The Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument and Kīngitanga Reserve has outstanding significance for its associations with the first leader of the Kīngitanga movement, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero (?-1860), his son and successor Tāwhiao (?-1894) and other notable rangatira. It is located in Ngāruawāhia, which in 1858 became the capital and centre of governance of Kīngitanga - an important movement created to uphold Māori autonomy. The site is particularly significant for incorporating part of an urupā that may date back to the ‘Musket Wars’ of the 1820s; a mortuary mound and enclosure created for Te Wherowhero’s remains after his death in 1860; and a stone obelisk erected by the colonial government to commemorate Te Wherowhero, Tāwhiao and others in 1895. The place is also directly associated with conflict during the Waikato War (1863-4); the return of Tāwhiao to the Waikato heartland in the 1880s; and subsequent moves by Kīngitanga to create a Kauhanganui system of Māori parliamentary governance. It retains outstanding symbolic and commemorative importance, particularly to Kīngitanga - now one of New Zealand’s longest-standing political institutions - and also forms a key component of a wider traditional, historical and archaeological landscape of very great value. The site lies at the confluence of the Waikato and Waipā Rivers, in the heartland of Waikato-Tainui. It occupies land said to have been used for a hākari or feast associated with the nearby papakāinga at Pukeiāhua, which cemented relations between Waikato and Ngāti Maniapoto after circa 1675. The site may have become part of an urupā by the time of Ngāpuhi raids in the 1820s, containing fallen warriors from this period as well as later interments after the arrival of Christian missionaries. In 1858, Ngāruawāhia’s symbolic and strategic importance led to it becoming the capital of Kīngitanga and the residence of its first leader or kingī, the notable Ngāti Mahuta tohunga and warrior, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero. Te Wherowhero had been a signatory of He He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni / The Declaration of Independence (1835), and was later referred to by colonial authorities as the most important Māori leader in New Zealand. After his death in 1860, Te Wherowhero’s remains were placed in a timber mausoleum or papa tūpāpaka of distinctive design, which was erected on an earth mound enclosed by a rectangular ditch within the urupā. In mid-nineteenth century Māori society, the use of papa tūpāpaka emerged as a consequence of increased permanent settlement and reduced warfare, and indicated a person of great mana. Te Wherowhero’s successor, Tāwhiao, was another notable leader whose reign coincided with the most turbulent years of Māori-Pākehā relations - including British invasion of the region during the Waikato War. In 1863, Kīngitanga casualties from the first battle of that conflict, at Koheroa, were buried in the urupā; and Te Wherowhero’s remains later removed for safekeeping. After occupying Ngāruawāhia, the government created a new township but undertook to respect the papa tūpāpaka and carried out repairs. That part of the urupā containing the mausoleum was laid out as an open area known as the Octagon, in which European military personnel were also interred. Throughout the later nineteenth century, Te Wherowhero’s tomb remained a symbolic focus for relationships between Kīngitanga and the Crown. After Tāwhiao returned to the Waikato in 1881, he visited his father’s mausoleum, prophesying a permanent return by Kīngitanga to Ngāruawāhia as its turangawaewae, or place to stand. A year after Tāwhiao’s death, in part to commemorate reconciliation with Tainui, Premier Richard Seddon commissioned a monument to be erected on the mound formerly occupied by Te Wherowhero’s tomb (1895). Sculpted by the noted Auckland mason J. H. Buchanan, the stone obelisk permanently commemorated Te Wherowhero, Tāwhiao and twelve associated rangatira. Indicative of the ongoing importance of the place to Kīngitanga, the broader site - which had been beautified by trees as a recreation reserve - was contemplated as the location for a Kauhanganui or Māori Parliament. In the 1910s Turangawaewae House was created on adjacent land, facing the mortuary enclosure and monument, to accommodate this function. Still symbolic of relations between Kīngitanga and the Crown, the monument continues (2018) to be cared for by the New Zealand government. It forms the centrepiece of the Kīngitanga Reserve, named in 2014 to acknowledge the value of the place to this enduring and important force in Māoridom.
Location
List Entry Information
Overview
Detailed List Entry
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 1
Access
Able to Visit
List Number
757
Date Entered
6th June 2019
Date of Effect
7th July 2019
City/District Council
Waikato District
Region
Waikato Region
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes the land described as Sec 671 (NZ Gazette 1926, p.3372), Sec 673 Town of Newcastle (NZ Gazette 1917, p.4018), South Auckland Land District, and part of the land described as Legal Road, South Auckland Land District, and the structures known as Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument, and mortuary mound and ditch thereon. Extent also includes several mature trees, specifically four Oak (quercus robur), one London Plane (platinus crosshybrida), one Pin Oak (quercus palustrus) and one Common Elm (ulmus procera). It also includes the structure known as the King’s Mask (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for further information).
Legal description
Sec 671 (NZ Gazette 1926, p.3372), Sec 673 Town of Newcastle (NZ Gazette 1917, p.4018) and Legal Road, South Auckland Land District
Location Description
Additional Location Information NZTM Easting: 1789392.0 NZTM Northing: 5829181.5
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 1
Access
Able to Visit
List Number
757
Date Entered
6th June 2019
Date of Effect
7th July 2019
City/District Council
Waikato District
Region
Waikato Region
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes the land described as Sec 671 (NZ Gazette 1926, p.3372), Sec 673 Town of Newcastle (NZ Gazette 1917, p.4018), South Auckland Land District, and part of the land described as Legal Road, South Auckland Land District, and the structures known as Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument, and mortuary mound and ditch thereon. Extent also includes several mature trees, specifically four Oak (quercus robur), one London Plane (platinus crosshybrida), one Pin Oak (quercus palustrus) and one Common Elm (ulmus procera). It also includes the structure known as the King’s Mask (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for further information).
Legal description
Sec 671 (NZ Gazette 1926, p.3372), Sec 673 Town of Newcastle (NZ Gazette 1917, p.4018) and Legal Road, South Auckland Land District
Location Description
Additional Location Information NZTM Easting: 1789392.0 NZTM Northing: 5829181.5
Cultural Significance
Cultural Significance or Value The place has high cultural significance for the closeness and length of its connections with Kīngitanga, an important and enduring cultural and political movement connected with promoting Māori interests. It has particular importance for Kīngitanga as a place that is intimately associated with its first leader, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero; and as the site where his successor Tāwhaio prophesied that Kīngitanga would return to Ngāruawāhia – fulfilled in the early twentieth century. The value of the place to Kīngitanga is demonstrated by it being employed as a meeting place with Governor Bowen in 1873; used for burials during a Kīngitanga hui in 1881; and the subject of direct action to protect it from inappropriate use in 1894. The ongoing cultural importance of the place to Kīngitanga is indicated by the construction of Turangawaewae House facing the site in the early twentieth century; construction of the King’s Mask sculpture on the site in 2013, and the place’s subsequent renaming as the Kīngitanga Reserve. Social Significance or Value The place has high social significance as a place that symbolises relationships between Kīngitanga and the Crown. It encompasses features of importance that have formed a focus for important hui and other encounters between the two groups. Since 1895, this relationship has been at least partly embodied by the Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument, created to commemorate reconciliation and subsequently maintained by the Crown. The place has additionally remained a place of remembrance through ongoing activities such as karakia and waiata, and the erection of other relevant sculpture. Spiritual Significance or Value The place has high spiritual value as an urupā, in which many individuals have been interred including people of high social rank. It may retain koiwi relating to this use. The place has particular significance as the initial resting place of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, who was a tohunga and the spiritual as well as first political leader of Kīngitanga. The site also has spiritual value for its connections with his successors as kīngi, notably Tāwhiao who declared Ngāruawāhia to be his turangawaewae, or place to stand, while standing beside his father’s tomb in 1881. The place has been further regarded as spiritually important from a Māori perspective for being ‘sacred to the footsteps of various governors’. Traditional Significance or Value The place has very high traditional significance for its connections to important ancestors, notably Pōtatau Te Wherowhero and Tāwhiao as successive ariki of Waikato-Tainui. It forms an integral part of a broader ancestral landscape at Ngāruawāhia, which includes the Waikato and Waipā Rivers as respectively representing Te Wherowhero and his wife Ngāwaero - and consequently the union between Waikato, Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Maniapoto peoples. The broader ancestral connections of the place are reflected in the commemoration of many additional individuals on the Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument, which include other prominent members of Ngāti Mahuta, as well as further Waikato-Tainui hapū such as Ngāti Tamaoho and Ngāti Naho, and also Ngāti Ruanui of Taranaki. The place forms part of a wider area at the confluence of the Waikato and Waipā Rivers that is associated with a large hākari or feast at Pukeiāhua - a traditional event that consolidated relations between Waikato and Ngāti Maniapoto peoples in the late seventeenth century.
Historic Significance
Historical Significance or Value The place has high historical significance for its associations with Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, the first leader of Kīngitanga and a distinguished individual in New Zealand history. It has particular importance as the site where Te Wherowhero’s remains were placed for several years, prior to later reburial. The place is also significant as a notable part of the Kīngitanga capital at Ngāruawāhia, which was established by Te Wherowhero in 1858 and subsequently formed a centre of military and other resistance to the expansion of British colonial power. The place has historical value for its close associations with Te Wherowhero’s son and successor Tāwhaio, a significant figure during the Waikato War (1863-4) and subsequently. Tāwhaio took steps to create greater Māori autonomy through the establishment of a separate parliament or Kauhanganui in the 1890s, an institution with which the place - as a suggested location for a parliament building in the early 1900s and adjacent to the eventual site at Turangawaewae House - is directly connected. Through its use as part of a larger urupā over an extended period, the place has historical value for its connections with other notable events such as the taua or so-called Musket Wars of the 1820s; the Waikato War (1863-4), including the first major battle of that conflict at Koheroa; and a major Kīngitanga hui in 1881 at which Tāwhaio prophesied a return to Ngāruawāhia. Notable individuals buried in the urupā may include Te Huirama. It is also associated with the British military occupation of the region resulting from the Waikato War through its use as cemetery for government soldiers. Removal of the bodies of government soldiers to a separate place of commemoration in 1882 reflects attitudes to the Waikato War and its remembrance within the colonial settler community in the late nineteenth century. The 1895 Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument is historically significant for formal government acknowledgement and commemoration of Māori leaders connected with Kīngitanga, including its first two kīngi Pōtatau Te Wherowhero and Tāwhaio. It has been seen as reflecting reconciliation between Kīngitanga and the Crown, and is associated with New Zealand’s first Liberal government and particularly Premier Richard Seddon, a notable late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century political leader. The monument has historical value as a major commission undertaken by J.H. Buchanan, a significant mid- and late nineteenth century stonemason who was referred to at his death as the ‘Father of Stonemasons in New Zealand’. The place is also connected with the Victoria League campaigner and War Graves Inspector, Edith Statham, as well as ideas connected with beautification of the landscape held by sections of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Pākehā society.
Physical Significance
Aesthetic Significance or Value Maintained as an open space in Ngāruawāhia for more than 150 years and the subject of past beautification schemes, the place has aesthetic significance for elements that include its mature trees, park-like appearance and King’s Mask sculpture. It has particular value for incorporating a monument visible from both State Highway 1 and the North Island Main Trunk railway line that forms a local landmark. Regarded at the time of its construction as being of fine design and excellent workmanship, the monument retains features of particular aesthetic value including ornate lettering and associated high-relief sculpture. The aesthetic value of the place is enhanced by aspects of its broader setting, notably the distinctive presence of Turangawaewae House immediately to the south. Archaeological Significance or Value The place has high archaeological value for incorporating the remains of at least one well-preserved, ditched and banked or mounded burial enclosure - a rare site type that demonstrates Māori adaptation of mortuary practices following European contact. The place has particular importance for its capacity to provide information about the construction, use and development of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero’s papa tūpāpaka or mausoleum - a notable and rare building type associated with an individual of outstanding significance in New Zealand history. The site also has archaeological significance for its potential to provide evidence about other activities connected with Ngāruawāhia’s past, including as the capital of Kīngitanga. Evidence may include that relating to the site’s reported use as an urupā during the so-called Musket Wars, and its ongoing employment as a burial ground before, during and immediately after the Waikato War (1863-4). The visibly surviving enclosure mound is likely to preserve a pre-1860 ground surface beneath it that may provide environmental and other evidence relating to early use of the environs as the Kīngitanga capital, and potentially other previous activity. Its associated ditch may also contain material connected with the Kīngitanga capital, European invasion and occupation during the Waikato War, and Ngāruawāhia’s subsequent history as a nineteenth-century, colonial settlement. As a well-preserved example of its type, the 1895 stone monument has archaeological value for its capacity to provide information about late nineteenth-century monumental masonry materials, techniques and construction methods. It particularly has the capacity to provide information about the use of imported and New Zealand stone, and nineteenth-century ornate lettering and sculptural techniques.
Detail Of Assessed Criteria
(a) The extent to which the place reflects important or representative aspects of New Zealand history The place has special significance for the extent to which it reflects the development of relations between Kīngitanga and the Crown, and broader interactions between Māori and Pākehā in the Waikato since the mid-nineteenth century. It specifically reflects occupation and control of the land by tangata whenua prior to widespread European arrival in New Zealand; Ngāruawāhia’s role as the capital of Kīngitanga - a movement created to resist European expansion; invasion of the Waikato by government forces in 1863; and subsequent land confiscation or raupatu by the Crown. It also reflects later interactions, including a hui between Māori representatives and Governor Bowen in 1872; Crown acknowledgement of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, Tāwhiao and other rangatira through the erection and maintenance of a government-funded monument in 1895; and Kīngitanga consideration of the site for use as a Kauhanganui or parliament building in the early 1900s. Following an apology from the Crown for land confiscations in 1995 and relevant Treaty of Waitangi settlements, ongoing relationships are reflected by the place receiving a sculpture representing the tā moko of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero and Tāwhiao, and being re-named the Kīngitanga Reserve. (b) The association of the place with events, persons, or ideas of importance in New Zealand history The place has outstanding significance as the initial resting place of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, an individual of very great importance in New Zealand’s nineteenth-century history. Te Wherowhero was a signatory of He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni / The Declaration of Independence of New Zealand; considered the most important Māori leader in New Zealand after Auckland was established as colonial capital; and was the tohunga and first leader of Kīngitanga after its formal establishment in 1858. The place is also important for its close connections with the second kingī Tāwhiao and a number of other senior rangatira within Kīngitanga. The place additionally has special importance for its close and lengthy associations with the Kīngitanga movement – one of New Zealand’s longest-standing political institutions and an important force within Māoridom. The place is significant for its connections with numerous other individuals, including Premier Richard Seddon, the monumental mason J.H. Buchanan and Victoria League campaigner Edith Statham. It has high value for its associations with numerous events of importance in New Zealand history including the taua of the 1820s; the creation of Ngāruawāhia as the capital of the Kīngitanga movement; the 1863-4 Waikato War – including the first battle of that conflict at Koheroa; and later events connected with the return of the Kīngitanga leadership to the Waikato heartland. (c) The potential of the place to provide knowledge of New Zealand history The place has potential to provide information about important aspects of New Zealand history, including evidence about Ngāruawāhia’s role as the capital of Kīngitanga. It may also supply knowledge about nineteenth-century mortuary practices, including Māori engagement with changing approaches. It has specific potential to provide information about the papa tūpāpaka and mortuary enclosure of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero. It may also retain evidence of subsequent European activity during and immediately after the Waikato War, and has the potential to provide knowledge about late nineteenth-century monumental masonry practice. (d) The importance of the place to tangata whenua As an urupā that contains the initial resting place of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, and potentially the koiwi of ancestors interred at other times in the nineteenth century, the place has outstanding significance to tangata whenua. It has particular significance for iwi and hapū within Waikato-Tainui, and especially Ngāti Mahuta. The place has outstanding significance for Kīngitanga, an important and extensive movement that promotes cultural and political autonomy for tangata whenua. The place is also of value to tangata whenua as part of a wider traditional, ancestral and spiritual landscape of importance. (f) The potential of the place for public education The place has high potential for public education about the life and achievements of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, Tāwhaio and the Kīngintanga movement, and the importance of Ngāruawāhia as the capital of Kīngitanga. Its potential is enhanced by it being a public reserve in the centre of Ngāruawāhia; close to major access routes through the Waikato, including the Great South Road; and part of a wider landscape of importance extending to Ngāhuinga or The Point that is also largely in public or community ownership. (h) The symbolic or commemorative value of the place The place has outstanding commemorative and symbolic value to Kīngitanga, notably as the initial resting place of its first leader and ariki, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero. Also incorporating a government-funded monument to Te Wherowhero, his successor Tāwhiao, and twelve other individuals linked with Te Wherowhero’s life, it additionally has significance as a major place commemorating the close connections between Kīngitanga and Ngāruawāhia; and formal acknowledgement of Kīngitanga by the Crown. In recent times, its commemorative and symbolic value has been reinforced by its renaming as the Kīngitanga Reserve. (i) The importance of identifying historic places known to date from an early period of New Zealand settlement The place is significant for its associations with Māori activity prior to widespread European settlement in New Zealand. It also incorporates the remains of a mortuary enclosure and the site of related burials that date to a period less than 25 years after the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi / The Treaty of Waitangi. It has connections with the Waikato War, one of a series of conflicts between Māori and the Crown that occurred during this same period in 1863-4. The subsequent laying out of the Octagon and its use for European burial belongs to an initial stage in the colonial European settlement of the Waikato. (j) The importance of identifying rare types of historic places The place has special significance for incorporating at least one rare surviving example of a ditched and mounded mortuary enclosure, adopted by Māori within the historic period to prevent the desecration of koiwi by animals introduced through European contact. The central mound of this enclosure is visibly well-preserved, and its associated dich almost certainly survives as an in-ground feature. The Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument is one of three surviving 1890s monuments erected by the New Zealand government to commemorate distinguished Māori in the Waikato; and the earliest of a similar number of varying date to commemorate Kīngitanga. It is the only nineteenth-century public monument to commemorate Pōtatau Te Wherowhero and Tāwhiao. (k) The extent to which the place forms part of a wider historical and cultural area The place has special significance as a key part of an important traditional, spiritual, historical and archaeological landscape that is connected with the emergence, development and ongoing life of Kīngitanga, as well as earlier Waikato history. It lies immediately adjacent to Turangawaewae House, initially built and used as a Kauhanganui or parliament building; and close to the confluence of the Waikato and Waipā Rivers, seen as symbolising the union of Waikato, Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Maniapoto peoples through the marriage of Te Wherowhero with Ngāwaero. The place forms part of an important archaeological and historical landscape connected with Te Wherowhero’s capital at Ngāruawāhia, and activities associated with the New Zealand Wars, including resistance by Kīngitanga and occupation by Government forces. Nearby features and structures include the remnants of Kīngitanga rifle pits and a cupola from the technologically advanced government gunboat ‘Pioneer’. As the Octagon, the place is also a notable part of the later nineteenth-century landscape, initially intended to be as a visual focus of the Great South Road. It forms part of wider commemorative landscape utilised for recreational purposes, which as well as the ‘Pioneer’ cupola includes a memorial to the First and Second World War, and a historic bandstand. Summary of Significance or Values The place has outstanding historical, cultural and other significance as the initial resting place of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, an individual of very great importance in New Zealand’s nineteenth-century history. It has very great value to tangata whenua, including iwi and hapū within Waikato-Tainui, and especially Ngāti Mahuta. The place also has outstanding significance for Kīngitanga, an important and enduring movement that promotes Māori cultural and political autonomy. Importance to the latter includes the place’s outstanding commemorative and symbolic value. The place has special significance for the extent to which it reflects the development of relations between Kīngitanga and the Crown, and broader interactions between Māori and Pākehā in the Waikato. These include its strong associations with Ngāruāwahia as the capital of Kīngitanga, the Waikato War, occupation by British military forces and activities of the Kauhanganui movement. The place also has special significance for incorporating at least one rare surviving example of a ditched and mounded mortuary enclosure. It additionally has special value as a key part of an important traditional, spiritual, historical and archaeological landscape that is connected with important aspects of New Zealand history including the emergence, development and ongoing life of Kīngitanga.
Construction Professional
Biography
James Hogg Buchanan (1846-1937) James Hogg Buchanan (1846-1937) was born in Killbarchan, Renfrewshire, Scotland. He emigrated to Auckland with his stonemason father, Edward Buchanan and family in late 1861. He is said to have become a member of his uncles’ firm J. and G. Buchanan, stonemasons and monumental masons, which was later described as created in 1862 and ‘the first of its kind to be established in Auckland’. However, his father established a comparable business at a similar time, advertising his services in January 1863 as a builder and stonecutter with ‘a large number of Monuments, Tombs and Headstones of the newest designs’. J.H. Buchanan took over his father’s business in 1866, initially operating from Karangahape Road, near Symonds Street Cemetery - Auckland’s main burial ground. By 1871, James Buchanan was running the Auckland Stone Works on Victoria and Lorne Streets, and offering to forward designs ‘to the country and adjoining provinces’. Commissions included a head, body and footstone for John Tutin at St Michael’s Church, Hakaru, Mangawai. A brief partnership with William Thomas in 1875-7 functioned as J.H. Buchanan and Company, before this business became insolvent. Buchanan was briefly employed by John Brown of the Victoria Stone Works before purchasing the firm. In 1884, he oversaw the erection of a large and prestigious monument in Symonds Street Cemetery, dedicated to the Auckland businessman and philanthropist, Edward Costley. In the early and mid-1890s, Buchanan gained a further series of prestigious commissions, including monuments for King George of Tonga, requested by the Tongan government (1893-4); the Kīngitangi leader Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, commissioned by the New Zealand government (1895); and Auckland businessman and benefactor James Dilworth (1895). In 1898, Buchanan moved to new premises, the Monumental Works in Symonds Street. He died, aged 94, in 1937. At this time, he was referred to as the ‘Father of Stonemasons in New Zealand’, with many of Auckland’s monumental masons having gained their early experience in his employment.
Name
J. H. Buchanan
Type
Stonemason
Construction Details
Description
Burials, including one or more enclosed by bank and ditch
Period
1820s onwards
Type
Other
Description
Ditched and mounded burial enclosure, with timber mortuary structure or papa tūpāpaka for remains of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero
Finish Year
1860
Type
Other
Description
Burial of Māori casualties from battle of Koheroa. Remains of Te Wherowhero removed
Finish Year
1863
Type
Other
Description
Burial of Government soldiers (3 with headboards in 1879, and one a headstone in 1882)
Finish Year
1866
Start Year
1864
Type
Other
Description
Te Wherowhero’s mortuary structure or papa tūpāpaka blown down and ‘reconstructed’
Finish Year
1872
Type
Reconstruction
Description
Ornamental trees planted
Period
Pre-1874
Type
Other
Description
Burial of Terekaunuku and Te Oti
Finish Year
1881
Type
Other
Description
Removal of remains of up to 17 individuals for reburial elsewhere
Finish Year
1882
Type
Relocation
Description
Erection of fence around Octagon by Māori - between 40 and 50 individuals said to be still buried in the reserve
Finish Year
1894
Type
Addition
Description
Construction of monument and paling fence
Finish Year
1895
Type
Original Construction
Description
Monument and picket fence cleaned and repainted
Finish Year
1915
Type
Maintenance/repairs
Description
Land in Octagon ploughed and levelled
Finish Year
1922
Type
Other
Description
Replacement of picket fence around monument by low rock wall
Finish Year
1926
Type
Structural upgrade
Description
Renovations costing £300
Finish Year
1964
Type
Refurbishment/renovation
Construction Materials
Monument - stone
Early history of the site The site lies near the confluence of the Waikato and Waipā rivers at Ngāruawāhia. Both waterways formed major access routes for settlement of the fertile Waikato region after initial human arrival in New Zealand. Ngāruawāhia is situated within the area occupied by Waikato-Tainui following the arrival of the Tainui waka at Kāwhia in the thirteenth century. Archaeological information suggests that occupation in the surrounding area focussed extensively on the cultivation of kūmara. A large papakāinga to the south of Ngāruawāhia, Pukeiāhua, was occupied from perhaps the sixteenth century onwards. Pukeiāhua held an important role within the Waikato region as a place where marriage that was not otherwise formally sanctioned could occur. According to an account by Pei Te Hurinui Jones, it was where Ngaere of Waikato and Heke-i-te-rangi of Ngāti Maniapoto eloped in circa 1675, defying an agreement between their two iwi to strengthen ties through other means. Friendly relations between Waikato and Ngāti Maniapoto were reaffirmed when the eloped couple’s union was subsequently sanctioned through a large hākari or feast. Land used for this event lay between the papakāinga and the confluence of the Waikato and Waipā rivers, on which the current site is located. One account states that the land contained pits and other features in which the food was stored; another notes that the food was displayed at the confluence of the two rivers. Pukeiāhua subsequently formed the home of many notable Waikato-Tainui rangatira. In the early nineteenth century, it was evidently affected by Ngāpuhi incursions during the so-called Musket Wars. In 1822, a taua of some 3000 warriors under Ngāpuhi leader Hongi Hika travelled up the Waikato, inflicting heavy losses on Waikato-Tainui at the battle of Mātakitaki on the Waipā – upstream from Ngāruawāhia. Later taua included a smaller incursion led by Pōmare in 1826. The current site is reported to have been used as an urupā at an early stage in these conflicts, accommodating the burial of fallen warriors. Settlement patterns are likely to have been affected: in the 1830s, early European missionaries found the vicinity to be relatively sparsely occupied. The urupā at Ngāruawāhia appears to have remained in use, however, including after the introduction of Christianity. An eyewitness report in 1863 refers to an embanked and ditched enclosure (or enclosures) of some antiquity, containing the graves of ‘two men of some consequence’, one of these marked by a wooden cross. Ditched and banked burial enclosures appear to have been relatively rare within Māoridom and are said to have been used at Ngāruawāhia to provide protection from pigs - animals introduced to New Zealand through European contact. Pōtatau Te Wherowhero and Ngāruawāhia (1858-60) One of the main Waikato-Tainui warriors during the early nineteenth century was the Ngāti Mahuta leader, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero (d.1860). Descended from the captains of the Tainui and Te Arawa waka, Te Wherowhero fought at Mātakitaki and also led campaigns against Taranaki iwi in the late 1820s and early 1830s. In addition to authority provided by his ancestry and military skills, his influence increased after protecting displaced iwi during the Musket Wars and undertaking alliances forged by marriage. In 1839, he became one of the few leaders outside Northland to sign He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni / The Declaration of Independence of New Zealand (1835) – a key document affirming the relationship between northern Māori and the British Crown. Although Te Wherowhero declined to sign Te Tiriti o Waitangi / The Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, he established friendly relations with British authorities at the time of initial colonisation. Following the establishment of a new capital at Auckland, he was considered the most influential chief in New Zealand. Approached by the colonial governor George Grey to place his mana over the capital, Te Wherowhero and other Ngāti Mahuta leaders established a ‘fencible’ settlement on the site of a seasonal kāinga at nearby Māngere in 1849. Although Waikato-Tainui peoples initially benefitted from trading with European settlers in the capital, tensions soon arose. During the 1850s, the Kīngitanga movement emerged to counter growing European demands, particularly for land. The movement was especially strong in the Waikato, which remained under Māori control. Following numerous hui among Waikato-Tainui and allied iwi, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero was selected as kīngi, or ‘king’, a position that he eventually agreed to accept. Ngāruawāhia, important both symbolically and strategically for its location at a major confluence in the Waikato region, was selected as his capital or seat of government. A house for Te Wherowhero was erected at the confluence by early 1858, shortly before his formal installation as Kīngitanga leader. The new capital also included a whare rūnanga or council house, a flagstaff on which the Kīngitanga flag was flown and other structures. Te Wherowhero presided over large rūnanga at the settlement, including one in May 1860 attended by some 3000 people, at which opposition to government forces in the Taranaki War was discussed. Te Wherowhero died at Ngāruawāhia in June 1860, and was succeeded by his son, Tūkāroto Matutaera Pōtatau Te Wherowhero - later known as Tāwhiao. Construction and initial use of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero’s tomb (1860-3) After a large tangi, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero was laid to rest some 65 metres to the south of his residence, in the pre-existing urupā. His tomb was demarcated by a rectangular, ditched enclosure, bounding an area approximately 9.15 metres (30 feet) square. The latter contained an earth mound on which a small, timber mausoleum or papa tūpāpaka was erected. The papa tūpāpaka consisted of a single-storey building of distinctive appearance. Said to have been erected by a pākehā artisan, it measured approximately 4.9 x 3.65 metres (16 x 12 feet). The white-painted, weatherboarded building contained two glass windows of lancet design in its main elevation and a door in one end wall. It also incorporated a surrounding verandah with trelliswork posts, scalloped canopies and distinctive, trefoil-shaped pediments. Internally, it housed Te Wherowhero’s canoe or waka as well as his coffin, which incorporated a glass window at the head. Created to hold Te Wherowhero’s body for a period until eventual burial, the papa tūpāpaka both reflected important traditional practices and Māori engagement with new ideas. Customarily, many iwi and hapū had placed the bones of high-ranking individuals in secret locations to ensure that the living retained connections with their ancestors and consolidated their status as tangata whenua, but later reductions in inter-tribal warfare and other factors enabled some people of status to be initially commemorated by placing their bodies in elaborate papa tūpāpaka during the first cycle of grieving and before permanent interment occurred. At least some of these were surrounded by enclosures. In contrast with traditional papa tūpāpaka embellished with carvings and similar expressions of tribally-based identity, Te Wherowhero’s structure drew more extensively on western technology and design. This has been seen as proclaiming Te Wherowhero’s ‘legitimacy, mana and equal status to the British monarch’. The tomb soon became a place for people to pay their respects. In June 1861, a large number of Kīngitanga followers visited it during a major rūnanga. Shortly before the government invasion of the Waikato in 1863, Governor George Grey also visited the site, ‘where he stood yearning over the grave of Potatau to reflect on the place’. The wider urupā, which may have extended to the south of Eyre Street, remained in use during the Waikato War (1863-4). Following the first battle, which took place at Koheroa in July 1863, the bodies of Māori casualties were returned to Ngāruawāhia and buried ‘just without the ditch’, on one side of the tomb enclosure. The interments may have included that of Te Huirama, who had been closely involved in Te Wherowhero’s initial selection as Kīngitanga leader. The graves were evidently fenced or otherwise enclosed. As an integral part of the Kīngitanga capital, the urupā lay behind defensive features erected around Ngāruawāhia during the conflict, including a redoubt and rifle pits to the west and north. When the defenders withdrew before Government forces arrived in December 1863, they took Te Wherowhero’s remains with them for safekeeping. They also requested the Government not to destroy their buildings and cultivations, and to respect the remains of those buried there. After occupying Ngāruawāhia, the British authorities posted a sentry at Te Wherowhero’s tomb. Men of the 12th Regiment were subsequently reported to have kept the papa tūpāpaka in repair. Creation and use of the Octagon (1864-94) At the conclusion of direct military conflict in the Waikato in mid-1864, the main Kīngitanga force, including Tāwhaio, withdrew to the King Country. The following year, most land in the Waikato was formally taken by the Government through raupatu or confiscation. A European-style town was laid out at Ngāruawāhia, incorporating the tomb and at least some other parts of the urupā into its design. The latter occupied a distinctive space, The Octagon, which contained Te Wherowhero’s enclosure as its central feature. The Octagon was designed to form a visual focus for a stretch of the Great South Road, the main north-south land route through the Waikato. It remained in use as a cemetery, accommodating the additional burial of some thirteen Government soldiers while British military forces were encamped in the immediate neighbourhood. Graves may have included those of combatants who died of wounds before the war ended. After the soldiers left Ngāruawāhia, the Octagon was fenced, and Te Wherowhero’s mausoleum itself repaired and painted. Other land in the township was subdivided and sold to incoming European settlers. For the next thirty years, the papa tūpāpaka was maintained by the colonial government. In 1868, the new governor Sir George Ferguson Bowen visited Ngāruawāhia, pledging the government to preserve the mausoleum as a gesture of reconciliation. When the structure was blown down by a gale in 1872, it was repaired or reconstructed by the Armed Constabulary. The following year, Bowen was received by large Māori gathering beside the tomb, where he proposed proclaiming ‘a general amnesty for past acts of rebellion and other political offences.’ He may also have offered to erect an obelisk on the site. During Bowen’s governorship, memorials on the graves of other Māori leaders such as Tamati Waka Nene (d.1871) and Patuone (d.1872) were created or initiated. Increasingly integrated into the growing colonial township, the Octagon was beautified by the town council by 1874 through the planting of ornamental trees, possibly weeping willows. In 1877, however, railway lines forming part of the North Island Main Trunk line and a siding to a wharf on the Waipā River were constructed immediately to the south and east, partly impinging on the land. Fencing around the cemetery was soon reported as dilapidated. In 1878, the government again repaired and repainted Te Wherowhero’s tomb, and may also have placed an iron railing around the graves of the European soldiers. In July 1881 - the same month that he first returned to the Waikato and symbolically laid down his weapons - Tāwhiao made an emotional return to his father’s mausoleum, together with some 500 supporters. Outside the tomb, he declared that Ngāruawāhia would become his turangawaewae, or place to stand – a prophecy of great importance to Kīngitanga. During an associated hui, two further burials occurred in the Octagon ‘near Potatau’s tomb’. The first was of Terekaunuku an elderly rangatira of Ngāti Naho and Ngāti Paoa, who was attending the gathering. The second was of Te Oti, from Taupo, who died while travelling with the Kīngitanga party at nearby Taupiri. While Tāwhiao sought to create dialogue about the return of confiscated lands, settler sympathy with Māori grievances declined. Colonists called for the remains of Pākehā soldiers who had died in the Waikato War to be disinterred and placed in formal cemeteries where they could be appropriately maintained and commemorated. In August 1882, the remains of up to seventeen individuals considered to be military personnel were removed from the Octagon and reburied at nearby Havelock Hill cemetery. Although Te Wherowhero’s enclosure was reportedly left undisturbed, some Māori remains or koiwi may have been removed from the wider site. Associated headboards or headstones were relocated at the same time. Settler reaction to their concerns led Kīngitanga to directly petition the British Crown and to take steps to create greater autonomy through the establishment of a separate parliament, or Kauhanganui. In the same year that Tāwhiao published a constitution for this council (1894), Waikato Māori also took direct action to protect the urupā and Te Wherowhero’s tomb which, being inadequately fenced, had become used both as a makeshift bandstand and children’s playground, as well as being subject to grazing by cattle and horses. A substantial post and barbed wire fence was erected around the Octagon, and an access gate was also nailed shut at around the time of Tāwhiao’s death in late 1894. Contemporary Māori estimates were that between 40 and 50 individuals remained buried there. In March 1894, Kīngitanga had met with Premier Richard Seddon at Ngāruawāhia. The leader of New Zealand’s first Liberal Government, Seddon had a complex relationship with Māori, having supported greater Crown pre-emption of land purchase in 1893 but also indicating that he wished Māori to be full members of the improved society that his Government sought to create. Responding to Seddon’s desire to resolve the Octagon dispute, the Commissioner of Crown Lands suggested either removing the remains or fencing in ‘the small mound’ which he considered ‘contains all the bones’. Evidently opting for the latter, Seddon additionally decided to erect a memorial to Te Wherowhero and others on top of the mound. This may partly have been in fulfilment of the Government’s earlier promise to build an obelisk on the site. However, it also took place in the context of other government commemoration of prominent Waikato Māori, notably Rewi Maniapoto at Kihikihi (1894) and Wiremu Te Wheoro at Rangiriri (1896). This sequence of monument-building has been seen as commemorating the Crown’s reconciliation with Tainui. Construction of the Pōtatau Te Wherowhero monument (1895) The Ngāruawāhia monument appears to have been commissioned in early 1895 from Auckland-based stonemason, James H. Buchanan (1846-1937). Later referred to as the ‘Father of Stonemasons in New Zealand’, Buchanan had been in the monumental masonry business since the early 1860s. He had also recently completed a commission by the Tongan Government for monuments to the memory of King George of Tonga, and was responsible for other substantial memorials such as that to wealthy Auckland benefactor, James Dilworth (1895). Buchanan’s design for Te Wherowhero’s monument consisted of an obelisk of high-quality Carrara marble, 3.35 metres (11 feet) tall, sitting on a pedestal of Timaru bluestone. Obelisks were based on ancient Egyptian solar symbols often located at the entrance to tombs, and had been utilised within European mortuary architecture from the Renaissance onwards. The new monument was unveiled on 31 July 1895. At this time, it was described as ‘of fine design and excellent workmanship’. Erected on top of the earlier enclosure mound, it replaced Pōtatau’s timber mausoleum, which was evidently taken down at this time. Both the mound and the ditch - which may have been largely infilled - were enclosed by a new paling fence, described as measuring 60 x 70 feet (18.3 x 21.35 metres). As well as commemorating Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, the structure was dedicated to Tāwhiao and numerous other leaders connected with Te Wherowhero. One panel at the base of the obelisk remembered Paratene Te Maioha; Harepata Te Keha, who signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi at Waikato Heads in 1840; Hori Kerei Kati Takiwaru, a close relative of Te Wherowhero who married Matire Toha of Ngāpuhi to seal peace during the Musket Wars; and Epiha Putini Te Rangiatahua. An opposing panel contained the names of Te Kēpa Tuwhatau; Haunui Te Kokoti; Te Huirama, who may have been buried nearby; and Hakaraia Tuwhatau. A rear panel commemorated Harihona; Hone Pihama Te Rei Hanataua, who was a powerful Taranaki ally, with whom Te Wherowhero had initially fought; Mare; and Te Warena Kahawai. Although most of those named were of Ngāti Mahuta, some had strong affiliations to other Waikato-Tainui hapū such as Ngāti Tamaoho and Ngāti Naho, or in Hone Pihama’s case Ngāti Ruanui of Taranaki. The new monument was visible from major transport routes adjacent to the site, including the Great South Road and the North Island Main Trunk line. Almost immediately after it was unveiled, the entire Octagon was gazetted as a railway reserve. By 1912, railway encroachment had included a goods shed to the east of the monument. Subsequent history Under the third kīngi, Mahuta Tāwhiao Pōtatau Te Wherowhero (1854/1855?-1912), the Kīngitanga Kauhanganui continued to meet regularly to discuss Māori autonomy and related issues. In 1911, it sought permission to obtain the Octagon for the construction of a suitable meeting house or parliament building designed by Louch and Son of Auckland - a move resisted by the Ngaruawahia Town Board who put in a counter-proposal to erect a power station. After Mahuta’s death in late 1912, Kīngitanga requested permission to erect a memorial on the site, emphasising the latter’s ancestral importance and as a place that was ‘sacred to the footsteps of various governors’. The Crown declined this request, instead proposing to subdivide the reserve and relocate the 1895 monument. However, the notable Victoria League campaigner and War Graves Inspector Edith Statham, intervened, emphasising that the site was ‘one of the historical spots in the Dominion’. The monument was cleaned and its fence painted in 1915; and the enclosure containing the memorial proposed to be set aside ‘to protect the native monument’, with the remainder of the Octagon provided as a recreation reserve to the Ngaruawahia Town Board. In 1917, Octagon land outside the monument enclosure was gazetted as part of the Ngaruawahia Domain. The enclosure remained in central government hands. Transferral occurred at the same time that Kīngitanga erected a new parliament building (List No. 4170, Turangawaewae House / Maori Parliament Building, Category 1 historic place) on adjacent land to the south (1917-19). Of impressive appearance, this structure’s front elevation was designed to face the monument as closely as possible. It was used as a Kauhanganui before becoming a health clinic during the Second World War (1939-45), and subsequently the first headquarters of the Tainui Trust Board. In the 1920s, Kīngitanga achieved its aim of a large-scale return to Ngāruawāhia with the construction of Turangawaewae Marae nearby, on the eastern side of the Waikato River. In 1922, the Domain Board carried out significant ‘tidying up’ and beautification of the Octagon, when the ground was ploughed and tree stumps removed. Grass lawn and seats were also planned. In 1926, the picket fence around the monument was replaced by a low stone wall, at least partly to allow greater visibility of the memorial. In 1964, the monument was restored at a cost of £300. Recreational features in the surrounding reserve included a swing and an open fireplace ‘for boiling the billie’. Since the 1960s, the monument and reserve have remained closely associated with the activities of nearby Turangawaewae House. As well as karakia and waiata performed on the site, gatherings at the latter frequently spilled out onto the reserve. In 1995, Queen Elizabeth II acknowledged the wrongs of the earlier land confiscations with a formal apology. In 2013, Waikato-Tainui erected a sculpture representing the facial tattoos or tā moko of Te Wherowhero and Tāwhaio on the reserve, facing the monument. This was created by master carver, Inia Te Wiata junior, and unveiled by Kīngi Tuheitia. The Octagon was subsequently renamed the Kīngitanga Reserve, reflecting the place’s ongoing importance to Kīngitanga - one of New Zealand’s longest-standing political institutions and an important force within Māoridom.
Current Description Context Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument and Kīngitanga Reserve is located in Ngāruawāhia, a town at the confluence of the Waikato and Waipa Rivers. The settlement, including its commercial centre, contains a considerable number of late nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings. It also incorporates significant places linked with its important Māori heritage, including Puke i Ahua (List No. 6704, Category 2 historic place), in the southern part of Ngāruawāhia. The monument and reserve are situated within the Octagon, in the centre of the town. The Octagon lies at the junction of Broadway, Waingaro, Eyre and Durham Streets. It is situated some 350 m to the southeast of the confluence of the Waikato and Waipa rivers at Ngāhuinga or The Point with most of the intervening area consisting of open reserve. Land to the south and west of the Octagon is largely residential. Directly to the east are the North Island Main Trunk railway line and the Great South Road (State Highway 1), the latter forming the town’s main commercial thoroughfare. The site forms an integral part of a wider landscape of considerable historical, cultural, archaeological and other importance. Directly to the south on Eyre Street is Turangawaewae House/Maori Parliament Building (List No. 4170, Category 1 historic place), a highly significant place in the history of Kīngitanga. Within the land to the north and west are also the likely archaeological remains of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero’s kāinga, Kīngitanga defences and colonial military occupation, as well as later nineteenth-century residential activity. Current houses of nineteenth and early twentieth century date survive to the west. Structures on a reserve near the confluence include a cupola from the 1860s military steamer Pioneer (List No. 756, Category 2 historic place), a monument to the First and Second World Wars (List No. 4258, Category 2 historic place) and a Band Rotunda (List No. 4257, Category 2 historic place). The area to the north and west of the Octagon also contains sacred springs. Directly visible from the Kīngitanga Reserve are several other places of recognised historic significance. These include the Delta Tavern (List No. 4459, Category 2 historic place) and Grant’s Chambers (List No. 4251, Category 2 historic place). The site The site consists of an approximately rectangular area, measuring some 80 metres NE-SW x 70 metres NW-SE. It includes the Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument and its earlier mausoleum mound as a central feature. The site also encompasses the surrounding Kīngitanga Reserve, consisting of a flat area used as a recreation reserve, and parts of adjoining road reserve on Broadway, Waingaro, Eyre and Durham Streets which are closely connected, both historically and currently, with use of the land occupied by the Kīngitanga Reserve. The site also includes a recent Kīngitanga memorial, and a number of trees – including several of some antiquity. Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument The Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument is a relatively prominent stone memorial. It consists of a white marble obelisk 3.35 metres (11 feet) high on top of a stepped, white marble plinth, and an additional stepped base. The upper part of the latter consists of exposed basalt or bluestone, with a chamfered top. The lower part covered by cement render. On the ground immediately around the base is a square, concrete pad. The monument contains a number of inscriptions. The main elevation faces northeast and contains a cartouche on the upper section of its marble plinth with the inscription: IN MEMORY OF POTATAU. OF THE NGATIMAHUTA. AND THE CHIEFS. Directly above this, within a smaller cartouche on the lower part of the obelisk, is also the name TAWHIAO. Below the main inscription, on the lower step of the marble plinth, is the inscription: ERECTED UNDER HON. R. SEDDON. PREMIER N.Z. MAY 1895. The other faces of the upper marble plinth contain the names of twelve additional rangatira, four on each face: Northwest face PARATENE TE MAIOHA HAREPATA TE KEHA HORI TAKIWARU EPIHA TE RANGIATAHU Southwest face TE KEEPA TUWHATAU HAUNUI TE KOKOTI TE HUIRAMA HAKARAIA TUWHATAU Southeast face HARIHONA HONE PIHAMA MARE TE WARENA KAHAWAI High-relief motifs on the main elevation of the marble plinth include representations of leaves and grape bunches. Other motifs of high-relief design decorate each corner of the obelisk base, above the plinth. The name ‘Tawhiao’ is adorned above and below by elegant representations of plants of trefoil appearance. Smaller plants of similar design are positioned directly above the name ‘Potatau’. The lettering throughout is of a relatively ornate style. Mortuary mound and enclosure ditch The mausoleum mound forms a low but relatively prominent earthwork feature. No clear traces of its associated enclosure ditch are visible at ground level, but it is likely to survive as an in-ground archaeological feature. The mound may contain archaeological evidence for relating to Te Wherowhero’s mausoleum structure and is also likely to seal and preserve part of the pre-1860 ground surface associated with the Kīngitanga kāinga. The ditch may contain material linked with the construction, use and subsequent stages of infilling of the feature. Kīngitanga Reserve and legal road The Kīngitanga Reserve, together with parts of adjoining legal road used as an extension of the reserve, form a largely flat piece of ground around the monument and mound. On the south, west and northwest extents of this flat area, the land slopes down sharply to meet the adjacent road surface. The site includes several mature trees, including four oak (quercus robur), one London Plane (platinus crosshybrida), one pin oak (quercus palustrus) and one Common Elm (ulmus procera). Smaller trees comprise two puriri (vitex lucens) to the south of the monument, and two young oak flanking the Kings’ Mask sculpture in the southwest part of the area. The Kings’ Mask sculpture lies on legal road between the monument and Turangawaewae House, and represents the facial tattoos or tā moko of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero and Tāwhiao. Other components of the site include signage referring to the history of Kīngitanga, a children’s playground and several picnic benches. Comparative examples Monuments commemorating notable Māori The Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument forms the main nineteenth-century memorial erected by the government to Te Wherowhero, Tāwhiao and other individuals with close links to Te Wherowhero’s life. Other surviving monuments closely connected with Kīngitanga include the Māori King Monument at Rukumoana Marae, Kiwitahi (List No.4156, Category 1 historic place), unveiled in 1917 and commemorating Tāwhiao’s son and successor Kingī Mahuta; and the King Monument, Tihiroa, Otorohanga (List No.4266, Category 2 historic place), which was constructed in circa 1955. Government-funded memorials to other prominent individuals within Kīngitanga include the Rewi Maniapoto Monument, Kihikihi (List No.748, Category 1 historic place), constructed in 1894, the year before the Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument, and situated beside Rewi Maniapoto’s grave. An additional monument constructed by the Seddon government at the same time as the Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument was to Wiremu Te Morehu Maipapa Te Wheoro, who sided with Government forces during the Waikato War. Initially erected in 1896, his monument is currently located close to the Waikato River near Maurea Marae, Rangiriri. Earlier government-funded monuments to prominent Māori survive. These include the Wiremu Nēra Te Awaitaia Monument, Raglan, erected in 1870 and relocated to a site beside Wiremu Nēra Te Awataia’s grave in the 1980s; and the Honiana Te Puni Monument, Petone, constructed in 1871. Also remaining are the Pitihera Kōpū Memorial, Wairoa, erected in 1872 (List No. 4860, Category 2 historic place); the Tamati Wāka Nene Monument, Russell (part of Christ Church, List No.1, Category 1 historic place), unveiled by Governor Bowen in 1873; the Winiata Pekanui Tohi Te Ururangi Monument, Maketu, constructed in 1877 in the graveyard of St Thomas’ Anglican Church (List No.777, Category 2 historic place); and the Ihaka Whaanga Memorial, Nūhaka, possibly initially placed at Māhia and re-erected in its current location in 1915. A memorial to Te Rauparaha, incorporating a stone bust instigated by his son Tāmihana and unveiled in 1880, similarly survives at Otaki (List No.4103, Category 1 historic place). Together with the Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument and associated commemoration in the Waikato, the latter form a sizeable proportion of thirteen freestanding monuments erected to notable Māori between 1872 and the early 1890s in New Zealand. The government also erected gravestones to commemorate prominent Māori during the nineteenth century, including to Te Wherowhero’s close relative, Kati Takiwaru, who is remembered on the Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Monument. Created by Buchanan Brothers in 1878, the stone survives in the graveyard of St James’ Church, Māngere (List No.689, Category 2 historic place). Early twentieth-century, government-funded monuments to prominent Māori include the Kemp Monument, Whanganui (List No.165, Category 1 historic place), erected in 1911; and the Wi Pere Monument, Gisborne (List No.3535, Category 2 historic place), constructed in 1919. Ditched and banked or mounded burial enclosures Ditched and banked or mounded burial enclosures appear to be rare site types utilised by Māori in the historic period. They are said to have been created to protect graves and related elements from access by pigs or other animals. In 1905, Elsdon Best stated that Tūhoe often utilised abandoned pā as burial grounds during the historic period, with their graves unfenced as ‘the old earthen walls and ditches prevent the entrance of stock’. Best also referred to coffins occasionally being placed on the ground and covered by an oblong mound, on top of which ‘a small wooden house is erected…painted in bright colours; red and blue is a favoured combination, or white and red. At other times the coffin is buried beneath the surface and the little house built over the grave’. Mounds associated with burial are found in some parts of the country, such as in the vicinity of the Whanganui River where they occur in nineteenth-century urupā.
Public NZAA Number
S14/182
Completion Date
5th May 2019
Report Written By
Martin Jones
Information Sources
Jones, 1995 (2)
Jones, Pei Te Hurinui, Nga iwi o Tainui. Auckland, Auckland University Press
Ministry for Culture and Heritage
www.nzhistory.net.nz
Phillips, 1995
F Phillips, Nga Tohu a Tainui Landmarks of Tainui (vol I), Historic Places of the Tainui People, Otorohanga: Tohu Publishers, 1995.
Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
www.TeAra.govt.nz
Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
www.TeAra.govt.nz
Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
www.TeAra.govt.nz
Te Hurinui, Pei, 1959
King Potatau: an account of the life of King Potatau, the first Maori king ,The Polynesian Society, Wellington
Deed, 2015
Deed, Stephen, Unearthly Landscapes: New Zealand’s Early Cemeteries, Churchyards and Urupā, Dunedin, 2015, pp.78-80.
Gorst, 1864
Gorst, J.E., The Maori King: Or, The Story of Our Quarrel with the Natives of New Zealand, London, 1864, pp.23, 76-7, 83 fn.3.
Report Written By
A fully referenced New Zealand Heritage List report is available on request from the Lower Northern Office of Heritage New Zealand. Disclaimer Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions. Archaeological sites are protected by the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, regardless of whether they are entered on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero or not. Archaeological sites include ‘places associated with pre-1900 human activity, where there may be evidence relating to the history of New Zealand’. This List entry report should not be read as a statement on whether or not the archaeological provisions of the Act apply to the property (s) concerned. Please contact your local Heritage New Zealand office for archaeological advice.
Current Usages
Uses: Civic Facilities
Specific Usage: Recreation Area/Picnic Ground
Uses: Commemoration
Specific Usage: Memorial - Particular person or group
Uses: Maori
Specific Usage: Place associated with particular ancestors
Former Usages
General Usage:: Funerary Sites
Specific Usage: Cemetery/Graveyard/Burial Ground
General Usage:: Maori
Specific Usage: Urupā
Themes
Of Significance to Maori