TE PAAHI – A BADGE OF HONOUR

Te Paahi, a visionary lived and instilled into his people the doctrine of peace and welcomed Christianity, trade missions and colonisation as the shadow of change. He probably lost his life in 1810 defending those virtues.

Karanga rang out across a freshly mown hilltop, to receive us to the site of Te Paahi’s home at Rangihoua in The Bay of Islands.  Our procession, bearing a small medallion lost for two centuries and earlier this year turned up at Sotheby’s in London for auction. We carried the small box, like a body in an open casket as kuia called us emotions filling the space where the taonga was laid on a korowai draped table. One kuia later told me, “We have waited two hundred years for this home-coming.”

There are moments in life never to be forgotten.  This weekend is one. Standing on this holy rise and looking across Pewhairangi, Te Paahi’s legacy for peace on earth and goodwill to all people resonated across a contrasting landscape of eternal peace and materialism; here an entire peninsular manicured to the inth of grass, the clash of two worlds is still evident, a moment both liberating and painfully sad; liberating in that whanau and hapu released from some of the grief they have endured.  And painful in kuia and koroma looking out across a patrimony no longer in their reach.  They called. Prayed. And sang hymns and waiata as well provided kai as a holy thanks-giving for this place, treasured waters, islands and land. But it was for the medallion they were shedding tears of joy and sadness. For them and us this was no ordinary journey. Thanks to Te Papa Tongarewa and Tamaki Paenga Hira for allowing this healing to take place. In this setting, words have power:  Te Wairua, Te Ihi, Te Mana, Te Wehi and Te Tapu ...  power, elegance, in moments of holiness conferred upon our tiny lives.

We were richly welcomed into the heart and soul of Ngati Rua, Ngati Torehina and later at Te Tii Marae by

Ngati Rehia

We gazed in awe.  We listened in awe watched by Maunga Matakaa.  From here we look across places with indelible layers of history written into the landscape.  Another told us, “You’re looking at where Marsden preached the first Christmas sermon across there at Oihi in 1814.”  The coastal coves and seaside cliff tops so redolent with living memories of our colonial past.

Te Paahi spent time in Port Jackson where he met and befriended Samuel Marsden. He and Marsden had long discussions on religion. Marsden was so impressed with Te Pahi's 'clear mind', and his eagerness to hear about English laws and customs, that he began to plan the establishment of a Church Missionary Society mission at Te Puna under Te Paahi's protection.  He also became good friends with Phillip Clarke, the governor of New South Wales who minted the medallion to weld their friendship.  To ensure a safe return for Te Paahi and his sons, King put at his disposal the Lady Nelson, which departed on 24 February 1806. Te Paahi and his many acquisitions arrived at Te Puna safely.  The Lady Nelson, loaded with spars and seed potatoes sailed back.  Te Paahi was quick to grab new opportunities

Te Ara, the son of a rangatira from Whangaroa, asked to work his passage home on a ship. An incident occurred which resulted in him being flogged. One source says that he refused orders claiming poor health and noble birth.  Others state that the ship's cook accidentally threw some pewter spoons overboard and falsely accused Te Ara of stealing them to avoid being flogged.   Upon reaching Whangaroa, Te Ara reported the indignities to his people showing them the whip marks on his back. In accordance with Māori custom, utu was necessary to restore mana. Under British law, whipping was the common punishment for minor crimes.  In Māori tradition, the son of a chief was a privileged figure who did not bow to an outsider's authority. Physical punishment of a chief's son, though justified by British law caused the chief to suffer a loss of mana which required utu.  Alexander Berry, the ship’s surgeon in a letter describing the event, said: "The captain had been rather too hasty in his ruling."

 Late in 1809 the new nation gasped when a 395 ton brigantine convict ship called at Whangaroa to load spars when on the third day, the Boyd was taken by vengeful Maori and the crew killed except three. The cargo was plundered and the ship burnt to the water-line. It was concluded that Te Paahi was responsible. The whalers too were inclined to believe in Te Pahi's guilt. 

What happened?  Tara, chief at Kororareka, the rival anchorage to that of Te Puna, did his best to convince the authorities that it was Te Paahi.  In retaliation, ostensibly to release captives, the crews of five whaling ships took Te Paahi's island by force on 26 March 1810.  About 60 of his people were killed and his property destroyed. Te Paahi, although wounded, escaped. But within days, he died from a wound suffered in the fighting. Marsden, convinced by accounts given to him by Nga Puhi leaders Ruatara and Hongi Hika in 1814, made strenuous efforts to clear his friend’s name.  He considered Te Paahi had been confused with a rival chief, Te Puhi of a Whangaroa hapu, Ngati Uru who raised The Boyd.

Te Paahi paved the way for missionaries to come to Aotearoa New Zealand by providing friendship, security, safety and land.  It wasn’t hard to imagine that the central issue was land - that is, an attitude to land.

 Maori have traditionally exploited their lands just as other peoples have done. When Te Paahi and his people got hold of Pakeha agricultural and fishing technologies in the early 1800s, they did it better than settlers.  What made it different was land wasn’t an item of individual ownership nor a disposable commodity.  Instead, land was the very abstract nexus of Turangawaewae, inherited rights to occupy and raise crops and families, but also to fish and snare and do other things.  The one thing you couldn’t do with it was to dispose of it.  It was a trust handed down.  The whole community, tribe or hapu lived as one with whenua as Kaitiaki, a different thing to ownership.

It’s now evening, and we’re called into the ancestral house, ‘Tino Rangatiratanga’, again we are flanked by rangatahi and mokopuna keen to view and touch their tipuna in the reawakening episodes of their tribal history unfolding right before them.  Tribal elders of Ngati Rua, Ngati Torehina and Ngati Rehia were bonded together by taonga – a time traveller come home. 

The memory of Te Paahi has survived the shadow of change.

Extraordinary.  How a small medallion, no bigger that a fifty-cent coin can do so much to bring disparate members of Ngati Rua, Ngati Torehina and Ngati Rehia together in a reunion of spirit, mind and body. As with Te Paahi, the medallion represents a pact of goodwill, trust and peace.

Before we left, we gathered inside the meeting house for Poroporoaki, a poignant moment as the children filed past and gently touched the taonga in mediation.  Another exquisite moment to take away.

Redemption is a huge issue that face us globally.  One of the most important things that take place in the hearts of the offended is the release from unresolved grief.  In the children today, Te Paahi’s legacy of Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all People lives on.  We are left feeling richer. 

Ae! He honore.