Focus on history for Waitangi Day

Press, 4 February 1987, Page 44

Focus on history for Waitangi Day

The Okains Bay museum has provided a focal venue for celebrations of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi since February 6, 1976. A representative of the Governor-General has attended this South Island ceremony since 1978. The museum has many working exhibits on show during Waitangi Day providing an insight into the skills and activities of our past, both Maori and European. The programme for this year includes such attractions as a bullock team, flax weaving, carving, songs, dances, horse shoeing, wheelwrighting, printing and saddle making. There will be special features such as the paddling of the war canoe Kahukaka up the river at 11.30 a.m„ and preceding this the arrival of the Governor-General’s representative at 10.30 a.m. The Wizard and also the Te Wai Pounamu girls’ choir will be present on the day. Other events the organisers are keen to publicise include vintage tractor rides, sheep shearing, children’s races, a lolly scramble, and the mock battle from Alf’s Imperial Army. More realistic martial arts demonstrations will be provided by exponents of karate and jujitsu.

A refreshment tent will be open to the public. Music for the day will

be provided by the Akaroa silver band.

A likely culinary highlight of the day for those attending will be the opening of the hangi at 12.30.

The Okains Bay museum has three new acquisitions to display to those attending the Waitangi Day ceremonies. One recent gift to the museum is a baby’s cradle made by Mr Pedar Haakensen, who arrived at Le Bons Bay fron Denmark in approximately J 872. The cradle was presented by his great-great-great-grandson, Mr Peter McKay. Mr Haakensen was one of the original pioneers of Le Bons Bays period of European settlement. Along with two friends, Messrs Rasmussen and Fredricksen, he had fought in the GermanDanish war of the 1860 s when Denmark lost its lands of Schleswig-Hol-stein. By all accounts a resilient and resourceful people this group set to and cleared their sixty acre farms of heavy bush at the head of Le Bons Valley. Both their homes and furniture were constructed from pitsawn timber. One of the original homes still has its wooden bath in use.

The recently-presented cradle. had reportedly been used to rock four

generations of Haakensen descendants to sleep. The Okains Bay museum also gained another cradle with historical ties to the area in 1986, from Mrs Marie Dunningham (nee Sperght). The original Sperghts, James and Ellen, moved into Okains to enable Mr Sperght to teach at the chapel school in 1866. The couple had brought their cradle from England with them and used it for their children and their descendants. Unlike the rustic cradle from the Haakensen farm this item is rated as, “a typical middle-class item.” In the summer of 1972 Mr John Stuart strolled across the mud flats of the partly drained Lake Forsyth-Wairewa, at Little River. To control his dog he picked up a stick and was amazed to see it was Maori made.

A ko or garden weeder from this area is one of the most intriguing items recently found. Obviously made by stone tools, and most probably washed down from kumara gardens where the Maori reserve land is, it is another link in the chain proving kumara were grown locally. On the paddle end is a typical crescent moon relating to the planting season, a New Zealand-wide motif.

The canoe paddle, found at the same time, was gifted to the museum

by John Stuart on December 5, 1986, when the Akaroa School children were brought to Okains by him for a hui with the .local children.