The Polynesian explorer Kupe returned to Hawaiki on his canoe Matawhaorua from Hokianga, providing one possible explanation for the name of the harbour, from the full name Te Hokianga-nui-a-Kupe, the great returning place of Kupe. Nukutawhiti re-adzed Kupe’s canoe, which accordingly was renamed Ngatokimatawhaorua, and in company with Ruanui in the canoe Mamari sailed to New Zealand. The descendants of Nukutawhiti are Ngapuhi, while Ruanui’s descendants are Te Rarawa and Te Aupouri. Te Rarawa occupied the northern side of the lower Hokianga, and land further north to Kaitaia, while Ngapuhi occupied the southern side of the harbour, and expanded to the east.
Te Rarawa is now a predominantly Northland west coast iwi. Its tribal rohe stretches the entire northern side of the Hokianga Harbour to the western side of Mangamuka, north through Pamapuria, Kaitaia to Maimaru, west to Te Oneroa a Tohe and then south to Mitimiti, Whangape and back to the Hokianga.
Among the first Pakeha to visit Hokianga were the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries Thomas Kendall and John King, who came overland from the Bay of Islands in June and July 1819. Lee comments that the only identifiable places they described are on the southern side of the harbour, which were more accessible than the settlements on the northern side of the harbour.
The first Christian missionaries to set up a mission in the Hokianga were the Wesleyan Missionary Society Methodists who set up their mission at Mangungu on the southern shore in 1827. The Methodists had had six very difficult years struggling at the first mission in Kaeo on the Whangaroa Harbour from 1821, where they made not a single convert. After a series of muru events, they fled from Kaeo in the dark of night in fear of their lives. The mission was sacked behind them. Seeking refuge first with the Anglican missionaries at Paihia, they then sailed for Sydney. But they were not easily deterred. In Sydney they held discussions with Patuone, a leading Ngapuhi chief, who invited them to return with him from Sydney, to set up a mission under his protection on land he would provide at Mangungu. And so they sailed into Hokianga, and came to establish their mission here.
Bishop Jean Baptiste Francoise Pompallier led a group of Catholic Marist missionaries to the Hokianga in 1838. After considering several locations, on 11 September 1839 he purchased 150 acres at Purakau, on the northern shore of the Hokianga.
While there have been many exceptions, for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Maori religious observance in the Hokianga followed the pattern established by these two mission stations, with the northern Hokianga becoming predominantly Catholic, while the southern side had many Methodist settlements. The Catholic faith is still a large part of the culture and traditions of Maori in the northern Hokianga. The first church for Pakeha Anglicans was established in Kohukohu, but that was not until 1890, with the development of the timber milling town at Kohukohu (St Mary’s, NZHPT Category II Register no. 443).
While the CMS missionaries were content to leave the Hokianga to be proselytised by their Wesleyan colleagues, Anglican missions were spreading elsewhere in Northland. In November 1832 CMS missionaries travelled north from the Bay of Islands to meet Panakareao, an influential Te Rarawa leader at his residence at Rangaunu on the north east coast. He accompanied them to his father’s settlement at Kaitaia, and pointed out suitable land for the missionaries to occupy. It was agreed that they would establish a new mission at Kaitaia. In so doing, Panakareao out-manoeuvred other Te Rarawa leaders.
Panakareao soon became a zealous convert to Christianity. He was baptised with his wife, Ereanora (Eleanor), on 20 November 1836 at Kaitaia. In 1837 he sent a messenger to the Bay of Islands with a gold piece to procure for him a copy of the recently printed Maori New Testament. With this he travelled from village to village in the north, often staying away from home a week at a time. Puckey gave him credit for converting many northern groups to Christianity. Thus while many Te Rarawa of Hokianga became Catholic through the influence of the Marist and subsequently Mill Hill priests based at Purakau, some of Te Rarawa became Anglican through the influence of Panakareao and the Kaitaia CMS mission.
The first Anglican church in the wider area is believed to have been Holy Trinity at Whangape, first built in 1847, though the church there now was a replacement built in 1922 (NZHPT Deficient Registration, no. 79). Ripeka Tapu was the first Anglican church to be built in the Hokianga.
The Waiparera Block of 15 acres was granted in Crown Grant on 27 June 1868 following a hearing before Judge Maning in Rawene on 13 November 1867. This land was set aside for a church by Herewini Te Toko and Wiremu Tana Papahia in 1867. Te Toko, who lived at Pupuwai south of Waiparera was a leading chief of Te Rarawa, who had signed the Treaty of Waitangi. He was Te Rarawa of Te Patutoka hapu. In 1903 he claimed the whole Whakarapa block based on his descent from ancestors Te Reinga and Te Pekatahi. Wiremu Tana Papahia and his father Papahia had also signed the Treaty of Waitangi as leaders of Te Rarawa with Herewini Te Toko. W T Papahia’s son would later be a priest at Ripeka Tapu. W T Papahia gave 7 or 8 acres to Bishop Pompallier in 1839 for his Roman Catholic converts at Tairutu, south-west of Orongotea.
The land for the church was vested in Piripi Patiki. Patiki was stationed at Hokianga Heads as the Anglican priest from 1871 until his death in 1881. Piripi (Philip) King Karawai Patiki was Ngapuhi from Mangakahia, Kaikohe, born about 1811 . His education included a period at the Kerikeri Mission in 1834, and at St Stephens College in Auckland in 1859. He was also taught by Rev. Joseph Matthews at the CMS Mission in Kaitaia. After serving in roles as evangelist at North Cape and catechist at Whangape, where he was a distinguished evangelist amongst Te Aupouri, he was made a deacon by Bishop Selwyn in 1861 and appointed to Kaikohe with Richard Davis. He was priested by Bishop Cowie in 1871 and appointed to Hokianga Heads. He was the first minister of the Waiparera parish, and lived at Orongotea at the Hokianga Heads south of Waiparera where he conducted services until Ripeka Tapu Church and the vicarage were completed. In later life his ministry was hindered by blindness. He died at Waiparera on 4 October 1881 and is buried at Ripeka Tapu, immediately outside the sanctuary at the eastern end of the church. Rev Patiki’s parish extended from Herekino to Kaipara, yet services at Ripeka Tapu were held regularly, with elders and heads of families officiating in a lay capacity when Rev. Patiki was away.
The exact details of the building of Ripeka Tapu Church are not well documented. The present church is believed to be the third church in the Rangi Point area, though the first two were at Rangi Point itself. The first was a raupo hut, while the second was more substantial. Both were destroyed by fire. Construction of the current church was probably begun as early as 1873, and completed in 1878. In his address to the Auckland Diocesan Synod in 1879, the Bishop listed Waiparera as one of the new churches to have been opened in the past year. However, that reference may have been to the completion rather than the opening of the church, since it is recorded that on Saturday 24 January 1880, ‘a new church was opened here by Archdeacon [Edward Bloomfield] Clarke for the Maories [sic] of the District. The Rev. Piripi Patiki is the minister in charge, but is nearly blind from cataract in both eyes. The new building has cost 250l. [pounds], of which nearly the whole has been contributed by the congregation.’
One young member of Rev. Patiki’s congregation was later also to become a priest at Ripeka Tapu Church. Hone Tana Papahia was born in 1856 at Whangape, son of Wiremu Tana Papahia. He was of Te Horokuhare and Ngati Haua hapu of Te Rarawa, with Ngapuhi descent also.
Hone Tana Papahia attended the Native Teachers' Institute at the Kaitaia CMS mission station, then from 1885 – 1887 was enrolled at the CMS Te Rau College, at Gisborne. In 1887 he was made deacon by Bishop Cowie, and priested by him in 1892. He was appointed to be based at Ripeka Tapu at Waiparera from 1885 to 1905. At various times he undertook church duties elsewhere, conducting a mission in the Waikato in 1888 to counter the effects of the Hauhau movement. In 1906 he undertook a mission to Taranaki and in 1907 he visited Melanesia to report as to whether Maori evangelists might be invited to serve there. In 1911 he undertook a mission to Maori in Christchurch. On his return to Waiparera, Papahia became ill; he died on 9 February 1912 and was buried on 14 February. His imposing monument stands at the southwest corner of the church, near the entrance. Many tributes extolling his life's work in the church began to appear. His obituary in the Church Gazette describes him as one of the best educated Maori clergy and highly respected. St Barnabas' Church at Peria (NZHPT Category II Register no. 453) was dedicated to his memory, as were memorial stones at Te Kao and Gisborne. In 1914 a stained glass window dedicated to his memory was placed in St Mary's Church, Auckland (NZHPT Category I Register no. 21).
The centennial history of the church recounts the call that came to another significant Maori priest at Ripeka Tapu. Te Rata Pakihau Tipene was the first Maori Archdeacon in New Zealand. He was born at Rangi Point in 1907. In 1924 during the tangi for his 12 year old cousin Parehuia Te Toko, it is reported that she awoke and called for someone to give his life to the service of God and to draw her people closer to Him. It is said that the future Archdeacon Tipene stepped forward and made a commitment to her to do his best to fill that role. He went on to a distinguished life of service to the Anglican church in Northland, though he was never appointed to Ripeka Tapu.
As noted above, in periods when no priest was available at Waiparera, services were conducted by elders and heads of families in the local community. That practice continued into the twentieth century. For many years Ripeka Tapu formed part of the South Hokianga Anglican parish, with a priest coming north by boat when weather and tides permitted. From the 1940s onwards, Ripeka Tapu was served as part of the North Hokianga Anglican parish, with the priest still coming by boat, until the formation of the road in 1971.
In November 1978 the community at Rangi Point and others from throughout the country joined to celebrate the centenary of the church. As well as commemorative services, a centennial booklet was published containing an account of the history of the church. In 2003, the 125th anniversary was celebrated in a similar manner.
In 1982, Laurence Aberhart, one of New Zealand’s leading twentieth century photographers, included Ripeka Tapu in his ‘Northland Church’ project to record and interpret the churches of Northland. Two of his photographs of the church are held in the collection of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.
In April 1995, to coincide with the opening of the adjacent Waiparera marae, a stained glass window was fitted into the window frame behind the altar in the church, replacing the original 1878 window. The window was designed and made by Michel Androu of Auckland. The central section in blue and green depicts in an abstract form the feel of the Hokianga – the land and sea, our roots, our earthly origins. The purple colour on the border represents the Divine connection, our spiritual origins. The red also represents our spiritual nature, but especially the intense and powerful love God has for us his children. The etching is fine and delicate, reflecting all the beautiful things of nature we have at our disposal to treasure and enjoy. It is through the nature kingdom we find peace, joy and our spiritual selves.
Ripeka Tapu Church continues to be used for worship, and for funerals and unveilings in the cemetery. As an example, a gathering of descendants of Imoeroai Ihapera (Isabella) Pape Hardiman and her great grand daughter Harriet Emma Diamond-Ogilvy took place at Ripeka Tapu, on Easter Sunday 16 April 2006.
