Transgressing Boundaries: a History of the Mixed Descent Families of Maitapapa, Taieri, 1830-1940
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Transgressing Boundaries: A History of the Mixed Descent Families of Maitapapa, Taieri, 1830-1940 A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History at the University of Canterbury by Angela C. Wanhalla 2004 ABSTRACT This thesis is a micro-study of intermarriage at the small Kāi Tahu community of Maitapapa from 1830 to 1940. Maitapapa is located on the northern bank of the Taieri River, 25 kilometres south of Dunedin, in Otago. It was at Moturata Island, located at the mouth of the Taieri River, that a whaling station was established in 1839. The establishment of this station initiated changes to the economy and settlement patterns, and saw the beginning of intermarriage between ‘full-blood’ women and Pākehā men. From 1848, Otago was colonized by British settlers and in the process ushered in a new phase of intermarriage where single white men married the ‘half-caste’ and ‘quarter-caste’ daughters of whalers. In short, in the early years of settlement intermarriage was a gendered ‘contact zone’ from which a mixed descent population developed at Taieri. The thesis traces the history of the mixed descent families and the Maitpapapa community throughout the nineteenth century until the kāika physically disintegrated in the 1920s. It argues that the creation of a largely ‘quarter-caste’ population at Maitapapa by 1891 illustrates the high rate of intermarriage at this settlement in contrast to other Kāi Tahu kāika in the South Island. While the population was ‘quarter-caste’ in ‘blood’, the families articulated an identity that was both Kāi Tahu and mixed descent. From 1916, the community underwent both physical and cultural disintegration. This disintegration was rapid and complete by 1926. The thesis demonstrates that while land alienation, poverty, poor health and a subsistence economy characterized the lives of the mixed descent families at Maitapapa in the nineteenth century, it was a long history of intermarriage begun in the 1830s and continued throughout the nineteenth century which was the decisive factor in wholesale migrations post World War One. Education, dress and physical appearance alongside social achievements assisted in the integration of persons of mixed descent into mainstream society. While Kāi Tahu initially welcomed intermarriage as a way of integrating newcomers of a different culture such as whalers into a community, the sustained pattern of intermarriage at Maitapapa brought with it social and cultural change in the form of outward migration and eventual cultural loss by 1940. CONTENTS Abbreviations i Note on Dialect ii Glossary iii Graphs iv Tables v Maps vi Illustrations vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 Chapter One: Literatures 25 Chapter Two: Encounters 52 Chapter Three: Boundaries, 1844-1868 92 Chapter Four: Assimilations, 1850-1889 130 Chapter Five: Recoveries, 1891 164 Chapter Six: Identities, 1890-1915 189 Chapter Seven: Migrations, 1916-1926 230 Chapter Eight: Destinations, 1927-1940 253 Conclusion 292 Appendix One: Taieri Native Reserve Succession List, 1868-1889 302 Appendix Two: Taieri Native Reserve Succession List, 1890-1915 307 Appendix Three: Taieri Native Reserve Succession List, 1916-1926 311 Appendix Four: Taieri Native Reserve Succession List, 1927-1940 314 Appendix Five: SILNA Grantees: Taieri 317 Bibliography 319 i ABBREVIATIONS AJHR Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives ANZ-C Archives New Zealand, Christchurch Office ANZ-D Archives New Zealand, Dunedin Office ANZ-W Archives New Zealand, Wellington Office BDM Births, Deaths and Marriages, Wellington ATL Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington CM Canterbury Museum, Documentary Centre, Christchurch CPL Christchurch Public Library, Christchurch DPL McNab Room, Dunedin Public Library, Dunedin GBPP Great Britain Parliamentary Papers HL Hocken Library, Dunedin LINZ Land Information New Zealand LINZ-D Land Information New Zealand, Dunedin Office MBL Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury, Christchurch MHR Member of the House of Representatives MLC Maori Land Court, Te Waipounamu Office, Christchurch NTMTB Ngāi Tahu Maori Trust Board NZPD New Zealand Parliamentary Debates OSM Otago Settlers’ Museum, Dunedin RNZ New Zealand Railways SILNA South Island Landless Natives Act SIMB South Island Maori Land Court Minute Book Tb Tuberculosis ii NOTE ON DIALECT The dialect style used in this thesis follows the Kāi Tahu style where the ‘ng’ sound is replaced by the ‘k’ as in Kāi Tahu rather than Ngāi Tahu. The term Ngāi Tahu has been used only where it is in official use or is the general accepted term. iii GLOSSARY Ahi Kā Occupation rights Hāngi Earth oven Hapū Tribe, sub-tribe Harakeke Flax Hāwhe-kaihe ‘half-caste’ Heitiki Greenstone pendant Hui Gathering Inaka Whitebait Iwi Tribe Kāika Village Kanakana Lamprey Kaumātua Elder Kāuru Food made from cabbage tree Mahika Kai Cultivations, food resources Mōkihi Raft Murihiku Southland Nohoaka Seasonal food gathering/camping site Pā Defended site of occupation Pākehā European Pātiki Flounder Rakiura Stewart Island Rohe Territory or boundary Rūnaka Council or committee Taniwha Mythological water monster Taoka Treasured property Te Waipounamu The South Island Tikanga Custom Tī kōuka Cabbage tree Titi Muttonbird Tohuka Expert/Priest Tuna Eels Tūpuna Ancestors Umu-ti Ovens used to make kāuru from tī kōuka Upoko Leading man of a hapū Urupā Cemetery or burial ground Wāhi tapu Cemetery or reserved ground Waiata Song Waka Canoe Whakapapa Genealogy Whānau Family Whāngai Adoption, to care for or foster Whare House iv GRAPHS 1. Composition of the Taieri Kāi Tahu Population, 1874-1886 148 2. Kāi Tahu Census, 1891 174 3. Kāi Tahu Mixed Population, 1891 176 4. Kāi Tahu ‘Racial’ Composition, 1891 179 5. Application of national census categories to the 1891 Census 184 6. Composition of Taieri Kāi Tahu and mixed descent population, 199 1891-1911 v TABLES 1. Whakapapa of Patahi 66 2. Mixed Community, Maitapapa, 1849-1852 86 3. Census of Maitapapa, 1853 88 4. Taieri Native Reserve Owners’ List, September 1868 126 5. Marriages (Maitapapa Women): 1850-1889 135 6. Marriages (Maitapapa Men): 1879-1889 141 7. Kāi Tahu Mixed Population, 1891 177 8. Kāi Tahu ‘Racial’ Composition, 1891 180 9. Family Size 186 10. ‘Racial’ Composition of Taieri Kāi Tahu Population, 1891 187 11. Marriages (Maitapapa Women): 1890-1915 195 12. Marriages (Maitapapa Men): 1890-1915 196 13. Marriages (Maitapapa Women): 1916-1926 236 14. Marriages (Maitapapa Men): 1916-1926 236 15. Marriages (Maitapapa Women): 1927-1940 256 16. Marriages (Maitapapa Men): 1927-1940 256 vi MAPS 1. Location Map of Whaling Stations in Otago and Southland 56 2. Lower Taieri Place Names 97 3. England’s Topographical Sketch Map of Taieri Native Reserve, 1860 117 4. MacLeod’s Survey Map of the Taieri Native Reserve, 1868 118 5. Sketch Map of Lake Tatawai (Alexander Mackay) 220 6. Location Map of Destinations 258 vii ILLUSTRATIONS 1. William Palmer 62 2. Edward Palmer 68 3. Ann Holmes 72 4. Peti Parata and Caroline Howell 79 5. Eliza Palmer 138 6. Sarah Palmer 142 7. Robert, William and Jack Palmer 143 8. James Henry Palmer 145 9. George Palmer and Mary List 146 10. Helen McNaught and George Brown 147 11. Taieri Ferry School Pupils in the mid-1880s 155 12. Harriet Overton and her son George 194 13. Thomas Brown, 1885-1974 202 14. The Joss Family at Rakiura 203 15. Tiaki Kona/Jack Conner 204 16. Robert Brown, 1830-1898 208 17. Te Waipounamu Hall, 1901 211 18. Official opening of Te Waipounamu Hall, 1901 213 19. Hangi at opening of Te Waipounamu Hall, 1901 214 20. Wellman Brothers and Band at Henley 216 21. William George Sherburd 238 22. Wedding of Thomas Garth and Annie Sherburd 255 23. The Drummond Family 260 24. James Smith and Emma Robson 262 25. Matene Family 264 26. Ernest Sherburd and Isabella Mackie 266 27. George and Caroline Milward 269 28. William Richard Wellman 270 29. Elizabeth Garth, Thomas Garth and John Brown 272 30. The Crane Family at Waitahuna 276 viii 31. Teone Paka Koruarua and the Maahanui Council, 1905 282 32. Lena Teihoka, Waitai Brown and Mere Teihoka 283 33. Teihoka family gathering at Taumutu, c. 1930s 284 34. Tuarea 286 35. Portrait of Jane Brown 287 36. Portrait of Robert Brown 287 37. Portrait of Mere Kui Tanner 289 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been completed without the assistance, support and guidance of a number of people. First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge the support and guidance of my principal supervisor Dr. Katie Pickles whose generosity of time and advice has been invaluable and much appreciated. I am also grateful for the guidance and insightful comments of my secondary supervisor Dr. Ann Parsonson. Second, I owe a great debt to my friends and fellow postgraduates. In particular I extend my thanks to Sarah Dowling, Hayley Brown, Michael Allen, David Searle, and Matt Morris who have all made the thesis-writing process a great deal easier through their friendship. Sarah Coleman, Leedom Gibbs, Robert Peden, Kerri- Ann Hughes, Leanne Boulton and Megan Woods, have listened attentively to thesis outlines and ideas as well as the never-ending anxieties that often underlie the thesis process. I wish to specifically thank Sarah Coleman for carrying out research on my behalf in London at the Public Records Office on my ‘footloose men’. In addition, Hayley Brown’s survey of New Zealand statutes relating to Māori land and marriage on my behalf made the writing of this thesis a much easier task. Tim Nolan provided much needed cartographic technical support. The task of researching was made easier through the assistance and knowledge of staff in a range of research institutions in Otago, Christchurch and Wellington. In particular, staff at the Hocken Library, University of Otago, the Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury, the Canterbury Museum, the Canterbury Public Library, the Dunedin Public Library, Archives New Zealand Offices in Dunedin, x Christchurch and Wellington, the Land Information New Zealand office in Dunedin, the Otago Settlers’ Museum and the staff of the Te Waipounamu Office of the Māori Land Court in Christchurch have been exemplary.