
of sailors, whalers, sealers and traders and even missionaries to sell muskets
shifted the power base, facilitating swifter and more deadly attacks over
greater distances. The absence of Maori from some territories and the confusion
about who owned land and who had the right to sell, was exploited by private
investors including the Rhodes brothers and the Wakefields.
Prime culprit
was the Wakefield-led New Zealand Company, with its stated objective to acquire
land at the lowest possible price and sell for huge profits on behalf of
English investors. Before the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi they had
encouraged ship loads of settlers to emigrate with the promise of unencumbered
land and sections and a new life in this Pacific paradise.
These ‘dirty
deeds done dirt cheap’ further complicated ownership questions that remain at
the root of the many injustices currently being worked through in the Treaty
settlement process. Understanding the Musket Wars is essential when placing
legal documents before the Waitangi Tribunal for Crown settlements affirming
whakapapa (genealogy) connections to the land and its wider history.
For Maori this
process is an opportunity to hear in more detail how tribal groups came to be
in a particular area and what happened to their ancestors but it can also stir
up old rivalries and bitterness about who did what to whom. In some Treaty
claims such issues are dealt with more sensitively than others, with claimants
for example referring to ‘another tribe’ in relation to invasions and boundary
definitions, when that tribe could easily be named.
Circuit breaker needed
Treaty
settlements always come with an apology from the Crown and an admission of
wrongdoing alongside the return of a small percentage of land, and an agreed
monetary sum to help restore mana and dignity. While financial and other
reparations go a considerable way to compensating for past injustice,
inter-tribal forgiveness and reconciliation, as modelled by Maori and
missionary heroes of the faith, may also need to be applied to events of the
Musket Wars.
Forgiveness,
combined with the best of Maori tradition, through open mediation and a
generosity of heart that extends grace and goodwill, can be the circuit-breaker
that ensures old grievances have no toehold for the future. As London-based
rabbi Jonathan Sacks says in his book The
Dignity of Difference, forgiveness is the refusal to be defined by
circumstance. “It represents our ability to change course, reframe the
narrative of the past and create an unexpected set of possibilities for the future.”
He continues:
“In a world without forgiveness,
evil begets evil, harm generates harm and there is no way short of exhaustion
or forgetfulness of breaking the sequence. Forgiveness breaks the chain. It
introduces into the logic of interpersonal encounter the unpredictability of
grace. It represents a decision not to do what instinct and passion urge us to
do. It answers hate with a refusal to hate, animosity with generosity. Few more
daring ideas have ever entered the human situation. Forgiveness means we are
not destined endlessly to repay the grievances of yesterday. It is the ability
to live with the past without being held captive by the past. It would not be
an exaggeration to say that forgiveness is the most compelling testimony to
human freedom.”55
Forgiveness is a
dominant biblical theme; it’s a choice to rise above circumstance through an
act of faith that ultimately sets both parties free. It is far more than a
technique for conflict resolution. It is an intervention that nullifies guilt
and blame and enables restoration. There may be some confession of wrong intent
or apology for past actions; an atonement either in reparation or goodwill. In
ancient times this may have required an animal sacrifice and associated rituals
but the Gospel that Maori placed so much store in, represented Christ as the
ultimate sacrifice to end all sacrifices, standing in the gap so men and women
and even people groups, nations and tribes could be restored to God and each
other.
The Christian
concept of forgiveness, a move from legalism and revenge to reconciliation and
paying it forward; from “an eye for an eye” (Exodus 21:24) to “love thy
neighbour as thyself” or “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”
(Matthew 7:12/Luke 6:31), was unheard of in the Maori world prior to the
arrival of the missionaries.
Jesus spoke
much about the power of forgiveness: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37, NIV) and when the apostle
Peter asked him “how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against
me? Up to seven times?” Jesus
answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew
18:21-22, NIV).
But
there was always a sense of needing to make reparations for the past as part of
what is meant to truly forgive. Take
Zacchaeus the Jewish tax gatherer, working on behalf of Rome to defraud his own
people and taking a cut for himself on the side. When he met Jesus, his life
was transformed. He stood up and said “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of
my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I
will pay back four times the amount.” (Luke 19:8).
Even in his last breath hanging on the cross
at Golgotha (the place of the skull) Jesus practiced what he preached, seeking
mercy for those who had falsely accused and mocked him: “Father forgive them,
for they know not what they do” (Luke 23: 33-35).
Glad Tidings:
Paula Newman To suggest Maori were somehow tricked into the new faith and the
subsequent abandoning of
longstanding cultural practices like utu,
cannibalism,
polygamy and taking slaves, undermines their mana, intelligence and capacity
for freewill thinking. Far too much
effort has gone into portraying Maori as compliant and gullible and painting
the pioneering missionaries as agents of cultural destruction and colonisation,
rather than celebrating the pre-Treaty transformation that resulted in relative
peace across the country.
Although
Christianity, with its faith in one God (Io, Ihoa, Atua, Matua or Jehovah),
brought its own set of rituals and rules, commandments and orders of service,
it established a new türangawaewae (foundation or place on which to stand) for
Māori faithful.
Jesus Christ,
as prime mediator or kaiwhakaora (Saviour) and model for living, with his call
to peace and reconciliation is liberating, pan-tribal, and still has immense
appeal for those who envision Pakeha and Maori as equal partners in securing a
more equitable, just and loving future in Aotearoa.
Perhaps there
is yet a pivotal role for faithful 21st century Maori believers to
act as peacemakers and mediators in their own tribal circumstance and for the
wider body of believers — ‘the Church’ — to offer focused prayer, support and
practical assistance for pan-tribal reconciliation and healing of these deep
wounds in our history.
Sources:
Ballara,
Angela, Musket Wars, Land Wars or
‘Tikanga’? - Warfare in Māori Society in the Early Nineteenth
Century,
Penguin, Auckland, 2003
Ballara, Angela, Proud to Be
White?: A Survey of Pakeha Prejudice in New Zealand, Heinemann, Auckland,
1986
Barton, R. J., Earliest New Zealand: The Journals and Correspondence of the Rev.
John Butler, Palamontain and Petherick, 1927, Masterton
Belich, James, Making Peoples…,
Penguin Group, 2007
Binney, Judith. The Legacy of
Guilt: A Life of Thomas Kendall, Oxford University Press, 1968
Buddle, Reverend Thomas, The Maori King Movement in New Zealand,
The New Zealander Office, 1860, Auckland
Carleton, Hugh, Life of Henry Williams, Archdeacon of Waimate,
vol. 1, Reed, Wellington, 1948
Davidson and Lineham, Transplanted
Christianity, Dunmore press, 1989, p.47
Elsmore, Bronwyn, Like Them That
Dream, Reed, 2000,
Keeley, Lawrence H., War Before
Civilization: the Myth of the Peaceful Savage, Oxford University Press, 1996
King, Michael, Penguin History of
New Zealand, Penguin, Auckland, 2003
Moon, Paul, A Savage Country: The
Untold Story of New Zealand in the 1820s, Penguin, 2012
Moon, Paul, That Horrid Practice,
Penguin
Newman, Keith, Bible & Treaty: Missionaries’ Among the Maori (Penguin, 2009)
Newman, Keith, Beyond Betrayal: Trouble in the Promised Land, (Penguin, 2013)
Olssen, Erik and Stenson, Marcia, A Century of Change: New Zealand, 1800–1900,
Longman Paul, 1989
Owens, J.M.R, Christianity and the
Maoris to 1840, The Australian Journal of Politics and History, Volume XIV, No.
1, April, 1968
Sacks, Jonathan, The Dignity of
Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilisations, Continuum, London, 2003
Schwimmer, Eric, The World of the Maori, A. H. & A.
W. Reed, Wellington,1966,
Sinclair, Keith, History of New
Zealand, Penguin, 1991
Williams, William, Christianity Among the New Zealanders, 1989
reprint, Banner of Truth Trust
Wright, Harrison M., New Zealand 1769-1840: Early Years of Western
Contact, Cambridge, Mass., 1959
NB:
Material from the early missionary and Maori encounters have in places been
adapted from the author’s previous works Bible
& Treaty and Beyond Betrayal.
The right of Keith Newman to be
identified as author of this work in term of section 6 of the Copyright Act
1994 is hereby asserted © Please seek permission before quoting from any
significant section of this work in any other work - Keith Newman wordman@wordworx.co.nz
1 Elsmore,
Bronwyn, Like Them That Dream, Reed 2000, p43
2 Schwimmer,
Eric, The World of the Maori, Wellington,
1966, p. 106, cited in Owens, p.34
3 Keeley,
Lawrence H., War Before Civilization: the Myth of the Peaceful Savage, , Oxford University Press, 1996
4 Ballara,
Angela, Musket Wars, Land Wars or
‘Tikanga’? - Warfare in Māori Society in the Early Nineteenth Century, Penguin,
Auckland, 2003, pp.11-12
5 D.U. Urlich, The introduction and diffusion of firearms in New
Zealand: 1800-1840, The Journal of the
Polynesian Society, 1970, pp.399-401
6 Urlich, pp.399-401
7 Ballara,
Angela. 'Hongi Hika', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara updated
30-Oct-2012
8
'The Boyd incident', URL:
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz citing Marsden’s diary
9
Williams, William, Christianity Among the
New Zealanders, 1989 reprint, Banner of Truth Trust, pp.10-11 10
Newman, Bible & Treaty, Penguin, 2009, pp.52-53
11 Newman,
Bible & Treaty, p.55
12 Salmond,
Dame Anne, 2014 Rutherford Lectures
13 Barton,
R. J, The Maori King Movement in New Zealand, Rev Thomas Buddle, New Zealander
Office, 1860, Auckland, p.4 14 Salmond, 2014 Rutherford Lectures
15 Butler,
Rev John, Earliest New Zealand: The Journals and Correspondence of the Rev.
John Butler, R. J. Barton,
Palamontain and Petherick,
1927, Masterton, p.172
16 Moon,
Paul (2012). A Savage Country: The Untold Story of New Zealand in the 1820s,
Penguin, 2013, pp 65-78.
17 Binney,
Judith. The Legacy of Guilt: A Life of Thomas Kendall, Oxford University Press,
1968, p.79
18 Taylor,
Richard, The Past and Present of New Zealand with its Prospects for the Future,
William Macintosh, 1868, London, p.
264
19 Newman,
Bible & Treaty, p 58
20 Basil
Keane. 'Musket wars - Warfare from the north', Te Ara, updated 12-Dec-12
21 Moon,
Savage Country, p.28
22 King,
Michael, Penguin History of New Zealand, Penguin, p135
23 Elsmore,
Bronwyn, Like Them That Dream, p43
24 http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/musket-wars/further-information
25 D.U. Urlich, pp.399-401
26 Elsmore,
Like Them that Dream, p44.
27 Basil
Keane. 'Musket wars - Waikato', Te Ara, updated 4-Jun-13
28 http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/musket-wars/overview
29 Osborne,
John, Brown Bess muskets, , 4 July 2007,
http://www.ruapekapeka.co.nz/sites/default/files/documents/brown-bess-muskets.pdf
30 Urlich p.408
31 Williams
William, Te Ara: Encyclopedia of New Zealand,
www.teara.govt.nz
32 Carleton,
Hugh, Life of Henry Williams, Archdeacon
of Waimate, vol. 1, p. 53
33 George
Clarke, January 1826, in The Missionary Register, December,1826, 612–13, cited
in A.K. Davidson & P. Lineham, Transplanted
Christianity, p. 43 34
Moon, A Savage country, pp. 65-66
35 Fitzgerald,
Caroline, "Journal of Marianne Williams, (17 March 1828)". Marianne
Williams: Letters from the Bay of Islands.
Penguin, New Zealand, 2004.
p. 101
36 Ballara,
Angela, Proud to Be White?: A Survey of Pakeha Prejudice in New Zealand,
Heinemann, Auckland, 1986, p.375
37 Multiple
sources cited in He Whakaputanga me te Tiriti The Declaration and the Treaty:
The Report on Stage 1 of the Te Paparahi o Te Raki Inquiry Chapter 5: Contested Ground
38 W.
Yate, Waimate to BFBS, 27 November 1833, cited in Bible & Society, Lineham,
p21
39 Strachan,
Joseph A., The Life of Reverend Samuel Leigh, Wesleyan Mission Society, London,
1870, p.317
40 Wright,
Harrison M., New Zealand 1769-1840: Early
Years of Western Contact, Cambridge, Mass., 1959, pp. 142-7
41 Owens,
J.M.R, Christianity and the Maoris to 1840, The Australian Journal of Politics
and History, Volume XIV, No. 1, April, 1968
42 Williams,
Christianity Among the New Zealanders,
pp. 232–45
43 Lineham,
Bible & Society pp. 17–19, and
Williams, Christianity Among the New
Zealanders
44 BFBS,
37th Report, also cited by Browne,
History, vol. 2, p. 451
45 Sinclair,
Keith, History of New Zealand, Penguin, 1991, p42
46 Elsmore,
Mana from Heaven, pp. 7–8
47 Williams, Christianity
among the New Zealanders, pp 63–64, 117, 156–157, 210–211; Ballara, Taua, pp 421–422, 431–432
48 Olssen,
Erik and Stenson, Marcia, A Century of
Change: New Zealand, 1800–1900, Longman Paul, 1989, p38
49 Davidson
and Lineham, Transplanted Christianity, Dunmore press, 1989, p.47
50 Wright, New Zealand,
1769–1840, pp 180–181
51 Belich, James, Making
Peoples, Penguin, 2007, p
168
52 Moon,
Paul, That Horrid Practice, p.117
53 Michael
King, History of New Zealand, Penguin, p139
54 Ian
Pool and Tahu Kukutai. 'Taupori Māori – Māori population change - Population
changes, 1769–1840', Te Ara
55 Sacks,
Jonathan, The Dignity of Difference, How to Avoid the Clash of Civilisations,
Continuum, London, 2003, p.179
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