www.rnz.co.nz/wairau The Wairau Affray in 1843 is considered the first of the NZ Wars conflicts and the only one to take place in the South Island. Made with the support of NZ On Air.
Little disappointed there wasn't a touch more focus on the details of the event. My understanding is a shot was accidentally fired while crossing the many waka lashed together like a big raft right across the creek. Sadly, this stray shot killed Te Rongo. Thompson's party then retreated to the high ground (many hadn’t yet crossed the creek) Te Rangihaeata and his men came out into the open to resolve matters in good faith. Thompson’s men then deliberately fired on them from the high ground without warning. Cowadice in the extreme. Te Rangihaeata then stormed the high ground and killed the captives on that ground. If you visit the memorial and look down at the creek, you can see the high ground provided a significant advantage. There was nothing dignified about Thomson actions that day, he totally underestimated Ngāti Toa... which only happens once.
I hope this history is taught in schools today. My generation didn't get educated on the history. That ignorance of mine and previous generations causes so much harm. Thank you
If we wait for the schools, we might be waiting a long time. I learned about Rangihaetata from my father who took me to Tuamarina when I was a boy. We walked the ground and he retold and showed me what happened. Maybe Te Ao Maori has traditions and ways that extend beyond the formal classroom setting? Could it be that Pakeha "schools" aren't always the preferred or appropriate method for transferring certain knowledge and skills? Maybe Te Ao Maori is just different to the Pakeha world and that's ok? Tihei mauri ora.
The first of human settlement and the inter tribal fighting in this nation prior to European settlement are primarily hidden within tribal stories of the tribes. However there are numerous eye witness accounts that given by elderly tribal chiefs that reveal that even before European settlement this country was not a safe place and the law of Utu was actively practiced. Now a different one law for all applies we can only but hope that by learning from the past peace can prevail now and for future generations of all those born of this nation.
@@siix477in those dense and unforgiving marsh's is a lot of history there. If you keep heading north east of picton you'll come across a sight seeing spot called Karaka Pointe where there is a path to walk, that is such a awesome and spine tingling place.
An excellent documentary that really helps me contextualize my family history. My GGG Grandfather was one of those Pākehā settlers that got caught up in Wakefield's mad operation. John was a barely literate English gardener that moved with his family to NZ for a better life but struggled to find work in Whakatū Nelson. He was enlisted (or press ganged according to some stories) to crew the ship taking Wakefield to Wairau. Here he took part in and (barely) survived the fight. After escaping, he was able to return with Rev. Ironside to help bury the Pākehā dead. Afterwards, he said that thoughts of reuniting with his wife and young children was all that sustained him during this period. As a child I thought of this story of my ancestor as a epic adventure, as an adult... let's just say the complexities of this tragic, and seemingly preventable, incident will take time to process. Needless to say, my tamariki will learn about both sides of their Māori/Pākehā whakapapa. Ngā mihi nui. Thank you.
This is a powerful story and statement, I always knew that the soldiers had no choice in their choices of future endeavours. I'm glad he got to go home to bring you to light. I'm the GGG grandson of King Potatau and if I have his mind then I believe his connection to pakeha was just. I'm glad my ancestor lived so that I could too.
Namaste. My mum would remind me theres two sides to every story, then theres the truth. History is written by the victors. We are all of one love and I want to walk with love. Churr
I have always wondered why maori were so passionate and adamant about their land's and why they'd fight for it. Now, watching all these video's, I've come to realize and understand the reasoning behind their fight against colonization and especially against pakeha. Im 40 now and had no idea of the stories behind Aotearoa and the battles of the maori people had to endure to fight for such rights.
The maori chiefs sold their land in South Island. They wanted the money and the muskets and the blankets. Do blame us Europeans The Maori anted Europeans to come here and stop the musket wars Blame your ancestors who sold the land And bear in mind that most of the South Island was pretty baren and useless at the time. And that there were only about 2000 maori in the whole South Island
Straight to the point this is what England has always done. Love this the true history of n.z I acknowledge all the Māori lost is this battle may their spirit rest in hawaikii with our tupuna..
@@tima5750the people of ngati moriori are still alive mate. They don't like being a mysterious story pakeha made that Maori killed their tribe. It's also not your fault you got given stupid education about Maori. If you ask me pakeha probably tried to kill their tribe to aquire their lands and then tried to blame Maori for their horrific acts against maori people.
@@ENZEE1 oh this old chestnut .. all accounts are from pakeha .. and Māoris never committed violent crimes against each other and wiped out other tribes .. it’s all a white person conspiracy. The only moriori alive to tell the tale were the slaves that remained
@@tima5750they are still here. Some say they maori killed them off, some say they left to sail to another place. But thru stories passed on to me by a Kaumatua they were red-haired people and of pale skin a type of iwi that amalgamated with another small iwi and were forced further south because of their indifference. They were forced so far south that to get away from all their troubles of the land they sailed to Rekohu/Rangiaotea (Chatham Islands) to find peace. Some of them come back to the main land after surviving tribal slaughter by both maori and Europeans as they were a passive and friendly natured people. The ones that escaped the massacre had children with other tribes. Some iwi in NZ have naturally red haired kids. Which is mostly a throwback in genetics to the moriori.
This a really cool idea. I never knew this series existed, I'm going to watch all of them. Not quite as detailed as Michael Kings Penguin History but some really riveting korero.
Thank you to Mihingārangi one again for bringing our retold history back into our indigenous / iwi perspective and preserving this kōrero. McKillop was an ensign of the British navy, who wrote clear accurate notes of the affray, as he was there, along with captain English also from the navy. The NZ Company had not attained the lawful right to have an official armed force for Nelson and wairau appointed to them, so they acquired soldiers paraded as simple farmers. Do not be mistaken, Police magistrate Thompson (was suffering from syphilis hence his apparent rage filled outbursts) was egged on by Arthur and the Wakefields to make an example of Te Rauparaha and it was at a public meeting that he was overheard by Ngati Toa, calling Te Rauparaha a thuggish bully , a lowly dog that should be taught a lesson, and " that he could be tempted even by a piece of damper bread" that was the insult returned, for it was ngau tuara kōrero of our Chief and like many before, each insult would be accounted and answered to. A wero by te Waaka te Kotua was also delivered and Thompson stood on the taki. In Mckillops diary he remembers hearing fire English fire, not forward English forward. The first shot took Te Rongo. The archeological evidence found at the exhumation and checking of the skull of Te Rongo determined by a current day (1990s) forensic police investigator, she was killed by a marksman shot to temple to temple. My Whānau remembers this story too well because mum Raiha Waitohi Waaka retold this kōrero from her grand aunt Kui Mata Kotua who was alive at that time .
Yes because they had already wiped out 6 species of Moa by this stage, in just 3 generations actually, cannibalism followed. This is also history. I don't think it's impressive or funny at all, it's depraved. It's also a good way to introduce disease.
@@jenlt5125most Maori were not cannibals as there was plenty of recourses for food as they were taught to live off the land, rivers, streams and sea. Most iwi thought of cannibalism as Tapu(sacred) and was only for the most vile and cursed people. When i was a little kid a maori elder told me this story around a firepit at the beach while we were cooking our toheroa.
@jenlt5125 you need to look up European cannibalism. Cooked human flesh were being sold in markets over in Europe because of famine. Missionaries were sent to nz to stop cannibalism meanwhile Europeans were eating mummies for medicinal purposes
At the 6:44 minute mark of this video is shown a painting which has a bent gum tree in the background, in 28 December 1836 by the old gum tree In Glenelg South Australia under the command of Hindmarsh Stevenson gave the proclamation of South Australia by what looks like the exact tree in this painting
It's like,- now is a good time to tell these salvages their history. How could you? I'm so crushed and discussed with this knowledge it's hurt's, but we are warriors, we have love and compassion like no other, we're a Nation of the Pacific Ocean. 🌊 In the end the truth will prevail. Let our voices be heard my God Amen 🙏
Thats what happens when you try be foolish and greedy for land. They had all that time to fix the solution instead tried to ignore it. They couldnt ignore the patu in the end.
Great to hear Ngati Toa understanding of Wairau Incident . Grew up in Blenheim sad to see rich greedy fools from Nelson / England get so many people killed . History seemed to repeat in Waikato Land wars of 1860s rich greedy fools from waikato wanted Tainui land . 1st timothy 6:10 the love of money is the root cause of all kinds of evil . Hoping one day clan Mac Gregor will receive compensation from the Crown for our confiscated land . Does anyone know what happened to Gaptain Wakefields sword?
I traced my earliest European ancestor in New Zealand from here, he was a waler named Michael Aldridge hes got a bay in port Underwood named after him call "tongue bay" as he was a tongue between Maori and English speakers, he had a maori wife named pari and he helped both European and maoris after the affray. He helped some of the Europeans who ran on to his property in the area which he purchased from a chief in 1839 a year after he came to NZ. He helped ngati toa cross the cook strait and talked to them after the event with reverend Samuel Ironside also fluent in te reo and collected the pakeha bodies to bury them. The monument marks the mass grave that he helped dig and the maoris were buried in their tribal area from what I read and probably given a traditional burial
+Chief Rawiri Puaha was the son of Te Matoe a senior chief. +Nohorua and Te Rauparaha were his uncles. Brothers of his mother Hinekoto. +He was also the resident Chief of the Wairau with his brothers Te Kanae and Tamaihengia. Those two were also apprehended with Te Rauparaha from Taupo Pa. +Some of the muskets dropped by Wakefields men were not even loaded properly and wouldn't have fired. Which shows how inexperienced they were. They lost their lives on a fools errand. And they never stood a chance. +The three chiefs who signed over the Wairau to the crown were Rawiri Puaha, Tamihana Te Rauparaha and Matene Te Whiwhi..... This was basically a ransom to procure the release of Te Rauparaha. Which sounds like kidnapping and blackmail to me 🤷🏾♀️
The documentary starts by saying the Maori were utterly devastated after this. Yet Maori names remained up and down the country - many maraes remained - the people were not wipe out - the real devastation happened after the 1950s when they were urbanised.
Crazy how the teriti of waitangi was signed before the wars kicked off pretty much saying Maoris didn’t even no what it was also crazy how the pakeha hold it tightly today and so they should
The biggest massacre and injustice in post European times in the south island wasn't Europeans but the unhinged cannibal ,Te Rauparaha on his raiding Kaiapoi. Stop the racist bs you are painting the European. My ancestors got on well with the Europeans and traded favorable with them and to this day never had a problem.
thank you, thank you, thank you. Good truth to know, but not a good truth. I have heard and will carry that in my kete, that kete of hope for justice that tangata whenua have been so very very patient with. What scumbags the Wakefields and Grey were. Reading Te Puea by Michael king, Grey was the dirty dog there too with taking an opportunity to grab land...and destroy a thiving Kingitanga.....I am ashamed by those actions.
@@jamesmorgan9282 the land is often returned but then sold off then reclaimed once again, I don't think you know how greedy Maori operate. Settlements are constant and massive, Maori are not hard done by in this country. Which is great but those dirty corrupt iwis need to stop playing perpetual victim.
@@rossyreincarnated3017 In Treaty Settlements, the financial compensation is roughly 1-2% of the real value. For example, Ngai Tahu received $170M for land that was valued at $18B. Pākeha were privileged at the expense of Māori. Want to swap?
It is not important what the truth is about land deals. When one cannot reject outsiders from entering his territories, he will eventually lose his land.
dr Vince O'Malley is well researched, and so is governor fiztroys and swains declaration, well recorded, . You guys don't like the truth being revealed, ... Research Wakefield and his crimes in England, but then you lot ain't really interested in the truth, just protecting the colonial narritive, ..
I have given up faith in the Waitangi tribunal after I learned something about those sitting on it deciding what's true, right or fair. I heard one of the commissioners speak at uni and it didn't seem very fair or factual to me, more like personal opinion
What needs to be realized there were shysters on both sides when it came to land sales. Te Raupreha was known to sell land not his, as did other tribal chiefs. There are records of some blocks of land being sold several times in one day to unsuspecting settlers, look at Taranaki and Southland. My take on most of the land issues is geed on both sides, just like the later greed we are experiencing through the Waitangi tribunal today.
Im so pleased theyve aired this as its been one sided where the maori have run riot with their hard done by stories. The maori are lucky, they have maori and European blood, and should be celebrating both heritages, cos thats what they are, a mixture of European and maori blood. Indigenous on that basis, NO, their ancestors travelled to nz, so again, Indigenous, NO.
All of the South Island Maori are white or fair-skinned today because the men were killed and the women were raped after this event. When are we gonna talk about that?
Quite a history about the Maori - put the Inca's or the Aztecs to shame in degeneration. Outcast during the 13th century as weaker primitive Neolithic people by the invading Hawaiians & Tongans (Maori were from the original wave of primitive Asian/Melanesians pushed right out across the Eastern Pacific by successive stronger more advanced groups coming from the west). They were outcast on rafts and some floated up in NZ stranded for 500 years. The weaker were pushed down to the South Island or Chathams etc. So the South Island Maori (had their own language) were the weakest of the weak. They were captured and eaten as 'Slave flesh' by the northern Maori doing raids. (Well they all ate each other - 80% of Maori pre European were dark skinned easily fattened slaves farmed and eaten by a lighter skinned 'Ariki' thin wiry elite royal caste). So it was with some righteousness as well as British cunning that they armed the southern Maori who then with muskets launched a genocidal war on the north.. That plus measles & flu halved the Maori population and removed most of the elite. The British then liberated the slaves and outlawed cannibalism. The northern Maori fought with the British against the south bad west Maori 'rebels'. The Maori sued for peace and a treaty was signed that removed all sovereignty and made them subjects to the English crown where the English would protect them from each other. Land could only be sold to or via the Crown. Maori could live on their reservations with native custom but none did. The treaty of Waitangi is strikingly clear in that the Maori cede sovereignty completely and become citizens of Great Britain - all 3 clauses lock that in. Nothing in today's 'Maori' culture is authentic. The music - all European (Maoris did not have tonal music, the songs are missionary tunes or introduced - Poi dance is from Islands and Stick dance from old Malaya. The carvings and art - all European - Arabesques that was the fashion at the time. Original Maori had limited dash carving and no painting of objects. No written language - all the syntax & grammar plus vowel inflection is European. No technology - some lagoon canoes and wood or stone Neolithic tools. No food sources - like pigs or crops - they left that all behind, all they had was a weak inbred fox (now extinct), some rats and a weak dismal pacific yam. They ate out all the bird-life, didn't know how to farm the sea as were island people and so they turned to societal cannibalism. Today - no full blood or half blood left. No genuine tradition and almost all are offspring of Maori slave females sold to white settlers for muskets or food. -So more fake than the 'Sioux' or 'Cherokee' or 'Crow' who had at least retained some genuineness about who they were and their history. -Everything you 'saw or experienced' is Fake. A totally convected disneyfied tokenistic set of inventions fueled by a grievance culture of mixed-race imposters fetishing a false past bad history because it pays benefits. 'This Horrid Practice' - Professor Paul Moon, "A Savage Country" Professor Paul Moon 'Behind The Tattooed Face' - Heretaunga Pat Baker, 'Anthropology In The South Seas' - H D Skinner
@torqingheads Is that right?! I learnt to carve at a young age an was taught how to examine and read the story being shown. As it is a form of communication and history. My kaiako, told me that he was taught by his great grandfather who learnt from his own koro before they passed n im positive that taa moko is another way to express n show our history on our skin. My kaiako also said that the first taa moko that was done was to impress another mans wife, which eventually worked. Enraged by her for leaving him for another, he also had his people carve what he saw around his Paa and Marae onto himself to get her back but doing this angered his other wives so they snuck into the other iwi at night killing her an marking her body with koru n curved gashes to her face, stomach, hips and thighs. How much of that is true? Im not sure. But when i was being told this i could tell that he missed his koro n always told stories to us bout things i didnt understand then. But im sure as hell now, that he told stories that was told to him by his ggf he was a bit of a hardarse, strict asf but loving. Sorry for the long bloody speech lol.
Never we're a spiritual people. The colonialists best shot was to bred us out and maybe they did. But they couldn't wipe out the language or the rituals. If anything we're a lot closer and more civil towards each other than at any other time in our history(it is a big deal) The Mana of the land transcends the physical. They even have a maori version of the N.Z anthem. That they perform on the international stage. We're stronger now confident in the direction of our progress also knowing that there's still a long way to go Kia Kaha Kotahi Ra Our strength is our unity.
My understanding from reading a very brief history of this conflict & the Nelson area is that Ngati Toa lived west of Hamilton until the 1820s when Tainui forced them out (stole their lands?) and they then moved south, fought & conquered Ngati Ira (in the Wellington area) who were eradicated (so Ngati Toa stole their lands) They Ngati Toa also 'took' lands in the Nelson region. So who 'owned' these lands prior as it appears they were only in the region approx 20yrs before this tragedy unfolded? Also spoken history seems to focus on Pakeha as the only ones who killed and stole lands, when they appear to simply be the last to do so
The Maori knew that by murdering the colonial prisoners - they would be starting something bigger. They could have let them go in the really wanted peace - but they did not.
Those poor settlers. First swindled out of there money then out of there lives. I knew before watching this that despite this they would be blamed. We will forever remember the truth!
As always with these documentaries, there is never any support for the Maori owning land. They lived in small tribes, never farming or cultivating the lands. This documentary portrays the Maori as they were, wondering through the lands and killing those who they came across. From England to Europe, lands are farmed and cultivated, something that they did not see when they arrived in New Zealand. The main item the Maori had was weapons, the taiaha or the patu are among the few that they had.
Māori lived off the land. The Wairau has multiple gardens and food storage sites across the whole valley. Most sites have now been flattened and used for housing, vineyards and so on. 'The main item' they had used was not taiaha or patu, they were more used for warfare, which didn't happen all the time. The common item was a sturdy stick, sharpened or not they used them for digging g a r d e n s, canals, storage pits, and other things. Not often used as a weapon but more as a multi use tool. It's the same thing with vikings. They weren't just blood hungry savages killing, r a ping and so on. Majority were farmers.
@@echidna276 the moreore, do some research dude the Maori came from Hawaii and they concurred the people that were already here that had come from Samoa and Tonga in a previous migration.
Moriori are not indigenous to Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu, they are indigenous to Rekohu. Māori did not come from Hawai'i, they came from Hawaiki. Hawaiki being Tahiti, Rarotonga and the islands in that area. Moriori were not conquered by Māori in the early settlements, However Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama did raid and conquer them in the early 1800's. I ask you to do some research, dude.
@@echidna276 sorry but your ring I lived on the island where Maori came from in NZ , where the Cano they traveled from Hawaii landed. You don't know what you are talking about
@@kiwiprouddavids724 no sorry, you're wrong. I know what I am talking about. What island did you live on where Māori came from? Are you claiming all Māori came from there?
So it turns out it was a massacre by the Maori on surrendered prisoners. Yes nice spiritual vaules. Pretty much the way of hate, anger, violence - the dark side of the force.
To catfishbillie @catfishbillie8819 you could include Maori under your claim of genocide as well. The Morori genocide was the mass murder and enslavement of the Moriori people, the indigenous ethnic group of the Chatham Islands, by members of the mainland New Zealand iwi (tribes) Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama from 1835 to the early 1860s. The invading tribes murdered around 300 Moriori and enslaved the remaining population, causing the population to drop from 1,700 in 1835 to only 100 in 1870.
![[PG] NZ Wars: Stories of Wairau | Documentary | RNZ](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
