~ 1 ~ KAIHU THE DISTRICT NORTH RIPIRO WEST COAST SOUTH HOKIANGA HISTORY AND LEGEND REFERENCE JOURNAL ELEVEN PART ONE CHURCH’S-SCHOOLS 1800-1900 ~ 2 ~ CHAPTERS CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER SIX SPREADING THE WRITTEN WORD WAIMAMAKU VALLEY PAGE 4 PAGE 91 CHAPTER TWO WAIOTEMARAMA: CHURCH VERSES CULTURE WAIMAMAKU: PAGE 8 REV WIKI TE PAA: WAIMAMAKU MAORI SCHOOL: CHAPTER THREE FOUNDATION PUPIL: MARAMA RUSSELL: INTRODUCING THE CHRISTIAN FAITH WAIMAMAKU VALLEY SCHOOL: 1890. PAGE 13 CHAPTER SEVEN MR AND MRS JOHN WHITELY: WAIPOUA SETTLEMENT POMPALLIER: THE FRENCH VICAR: PAGE 194 HEREMIA TE WAKE: MR AND MRS JAMES BULLER: SOURCES BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE 215 CHAPTER FOUR INTRODUCING SCHOOLS PAGE 31 CHAPTER FIVE SOUTH WEST HOKIANGA PAGE 38 PAKANAE: MARY ANNA SMALES: PAKIA/OMAPERE: ~ 3 ~ It is my wish to have all of my ‘history research journals’ available to all learning centres of Northland with the hope that current and future generations will be able to easily find historical knowledge of the Kaihu River Valley, the Northern Ripiro West Coast and South West Hokianga. BELOW: COMPUTER DRAWN MAP SHOWING THE PLACE NAMES BETWEEN MANGAWHARE AND SOUTH HOKIANGA ~ 4 ~ 1 SPREADING THE WRITTEN WORD Note: 1800 – 1900: During this period and for this area I compile for, it could be argued that both Church and School came under the same Cathedral of learning. It could be said they passed “Through the Window of Time” together, hand in hand. As early as 1836, printing presses was imported by Pompallier along with other Catholic missionaries; Pompallier sponsored the printing of prayer booklets in Maori: these were some of the earliest Maori publications. The call for local publications had been taken up earlier by other denominations and so the Maori language would become familiar with the ‘written word’ from as early as the 1820’s. By 1900, the Kainga/Villages of South Hokianga, Waimamaku Valley, Waipoua, Maunganui Bluff, Kaihu/Opanaki, Te Taita and Mangawhare were well established. Christianity and the three R’s (arithmetic, writing and reading) had been accepted generally, first as a result of the early Wesleyan missionaries and later through visits from Church of England clergy and then the Catholic pilgrims. The legacy of these visits of which some still stand today are the very well-built quant old churches that are scattered throughout Northland and this area between Hokianga and the Northern Wairoa … LEFT: SPREADING THE WORD FROM THE HEBREWS BOOK: “THERE IS BUT ONE GOD” ~ 5 ~ MICHAEL KING (NZ HISTORIAN): Gives his view on how the written word was spread from Kainga to Kainga in the 1830’s… ~ 6 ~ PERSPECTIVE FROM THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY'S MISSION RECORDS… ‘MAORI INTEREST IN LITERACY’… Next to the blessings of a more spiritual nature, thus far described, may be noticed the thirst for knowledge, which has been excited among the early New Zealanders. Every one now wishes to learn to read and write; and those who are sincere in their professions are willing to pay for the requisite materials; that is, to purchase books and slates, for the purpose of instruction. ~ 7 ~ Many native villages have two schools established, under the direction of a lad who has previously received his instruction from the Missionaries themselves. It is scarcely to be expected that there should be much order or classification in a school commenced and conducted by an untutored man, whose whole previous life has been disorder and irregularity, and where the visits of a superintendent must generally be “few and far between”. But let the plan upon which they have conducted their schools be what it may, very many, some hundreds, have learned to read and write in them; to read so as to understand and to be understood; and to write a good bold hand upon a slate. Much may be expected from these schools: they are an inquiring people in this country; and the knowledge thus obtained is easily communicated from one to another: sometimes it is carried to a great distance, to tribes whom we thought to be in perfect ignorance. Persons who have been made prisoners of war, and enslaved by the Bay-of-Islanders, have been educated in the Mission Schools; and then, having by some means obtained their freedom, or having received permission, from the chief to whom they belonged, to depart for a season, have visited their friends; and, carrying with them their little stock of knowledge, have at once commenced the work of instruction, and have been readily and eagerly attended to by the whole people. In this way, in some of our distant journeys, we have met with the most agreeable surprises. When we have been telling them of some of the first principles or truths of our holy religion, what has been our astonishment to hear them say, “We know all that!”, but upon examination, to find that they really had obtained no contemptible degree of knowledge. The cause has, however, soon been explained: their friends, one, or two, or more, had returned from slavery, and had again and again told them all the wonders they had heard; and had willingly communicated to them all the religious and other knowledge they possessed. And when the remoter natives became acquainted with the other acquirements of their returned countrymen; when they found that they were blacksmiths, or carpenters, or brick-makers; and knew other simple arts, and could render essential assistance in erecting their houses, or in otherwise adding to their comforts; they more readily received, as truth, the lessons which they taught of the religion of Jesus, and the descriptions they gave of what He did and suffered for the salvation of the world. 1 1 SOURCE: WILLIAM YATE, AN ACCOUNT OF NEW ZEALAND AND OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY'S MISSION IN THE NORTHERN ISLAND, LONDON, 1835, PP. 239-41. ~ 8 ~ 2 CHURCH VERSES CULTURE CENTURIES OLD POLYNESIAN PERSPECTIVE ‘TAPU’ ‘Tapu’ is the strongest force in Maori life. It has numerous meanings and references. Tapu can be interpreted as ‘sacred’, or defined as ‘spiritual restriction’ or ‘implied prohibition’, containing a strong imposition of rules and prohibitions. A person, an object or a place which is Tapu, may not be touched by human contact: In some cases, not even approached. A person, object or a place could be made sacred by Tapu for a certain time, and the two main types of Tapu were private and public. Private Tapu concerned individuals, and public Tapu concerned communities. In earlier times, tribal members of a higher rank would not touch objects which belonged to members of a lower rank. This was considered ‘pollution’. Similarly, persons of a lower rank could not touch the belongings of a highborn person. Death was the penalty. A breach of ‘Tapu’ was to commit a hara (violation) and could incur the wrath of the Gods. Certain objects were particularly tapu, so much so that it was a dangerous act to even touch them, apart from suitably qualified priests. In 1772 the French explorer ‘Marion du Fresne’ was killed for breaching a particular ‘Tapu’. In earlier times food cooked for a chief was Tapu, and could not be eaten by an inferior. A chief's house was Tapu, and even the chief could not eat food in the interior of his house. A woman could not enter a chief's house unless a special religious ceremony was performed. (The karakia) An ariki (chief) and a tohunga (healer or priest) were lifelong Tapu persons. Not only were their houses Tapu but also their possessions, including their clothing. Burying grounds (urupa) and places of death (wahi tapu) were always Tapu, and these areas were often surrounded by a protective fence. ~ 9 ~ Two other types of Tapu were ‘rahui’ and ‘aukati’, but ‘Tapu’ itself was the most powerful, the most important, reaching far back into Polynesian life. ‘NOA’ ‘Noa’, on the other hand, lifts the ‘Tapu’ from the person or the object. ‘Noa’ is similar to a blessing. Tapu and Noa remain part of the Maori culture today, although persons today are not subject to the same Tapu as that of previous times. A new house today, for example, may have a ‘Noa’ ceremony to remove the ‘Tapu’, in order to make the home safe before the family moves in. Today, ‘Tapu’ observances are still in evidence concerning sickness, death, and burial. ‘Tapu’ is also evident in the Marae and in the Whare. The original reasons for some ‘Tapu’ are unclear today, but other reasons for ‘Tapu’ included the conservation of natural environment. This was seen to benefit the community as a whole. ‘THE GODS’ Material symbols of the gods were used throughout Polynesia. They varied from natural objects, such as stones, shells, teeth, and human hair, to images carved in wood or stone. Clubs and other manufactured objects were used in Samoa and Tonga; carved slabs decorated with feathers in some of the Cook Islands; and carved wooden images in Rarotonga and Aitutaki of the Cook Islands, Society Islands, Australs, Marquesas, Mangareva, Easter Island, Hawaii, and Tonga. In Central Polynesia, the images were termed ‘tiki’, in Hawaii, ‘ki’i’ (tiki). In the Society Islands, the images termed ‘ti’i’ were abandoned as symbols of the gods but were used by sorcerers to represent their familiar spirits (orometua). The gods, represented by wood covered partly or entirely by a wrapping of sennit braid, were termed ‘to'o’. Thus the terms tiki and toko used for the two types of Maori symbols were brought from Central Polynesia by the Maori ancestors. Stone images were made in the Society Islands and Hawaii and they were developed to a large size in the Islands of Austral, Marquesas, and as well Easter Island.