Maori graveyard to be reserve

Press, 9 May 1981, Page 15

Maori graveyard to be reserve

Onawe Peninsula, the grave of hundreds of Banks Peninsula Ngai Tahu slaughtered by Te Rauparaha and his .warriors in 1832, has been bought by the Government The price was $30,000. This sum was finally agreed to recently after months of negotiations between the Minister of Lands, Mr Venn Young, and the Kay family of Onawe Farm, owners of the peninsula since 1908. For $30,000, the Government. on behalf of the people, has gained a potentially valuable piece of land. Most of the 22.9 ha peninsula is sheltered from the southwest winds, making it excellent lambing country. If subdivided, the value of the land would run to many times the amount paid. Mr Douglas Kay, who moved from Okains Bay to Onawe Farm with his family 73 years ago, is philosophical about the deal. As soon as the Lands and

Survey Department first ringed the land in 1972 for a reserve, it has been unable to appreciate in value, even though Mr Kay then refused to sell. In addition, the land could no longer be ploughed for cropping and the native bush could not be cleared. Now, years later, Mr Kay has been happy to sell — the farm could no longer use the land for anything except grazing. Idealists within the department wanted even to prevent this, but Mr Kay argued that it was necessary to graze the land to keep the grass down and the fire risk to a minimum. The department is to be commended in its recognition of the importance of Onawe Peninsula and in its moves to set the area aside for the benefit of all. However, to many Ngai Tahu people, the peninsula represents more than a place of “historical interest?’ They feel the episode is more than a quaint tale to be repeated

to establish the raconteur’s roots as being in Godzone, or in defence of the criticism that New Zealand has no history. A great number of Ngai Tahu ancestors died there in' a savage struggle and lie there still. According to the history books, the Banks Peninsula Maoris began preparing their defence against Te Rauparaha in 1831. They had heard that the mighty warlord and his northern warriors already had Kaiapohia under seige and had turned the sights of their muskets on the Ngai Tahu of the Peninsula. A large fortress was built on Onawe, designed to shelter the entire Maori population of the area, old and young, men, women, and children. The fighting force is thought to have numbered about 400. • About six months later, fugitives from Kaiapohia brought the news that the pa

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had fallen and that Te Rauparaha was preparing to leave for Banks Peninsula. Soon after, the war party was spied paddling up Akaroa Harbour towards Onawe.

Te Rauparaha’s Ngatitoa warriors beached in Barrys Bay, while his Te Atiawa party landed closer to Onawe, the two being separated by forest and swamp. The Ngai Tahu, led by Tan-gata-hara, attacked Te Atiawa, but the Ngatitoa were alerted and they came floundering across the mud firing their muskets. Tahatiti from Onawe was killed and the Ngai Tahu retreated to their pa. Te Rauparaha is said to have come right to the gates, and would have been shot by Puaka, who had him in his sights through a loophole, if Tara, the eldest son of Pita

BRONWYN JONES

Te Hori, had not thrust his musket aside.

to buy the peninsula from private ownership for a reserve. And from as far back as Mr Kay can remember, no Maori has sought permission to go on the land. One reason given by a Little River Ngai Tahu woman is that the Maoris are extremely bitter about the loss of their land, which was taken by the pioneering pakeha for almost nothing. Pride prevents them from asking anything of their pakeha neighbours. “I wouldn’t ask to go on their land, and I’d expect them to keep off mine,” she says. The bitterness is heightened by the fact that if the early Europeans had not introduced firearms to Aotearoa the fatalities at Onawe would have been far fewer.

Kaiapohia captives were brought to the gates to persuade the Ngai Tahu to open them so they could enter. In the confusion that ensued when the Ngai Tahu saw their kin, the attackers managed to get inside the pa and nearly all the Ngai Tahu were killed. Some were taken to the Barrys Bay flat and slaughtered there; only a few escaped. The South Island warriors later regrouped and followed Taiaroa' and Tu-hawaiki to give Te Rauparaha and his men a run for their money near Picton, and Banks Peninsula was almost totally depopulated for some time. Although Onawe is a vital part of Ngai Tahu history, it was the Department of Lands and Survey, not the Maoris, which began moves

death is enough. Because of the mass slaughter and the subsequent flight of escapers, she doubted that anyone had had time to lift the tapu.

Certainly, she would not allow her children or grandchildren to go on the peninsula. Her husband, a Ngai Tahu, said his life was not much influenced by the Maori way, but it was coincidental that although he gathered seafood from many places around Akaroa Harbour. he never went to Onawe, she says. Mr Joe Karetai. of Little River, a Wairewa County councillor who is on the southern section of the Maori Council and the Maori Land Board, and is the Maori Council’s representative on the Historic Places Trust archaelogical committee, is in a better position to know definitely whether Onawe is still tapu. But when contacted recently he said that he did not have time to speak to “The Press” and said he would give no further information on Maori history to reporters unless paid. . In a previous interview, however, when asked how he felt about Onawe becoming a reserve, he said that he did not like the thought of the public walking over the faces of his ancestors. People already had a lot of land to walk over, and he would rather the peninsula be left as a quiet spot where his ancestors could sleep in peace. The Little River woman already quoted said that the public should not be denied access if the reserve was controlled and looked after. The Lands and Survey Department has not yet decided what kind of reserve the peninsula will be. Onawe Farm, Ltd, has grazing rights for a year, and permission must still be sought before going on the land. In the next 12 months or so, a management plan for Onawe will be drawn up, taking into account any existing tapu, according to Mr Brian Sly, the assistant commissioner of Crown lands for Canterbury.

Another reason, given by a Maori woman living at Akaroa, is that places where people have died become automatically tapu; one