The Church of the Immaculate Conception in the small papakāinga of Pakipaki, Hawke’s Bay, was constructed in 1880. It has outstanding historical significance for its association with the Catholic nun, nurse and social worker Suzanne Aubert and outstanding cultural significance as a place of importance to tangata whenua. As the oldest known surviving building Aubert was involved in constructing, it has significant rarity value. Catholic missionaries arrived in Hawke’s Bay in late 1850 and established a mission station at Pākōwhai on the land of Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti rangatira Puhara Hawaikirangi, who had met the Marist missionary Father Claude-André Baty while in exile at Nukutaurua on the Māhia Peninsula the previous decade. After Puhara Hawaikirangi was killed in battle in 1857 the mission station moved north to Meeanee and the Māori Catholic community founded a new settlement at Pakipaki. This geographical separation was reinforced by the cessation of missionary activities during the New Zealand wars of the 1860s and the diversionary impact of an ever-increasing Pākehā population the following decade. Hawke’s Bay was effectively without a Māori Catholic missioner until Suzanne Aubert took up the role in an unofficial capacity from 1871. She was a vocal advocate for the Māori Catholic community and after much lobbying secured a dedicated priest for Pakipaki in 1879, followed by the construction of the Gothic revival church in 1880 on land owned by Urupene Puhara, son of Puhara Hawaikirangi. Aubert’s work in Hawke’s Bay, culminating in the church, was a major contribution to the revival of the Marist mission in the Wellington diocese, of which Hawke’s Bay was a part. She went on to found the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion, known as the Sisters of Compassion. The Church of the Immaculate Conception remained a centre of Māori Catholicism in Hawke’s Bay until 1967, when it was moved to an adjacent site to make way for a new church. The building was used for various purposes by the Pakipaki community and hosted a youth carving school in the 1980s. Suzanne Aubert was nominated by the Sisters of Compassion for canonisation in 1990 and Pakipaki kaumatua participated in the evidential process. In a demonstration of significant public esteem, the Paki Paki Whare Karakia Charitable Trust was created in 2016 to restore the church in recognition of the connections between Suzanne Aubert, the tipuna Urupene Puhara and people of Pakipaki.
Location
List Entry Information
Overview
Detailed List Entry
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 1
Access
Private/No Public Access
List Number
9955
Date Entered
12th December 2018
Date of Effect
1st January 2019
City/District Council
Hastings District
Region
Hawke's Bay Region
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes part of the land described as Pt Kakiraawa 2B3 (RT HBC1/57) and part of the land described as Kakiraawa 2B2L (RT HB88/217, NZ Gazette 1971 p.19), Hawke’s Bay Land District, and the building known as the Church of the Immaculate Conception thereon. (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for further information).
Legal description
Pt Kakiraawa 2B3 (RT HBC1/57) and part of the land described as Kakiraawa 2B2L (RT HB88/217, NZ Gazette 1971 p.19), Hawke’s Bay Land District
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 1
Access
Private/No Public Access
List Number
9955
Date Entered
12th December 2018
Date of Effect
1st January 2019
City/District Council
Hastings District
Region
Hawke's Bay Region
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes part of the land described as Pt Kakiraawa 2B3 (RT HBC1/57) and part of the land described as Kakiraawa 2B2L (RT HB88/217, NZ Gazette 1971 p.19), Hawke’s Bay Land District, and the building known as the Church of the Immaculate Conception thereon. (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for further information).
Legal description
Pt Kakiraawa 2B3 (RT HBC1/57) and part of the land described as Kakiraawa 2B2L (RT HB88/217, NZ Gazette 1971 p.19), Hawke’s Bay Land District
Cultural Significance
Cultural Significance or Value The Church of the Immaculate Conception was the centre of Māori Catholicism in Hawke’s Bay and was built at a time when rangatira were deliberating matters of religion. It has particular associations with Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti rangatira Puhara Hawaikirangi, the patron of the first Catholic Māori Mission in the rohe, and his son Urupene Puhara, who owned the land on which the church was built in 1880. Waimarama Puhara, the grandson of Puhara Hawaikirangi, was buried on its original site. Suzanne Aubert’s role as godmother to Maria Makarea, the daughter of Marata Te Heuheu and Urupene Puhara, is a personal link to a whānau deeply connected to the place. Social Significance or Value The church’s social significance was evident at an early date through the raising of community funds for its construction. The relocation of the church in 1967 and subsequent use as a multi-purpose facility shows its on-going value to the Pakipaki community. Its retention on a site adjacent to its original location highlights its status as a treasured community building worthy of saving. The creation of the Paki Paki Whare Karakia Charitable Trust to restore the building is evidence of its contemporary social significance. Spiritual Significance or Value The church retains spiritual meaning through its history as a site of worship for the Hawke’s Bay Māori Catholic community. This is bolstered by its well-known association with Suzanne Aubert, a current candidate for canonisation. The place has formed part of the evidence supporting her proposed elevation to the sainthood and Aubert’s international reputation has given it a spot on the international Catholic pilgrimage trail. As demonstrated by the name of the restoration trust, the church is still understood as a whare karakia, a house of prayer.
Historic Significance
Historical Significance or Value The church has considerable historic significance for its direct association with the Catholic nun, nurse and social worker Suzanne Aubert, a person of great importance in New Zealand history. Missionary work within Māori communities was a major part of her life’s work and one in which a significant period of time was spent in Hawke’s Bay, where the Church of the Immaculate Conception is located. The church represents a high point of Aubert’s impassioned advocacy on behalf of Māori in the region and is a symbol of her success as a Māori missioner. If not for her, it is unlikely that the church would have been built. She is credited with a major role in reviving Marist missionary work in the Wellington diocese and the church speaks to this achievement. It is the oldest known surviving building connected to Aubert. It is also significant for its associations with the first Māori priest Wiremu Te Awhitu. The Church of the Immaculate Conception has historic importance because it represents the establishment of organised European religion, the impact of the New Zealand wars and Pākehā settlement on missionary activity and the competition between denominations for Māori adherents. It was built at a time when Māori communities in Hawke’s Bay were considering their religious options and demonstrates the importance of church building to proselytising activity.
Physical Significance
Architectural Significance or Value Though the Church of the Immaculate Conception has been shorn of some of its original architectural features, it remains a representative but accomplished example of a rural Gothic revival church. It is typical of small country churches in its simple form, modest size and timber construction; however the continuous hood moulds above the windows are unusual for a church of this type.
Detail Of Assessed Criteria
It is considered that this place qualifies as a Category 1 historic place. It was assessed against, and found to qualify under the following criteria: a, b, d, e, f, h, j & k. (a) The extent to which the place reflects important or representative aspects of New Zealand history The Church of the Immaculate Conception reflects the establishment of organised European religion in New Zealand, Catholicism in particular, and associated missionary activity. It represents the renewal of missionary work following the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s but also, through its somewhat challenging origins, the impact of the diversion of missionary attention away from Māori to a rapidly growing Pākehā settler population. The place’s location within the Māori settlement of Pakipaki and the patronage of the Puhara whānau reflects the incorporation of Pākehā ideas and activities into te ao Māori and the role played by rangatira in their acceptance and transmission. (b) The association of the place with events, persons, or ideas of importance in New Zealand history The place has an outstanding association with Suzanne Aubert who, through her missionary, nursing and social service work, is recognised as a significant figure in New Zealand history, and is in line to become the country’s first Catholic saint. Her personal work ethic, determination and passion, knowledge of te reo Māori and respect for tikanga, attributes and skills that contributed to her high standing in later life, were exemplified in her efforts to get a priest and church for Pakipaki. It is a key site in the missionary aspect of her life that speaks to her success as a Māori missioner. It possesses special significance as the oldest surviving building that Aubert was involved in constructing. It also has significance through its association with the first Māori priest Wiremu Te Awhitu. (d) The importance of the place to tangata whenua The place has important links to nineteenth century Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti rangatira Puhara Hawaikirangi, the first Māori patron of the Hawke’s Bay Catholic mission. His son Urupene Puhara’s desire for a Catholic priest in Pakipaki is clearly documented; the appointment of Father Soulas and the subsequent construction of the church satisfied this aspiration. Urupene Puhara’s son Waimarama Puhara was buried next to the church in 1947, indicating a connection spanning generations. A close association between Pakipaki’s Houngarea Marae and the church is evident in the marae’s use as an alternative venue for mass when the church congregation exceeded its capacity. Its removal to an adjacent site in 1967 after much debate signifies a close attachment to the place. Enduring importance is demonstrated by the recent creation of the Paki Paki Whare Karakia Charitable Trust to restore the church in recognition of the cherished association between tangata whenua and Suzanne Aubert. (e) The community association with, or public esteem for the place Kaumatua recollections show the place occupied a central spot in the social fabric of Pakipaki in the mid-twentieth century. The relocation of the place to a nearby site, its continued use as a community facility and the creation of the Paki Paki Whare Karakia Charitable Trust shows a high level of public esteem for the place. The Sisters of Compassion, the religious congregation founded by Suzanne Aubert, has demonstrated great esteem for the place by supporting the efforts of the restoration trust.. International Catholic pilgrims have visited the place, indicating that public interest goes beyond New Zealand. (f) The potential of the place for public education The place has the potential to educate the public on the uptake of Catholicism by Hawke’s Bay Māori, the role church-building played in missionary work and the maintenance of religious faith, and the presence of Suzanne Aubert, a major figure in New Zealand history, in the region. It is located in a publically-accessible place near the main centres of Hastings and Napier and though not open to the public, can be easily viewed from the outside. (h) The symbolic or commemorative value of the place The place has outstanding value as a symbol of Suzanne Aubert and the missionary aspect of her life. Its symbolic value is heightened by Aubert’s status as a Catholic saint in waiting, which has attracted Catholic pilgrims to the site. (j) The importance of identifying rare types of historic places The place has outstanding importance as the earliest surviving building Suzanne Aubert was involved in constructing. Her role in New Zealand history and international religious status elevate what is an accomplished but typical country church to a high level of significance for rarity reasons. (k) The extent to which the place forms part of a wider historical and cultural area Located within the small papakāinga of Pakipaki, which contains three marae, two other churches and two wāhi tapu sites, and which is the historic centre of Māori Catholicism in Hawke’s Bay, the place is a key part of an area of wider historical and cultural significance. Summary of Significance or Values The Church of the Immaculate Conception has outstanding historic, symbolic and rarity significance for its direct association with Suzanne Aubert during the key part of her life in which she devoted herself to missionary work in Māori communities. She has been recognised for her seminal role in reviving Marist missionary activity and her success in securing a priest and church for Pakipaki, the centre of Māori Catholicism in Hawke’s Bay, is testament to this achievement. The place is highly significant as a sign of the dedication to Catholicism by the descendants of the rangatira Puhara Hawaikirangi, the first Māori patron of the Hawke’s Bay Catholic mission. Public esteem for the place is evident in the relocation rather than demolition of the church, its continued use as a community facility and the creation of a restoration trust. At its heart the place is a tangible expression of a shared Catholic faith; one that required the energy and devotion of Suzanne Aubert combined with the commitment of tangata whenua to reach fruition.
Construction Details
Finish Year
1880
Start Year
1880
Type
Original Construction
Description
Church relocated approximately 40 metres west to a site adjacent to its original location
Finish Year
1967
Start Year
1967
Type
Relocation
Construction Materials
Timber walls and framing, corrugated iron roof.
The Church of the Immaculate Conception was built at Pakipaki, a small papakāinga (village) south-west of Hastings, in 1880. The name is an abbreviation of Te Pakipaki-o-Hinetemoa. This tells the story of Hinetemoa, who gathered up her rāpaki (skirt) after being seen bathing and threw it around her shoulders, which made a clapping (‘pakipaki’) sound. Her son Te Whatuiāpiti was the eponymous ancestor of Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti, an iwi resident in Heretaunga (Hawke’s Bay) when Ngāti Kahungunu arrived in the early seventeenth century. Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti eventually became part of the Ngāti Kahungunu whānui but nevertheless ‘retained a separate identity’. War and exile Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti and Ngāti Te Ūpokoiri, a hāpu of Ngāti Kahungunu, battled for control over Heretaunga in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Ngāti Te Ūpokoiri enlisted the assistance of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, who raided Heretaunga from their lands around Taupō. In 1819 Ngāti Tūwharetoa unsuccessfully attacked Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti at the pā in the middle of Roto-a-Tara, a lake near Te Aute. A few years later, with Ngāti Te Ūpokoiri and other allies, including Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Tūwharetoa again besieged Roto-a-Tara. Te Pareihe, war-leader of Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti, built a pūhara (tower) after the invaders put a causeway across the water. The defenders threw rocks from the tower and one launched by a warrior called Hawaikirangi killed the Ngāti Maniapoto leader Te Arawai. He was named Puhara to commemorate this feat. Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti were victorious but Te Pareihe knew the invaders would return with muskets. He took his people north to Nukutaurua on the Māhia Peninsula, where most of the Heretaunga population ended up living in exile during the so-called ‘musket wars’ period. There Puhara Hawaikirangi must have met the Marist Father Claude-André Baty because he was described as ‘the chief supporter of the Papists’ (Catholics) by Anglican missionary William Williams in 1841. Catholic missionaries had first arrived in New Zealand in 1838, some 24 years after their Anglican counterparts. Catholic Māori mission The people returned to Heretaunga over the next few years. Puhara Hawaikirangi became the patron of the Catholic Māori mission in Hawke’s Bay when Marist missionaries settled on his land at Pākōwhai in late 1850 and built a station. Having a rangatira for a patron offered security but the mission was vulnerable to shifting iwi politics. In 1857 Puhara Hawaikirangi was killed during an inter-tribal battle over land sales to the government. He was said to have been baptised a Catholic before he died, during which his blood mixed with the baptismal water. After his death the pā at Pākōwhai was ceremonially burned and the community was separated ̶ the mission shifted north to Meeanee in 1858 under the leadership of Father Euloge Reignier and the Māori Catholics founded a new settlement at Pakipaki a few years later. Suzanne Aubert In 1871 the French Catholic lay sister Suzanne Aubert (1835-1926) joined the Marists at Meeanee. Missionary work had ground to a halt during the wars of the 1860s and in the following decade a growing Pākehā population diverted the priests’ attention away from their Māori flock. With Father Reignier now ageing, Hawke’s Bay was effectively without a Māori missioner until Aubert, a proficient speaker of te reo Māori whose skills and energy were recognised by Reignier, took up the role in an unofficial capacity. . By 1872 she was ‘visiting fairly regularly six or seven pa [sic], and the chiefs, who were a bit unfriendly and suspicious at first, now give me a warm welcome’. Missionary work was to be a key aspect of her life and a significant portion of this work was carried out in Hawke’s Bay. Aubert had worked as a volunteer nurse in France and her medical skills were in demand as infectious diseases like smallpox followed Pākehā settlers into the region. She treated 1,353 people in 1874 and twice that in 1877. She brought her medicine bag on pā visits and treated Māori and Pākehā patients at the mission station, administering the unique remedies created from native plants (collected with the help of knowledgeable Māori women) for which she later became known nationwide. She was a much-trusted medical practitioner, described by the rangatira Renata Kawepo as ‘the doctor of doctors’. She baptised babies when a priest was not available and became a godparent to some, including Maria Makerema, the daughter of Marata Te Heuheu and Urupene Puhara (the son of Puhara Hawaikirangi) of Pakipaki. Though she believed in freedom of religion and co-operation between denominations, Aubert was a strong advocate for Catholicism and worked hard to shore up and grow the faith among Hawke’s Bay Māori. As a woman, she could not carry out sacramental duties so she vigorously lobbied her superiors for an official Māori missioner, an appointment she believed was essential for the faith’s survival in the region. She was concerned that Māori were becoming Protestants or returning to their customary spiritual beliefs in the absence of such a person. Francis Redwood (1839-1935), the new Catholic Bishop of Wellington, was sympathetic. Aubert invited him to Pakipaki during a trip to Hawke’s Bay in 1875 and he promised to find a priest. The people wanted a young man, whom they believed would be better placed than an older man to learn the te reo Māori and tikanga (customs). Such a person was not quickly forthcoming. In 1877 Urupene Puhara lamented the delay: ‘where in the world does this bishop live, who came to see us two years ago and promised us a priest? He’s just like all the rest, he forgets us….’ That year Hawke’s Bay rangatira held a series of hui at which religion was much discussed. The outcome was a commitment to freedom of choice with Protestantism and Catholicism seen as ‘equal in goodness’. Aubert, with Urupene Puhara’s words in mind, worried that ‘everything [would] end up the protestant way’ if Pakipaki didn’t get its priest. By the end of 1877, with Anglican churches served by ministers springing up at Hawke’s Bay pā, she stopped telling the Pakipaki community a priest was coming: ‘I can see only too clearly the disbelieving smiles on my listeners’ lips’. In the meantime Redwood commissioned her to revise the Māori Catholic prayer-book and catechism. The first edition had been published in 1847; copies were scarce and transliterations outdated. The almost-500 page Ko te ako me te karakia o te hahi Katorika Romana was published in Napier in 1879, followed by a much shorter edition in 1881. A new priest and church The prayers of Aubert and the Pakipaki community were answered in early 1879 when they received word that Frenchman Father Christophe Soulas had volunteered for the position of Māori missioner. He arrived in Pakipaki in midsummer and by the end of the year community fundraising for a church had begun. Who instigated the church is unknown, but Aubert had witnessed first-hand the importance of church building to the maintenance of the faith and would have been closely involved. It is highly likely that she donated some of the inheritance she received on her father’s death in 1874 to the building fund. Her single-handed achievement in gaining a dedicated Māori missioner for Pakipaki was undoubtedly a critical precondition for the church and had a wider significance. Aubert has been credited with playing ‘a major role in the revival of the Marist mission in the Wellington diocese’, which Hawke’s Bay was part of, and the church symbolises this revival. It is the oldest known surviving building she was involved in constructing. The church was built on land owned by Urupene Puhara and he helped with the construction. It was blessed by Father Yardin of the Meeanee Mission on 8 June 1880 before a crowd of Māori Catholics, mission priests, and nuns from the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions. Aubert described it as a: ‘pretty little Church…well-constructed in semi-Gothic style: a high, graceful vaulted roof, a large double window adorning the back of the sanctuary, four beautiful windows spaced down each side, and at the back a big double door. The belfry has a spire and the little bell reminds you of an abbey bell.’ An old altar from Meeanee was ‘transformed’ by decorations including fresh flowers, laces, beadwork and an altar cloth embellished with ‘a large lamb embroidered in white wool lying down before a cross’. A pearl chandelier hung in the nave. The church furnishings were French in style and there were no Māori elements to any aspect of the design. After mass the Pakipaki community put on a hākari (feast). Of all the Pākehā guests, only Aubert and two Marist brothers attended, the remainder causing offence by dining at a local hotel owned by a settler family. Aubert’s knowledge of and respect for tikanga was evident and the incident highlighted a long-standing gulf between Māori and Pākehā Catholics that she was rare in bridging. This could not, however, detract from what was for her ‘a day of great happiness in New Zealand’. Aubert stayed in Hawke’s Bay until 1883, when she and Father Soulas were sent to establish a Māori mission at Hiruhārama (Jerusalem) on the Whanganui River and subsequently built St Joseph’s Convent (List No.961; Category historic place) in 1892, followed by St Joseph’s Church (List No.161; Category historic place) in 1893. She had spent the last years living at Pakipaki and the people were loath to see her go. They wrote to her at Hiruhārama, asking her to come back or at least send medicines in her stead. When she left, Ngāti Kahungunu woman of mana Airini Karauria (1854/55?-1909) gave her a silver cup. Aubert went on to found a new religious congregation, the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion (known as the Sisters of Compassion), and moved to Wellington in 1899. Over time her focus widened from solely rural Māori communities. She devoted her final two decades to the urban poor, opening a soup kitchen, crèche and children’s home in Wellington and another in Auckland. At her death in 1926 she was nationally renowned for her wide-ranging charitable work and her funeral was said to be ‘the largest ever held for a woman in New Zealand.’ In her later years she described her time in Hawke’s Bay as the happiest period of her life. Subsequent history Aubert and Father Soulas were not immediately replaced and the congregation was served by Māori catechists (teachers of the faith) and visiting priests. Those based at Pakipaki were often on the road visiting other villages. The Church of the Immaculate Conception nevertheless remained a centre of Māori Catholic life in Hawke’s Bay for almost ninety years. Wiremu Te Awhitu (1914-1994), the first Māori to be ordained as a priest, celebrated his first mass at Houngarea Marae across the road only because the church was not big enough to hold all the guests, and later became Pakipaki’s priest. Waimarama Puhara was buried in its grounds in 1947, a tangible demonstration of the deep connection between the Puhara whānau and the church. His father Urupene Puhara had gifted the land on which it stood to the Archbishop of Wellington in his 1911 will. The church was an integral part of life in mid-twentieth century Pakipaki, as one kaumatua described in the early 2010s: The Catholic Church was a part of the whānau I was [brought] up with. The priest would bike from Taradale to celebrate mass monthly….We [used] to have church parades and masses; they [used] to run the parade up and down the road, and we would have masses on the marae because there were too many people for the church. In 1967 the Church of the Immaculate Conception, by now deemed by some to be in a ‘poor state’ was moved approximately 40 metres west to make way for a new church that opened the following year. The move was controversial, causing in the words of Father Gordon Kerins, the instigator of the new church, ‘the usual rows’. During the move the bell tolled once, provoking tears among the crowd watching. The last person to lie in state within the church was Pakipaki kaumatua Jim Kenrick, who had argued for its retention as a church. The building remained a valued part of the Pakipaki community and was used for wānanga, haka practices, accommodation and storage. It hosted a youth carving school in the 1980s and a programme for unemployed youth in 2009. Suzanne Aubert’s legacy The Pakipaki community and the Sisters of Compassion were reconnected as participants in the Herbal Remedy (Rongoa) Analysis Project, which from 1993 investigated the ingredients of Suzanne Aubert’s herbal remedies. Three years earlier the Sisters had begun the lengthy (and still on-going) process required to have Aubert recognised as New Zealand’s first saint and her time in Hawke’s Bay was used a supporting evidence. In 2003 Pakipaki kaumatua and descendant of Urupene Puhara Ira Te Au testified to Aubert’s significance at a diocesan inquiry. Following a meeting between Pakipaki residents and the Sisters of Compassion, the Paki Paki Whare Karakia Charitable Trust was created in 2016 to restore the Church of the Immaculate Conception to honour the tipuna Urupene Puhara and Suzanne Aubert. By then it was already on the international Catholic pilgrimage trail. Trustees include representatives of Houngarea Marae and members of the wider Catholic community. Among the trust’s objectives are vows to honour ‘the stories of the generations of our culture and our traditions’ and ‘cherish and celebrate our treasured relationship with Mother Aubert for her work within our hapu’, highlighting the enduring links between the people of Pakipaki, the tipuna Urupene Puhara and Suzanne Aubert.
Current Description Site The Church of the Immaculate Conception (1880) is located on Miriama Road in the small Hawke’s Bay papakāinga of Pakipaki, approximately eight kilometres south-west of Hastings below the Kaokaoroa Range. Pakipaki has two main residential streets, Miriama Road and Old Main Road. It is surrounded by farmland to the north, west and south and is flanked by State Highway 2 and the Palmerston North to Gisborne railway line on its east side. Pakipaki is served by three marae, Houngarea, Mihiroa and Taraia. Houngarea Marae, on the other side of Miriama Road, is closely associated with the Church of the Immaculate Conception and provided an alternative venue for mass when the congregation exceeded capacity. Adjacent to the church is Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (1968), the current Catholic church. The former presbytery (circa 1960s) is located between the two churches. Approximately 200 metres to the east on Old Main Road is St Luke’s Anglican Church (1923). Rātana Church services are held at Mihiroa Marae. The presence of three religious denominations in Pakipaki gives the small settlement a richly ecumenical identity. Pakipaki contains two wāhi tapu sites: Pakipaki Urupa (List No.7452) and Mihiroa Rakau Pitopito (List No.7411). Exterior The Church of the Immaculate Conception is a rural Gothic revival timber church of modest but accomplished design located on an unfenced corner site. The grounds are bare of plantings aside from a tōtara tree on the east side of the section. The church was relocated from an adjacent site in 1967 and faces south. The involvement of an architect or builder has not been established. Comparison of the present building with historic photographs shows some loss of original architectural features; nevertheless the building retains a good level of integrity. Approximately 14 metres long by 5.7 metres wide, including the apse, the church is clad in painted rusticated weatherboards and has a red corrugated iron gable roof topped by the base of the original belfry (evident in historic photographs but no longer present) at the front entrance. The belfry base is embellished by simple multi-foil detailing on the east and west sides. The bargeboards on the north and south gable ends are undecorated. The original finial at the south end apex, visible in historic photographs, is absent, as is the bell, which was relocated to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. The divided double lancet doors at the entrance are obscured by a rudimentary porch added at an unknown later date. The two original wooden steps have been replaced with concrete steps, while the bottom half of the front exterior weatherboards have been clad with hardboard. There are three lancet windows evenly spaced on the east and west sides. Most of the windows are filled with stippled glass. Of note is the continuous hood mould that runs above and between the windows, unusual on a building of this type. Historic photographs show this decoration originally culminated in two large chevrons (now absent) on either side of the front door. Historic photographs also demonstrate that each side had a fourth window at the back end, providing a pleasing symmetry to the window placement. By the 1930s the fourth windows were replaced by an altar boys’ dressing room on the west side and a sacristy on the east side, both of which have subsequently been removed. What are now two exterior doors originally provided access to the dressing room and sacristy from the interior. The hexagonal apse on the north (back) end with two small rectangular windows filled with stippled glass was added at an unknown date. The original back wall contained two lancet windows side-by-side. The base boards on the west side of the apse have been painted with kōwhaiwhai patterns, most likely when the church hosted a carving school in the 1980s. Interior Entry to the church is via the divided double lancet doors on the south side. The main entrance doors are secured with a modern lock cylinder and bolt above what appears to be the original simple knob door handle and keyhole. The timber floorboards have been covered with hardboard. The floor is slightly raised at the north end before the side doors and further raised at the sanctuary. The nave is supported by a series of exposed timber scissor trusses. The walls are lined with slim horizontal tongue and groove panelling painted blue and yellow, while the ceiling is similarly lined but with vertical panels painted blue. The side doors, which replaced two windows, are surmounted by the original arches of the interior frames. The sanctuary, lined with horizontal boards, has been embellished with a mural depicting Jesus Christ, angels and cherubim above the legend ‘FAITH, HOPE, PEACE AND LOVE’. This mural is believed to have been painted in the 1980s during the carving school period. The baseboard at the entrance to the sanctuary is embellished with geometric and cinquefoil shapes. The church is empty of all interior structures and furnishings, such as the altar and pews. . Comparisons The Church of the Immaculate Conception predates other places Suzanne Aubert was associated with the construction of. Aubert and Father Soulas were sent to Jerusalem/Hiruhārama on the Whanganui River in 1883 to revive the Catholic mission, which had been abandoned in 1864 during the New Zealand Wars period. There she was involved in this construction of the 1892 St Joseph’s Convent (Catholic) (List No.961; Category 1 historic place), in which her new religious congregation was housed and the 1893 St Joseph’s Church (Catholic) (List No.161; Category 1 historic place), for which she toured the country to raise funds for its construction. The 1914 Home of Compassion Crèche (Former) (List No.3599; Category 1 historic place) in Wellington was built when Aubert was overseas securing papal approval for her religious congregation. Though on a much smaller scale, the Church of the Immaculate Conception shares similar features to St Joseph’s Church (designed by prominent Wellington architect Thomas Turnbull) in keeping with a shared Gothic revival style, including the hood moulds, lancet windows and hexagonal apse. Other Māori Catholic churches built in later decades of the nineteenth century include the 1883 St Peter’s Church (Catholic) in Panguru (List No.444; Category 2 historic place), the 1895 St Werenfried’s Church (Catholic) in Waihi Village (List No.943; Category 1 historic place) and the 1899 St Gabriel’s Church (Catholic) at Pawarenga (List No.76; Category 1 historic place). The 1900 Te Nakahi Parahi and Urupa at Waipawa, otherwise known as the Church of the Brazen Serpent, is a comparable church associated with Māori Anglicanism. St Peter’s, St Gabriel’s and Te Nakahi Parahi share a similar lack of original Māori decoration to the Church of the Immaculate Conception, a design element that distinguishes St Werenfried’s.
Completion Date
11th November 2018
Report Written By
Kerryn Pollock
Information Sources
Munro, 1997
Jessie Munro, The Story of Suzanne Aubert, Auckland, 1997
Grace, 1992
Grace, John Te Herekiekie, Tuwharetoa: the history of the Maori people of the Taupo district. Auckland: Reed Books, 1992.
Munro (Ed.), 2009
Munro, Jessie (ed.), Letters on the go: the correspondence of Suzanne Aubert. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2009.
Report Written By
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Current Usages
Uses: Maori
Specific Usage: Whare karakia
Former Usages
General Usage:: Religion
Specific Usage: Church
Themes
Of Significance to Maori