He Wahine, He Whenua I Ngaro Ai? Maori Women, Maori Marriage Customs and the Native Land Court, 1865-1909 Inano Walter A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand 2017 Created 16/10/2017 ii Abstract The aim of this study is to investigate and identify the effects the Native Land Court and native land legislation had on customary Māori marriage practices from 1865 to 1909. While researchers have produced a variety of important understandings of the court’s role in promoting land loss in Māori society, Māori women’s involvement in the court and its effects upon them is just beginning to be examined. This thesis makes a contribution to Māori women’s history by accounting for the role the Native Land Court and associated land legislation played in reshaping customary Māori marriage practices in nineteenth and early twentieth century New Zealand. Even though native land legislation was one of the key mechanisms by which the state governed Māori land as well as marriage, this connection is rarely examined within the same frame. The Native Land Court is a forum where land and marriage did interact. Focusing on a case study of Ngāti Kahungunu, I situate prominent Māori women in the Native Land Court, and use their experiences to further understandings of how Māori marriage, which is often examined in a pre-European context, was shaped by land title investigations and succession cases. This study was conducted utilising statutes, colonial newspapers and the Napier Minute Books. In the first chapter, this thesis uses ethnographic material to describe and interpret marriage customs prior to European contact, its draws upon missionary understandings of customary marriage upon arrival to Aotearoa, and also traces how colonial law managed marriage prior to the Native Land Court 1865. This provides vital contextual information for the later chapters. The next chapter discusses native land and marriage laws between 1865 and 1890 and how they affected customary Māori marriage practices. Chapter Three examines three prominent Māori iii women involved in well-known legal cases. The final chapter discusses Māori women’s political organising and traces their attempts to protect and retain land during the 1890s. The thesis ends with a discussion of the Native Land Act 1909, a significant consolidating act. Focusing on the overarching structures of the law and its effects on customary Māori marriage allows this study to consider the broader effects it had on Māori society. What emerges from the study is how whakapapa and kinship structures underpin and inform Māori marriage, and how Māori forms of celebration continued to be practiced into the early twentieth century. Nonetheless, a main driver of change lay in assimilation policies that directed native land legislation towards individualisation of title, which undermined Māori women’s access to own and manage land. iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors Associate Professor Angela Wanhalla and Dr. Mark Seymour. I am very grateful to have had two knowledgeable, patient and talented people who offered unlimited guidance throughout this process. A scholarship received as part of Angela’s Rutherford Discovery Fellowship made this project possible, and I am extremely appreciative to have received this. Thank you to all those consulted in the History Department and Te Tumu School of Māori and Pacific Island and Indigenous Studies at the University of Otago. Last, but most definitely not least, I would like to thank my family and friends, in particular Mel who kindly helped with the final editing phase. My cousin Mereana Taripo, who has been the awhi rito of our family with her loving and unwavering support. Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do for us cousin. To many whānau members, who offered to babysit my kids (and husband) while I did (or did not) do thesis related work, who provided company, laughter, and kai for my belly. Thank- you for never badgering me about my studies or even knowing quite what my research was about but just being immensely proud of me. A big thank you for the financial support so that my family could attend important occasions; unveilings, weddings and birthdays. I am forever indebted to you all, and as part of giving back this thesis is a bigger part of that commitment. Thank you to Tihema Makoare whom was mostly supportive in his limited capacity, as managing his whereabouts was probably harder than the entire thesis. Lastly, my three beautiful little children, in which this thesis is essentially dedicated to, you are my motivation, light and inspiration; Te Manava, Te Uira and Te Kainuku Makoare, may you do the things in life that make you truly happy. Mauria te Pono - Believe in yourself. v Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv List of Illustrations vi Glossary of Māori Terms vii Introduction: Māori Marriage Customs and the Native Land Court 1 Chapter One: Māori Marriage Customs Prior to 1865 15 Chapter Two : Marriage Customs and Colonial Legislative Frameworks 52 Chapter Three: Case Studies in the Dissolution of Customary Māori Marriage, 1880-1900 77 Chapter Four: Māori Women’s Political Organising, 1890s-1909 103 Conclusion: The Evolution of Customary Marriage and the Native Land Court 136 Bibliography 143 vi List of Illustrations Figure 1.1 Hone Heke 47 Figure 1.2 A Māori women watching a sleeping soldier 48 Figure 1.3 Unidentified married Maori Couple c.1840s 49 Figure 2.1 A picture of the first Native Land Court, Onoke Hokianga 72 Figure 2.2 Native Land Court Hearings in Whanganui c.1860s 73 Figure 2.3 Mere and Alexander Canon c.1870s 74 Figure 3.1 Airini Donelly c.1870-1880 97 Figure 3.2 Arihi Te Nahu c.1870-1880 98 Figure 3.3 Hera Te Upokoiri c.1880s 99 Figure 4.1 Mere Te Mangakahia c. 1890 128 Figure 4.2 Opening of Paremata Maori, Greytown 1897 129 Figure 4.3 Young Maori Party Members and Associates 130 Figure 4.4 Reweti Kohere, a Young Maori Party member 131 Figure 4.5 Te Haumihiata Te Atua and Wi Te Tau’s wedding in 1909 132 vii Glossary of Māori Terms1 ahi-kā burning fires of occupation ariki paramount chief Atua God awa river hahunga ceremony for uplifting bones haka ceremonial dance hapū sub-tribe iwi tribe karanga to call out or shout kaumatua elder kawa protocol Komiti committee mana wahine female authority mana prestige marae courtyard maunga mountain moe-māori co-habiting mokopuna Grandchildren noa ordinary pā fortified village Pākehā English or foreign pākūhā to hold a traditional wedding ceremony Paremata Māori Māori Parliament pātaka storehouse raised upon posts puhi virgin or woman of high rank rangatira to be of high rank raruraru trouble, problem, dispute tangihanga funeral rites of the dead tapu be sacred tauā muru war party taumau/taumaha arranged marriage te reo Māori the māori language tikanga correct procedure tino rangatiratanga sovereignty tohi baptism tohunga spiritual advisor toko divorce tomo betroth- arranged marriage umu kōtore marriage feast utu avenge wāhine women 1 All definitions come from John C. Moorfield, Te Aka Online Maori Dictionary, http://maoridictionary.co.nz/. viii waiata songs whaikōrero make a formal speech whakapapa genealogy whakataukī to utter a proverb whānau family group whāngai foster, adopt or raise wharepuni principal house 1 Introduction: Māori Marriage Customs and the Native Land Court The smell of freshly picked flowers lingered around the room, and mouth-watering savouries and culinary delights were in abundance for the wedding guests. The Ven. Archdeacon rose and toasted the newly married couple with a speech declaring ‘the couple have given me much pleasure, and I am gratified at having been invited to attend your marriage feast. The marriage state is honorable, and it has received the sanction and approval of the lord’.1 By the mid-1870s, marriages celebrated in this way had become common between Māori, and while it had customary elements, in Western eyes it represented a sign of Māori uptake of Christian marriage. Interpretations of customary Māori marriage practices in colonial New Zealand typically focus on the pre-contact era, but examples like Hohepine Te Pohe and Taniora Tanerau’s wedding, which followed the Christian model, show Māori marriage practices were consistently undergoing change. Yet, the relationship between marriage and land remained an essential component in managing relationships, and this was recognised when the Native Land Court was established. Legislation that established the court on a national basis in 1865 not only empowered the court to manage the transfer of communal owned land into individual title, but also made it a measure of responsibility for the governing of Māori marriage. The Native Land Court, therefore, offers an excellent opportunity to capture the nexus between marriage and land often as a means to protect, retain or obtain land was done through strategic marriage alliances. This thesis will examine the fundamental ways in which the Native Land Court impacted on Māori marriage practices in nineteenth and early twentieth century New 1 Waka Maori, 7 March 1876. 2 Zealand. The establishment of the Native Land Court along with its associated legislation represented a turning point in the struggle for land control in colonial New Zealand. Indeed, the effects of the new land court and legislation went to the heart of Māori custom and cultural practices and influenced change in the very fabric of social life. Historian Hugh Kawharu believes the law and the court were a ‘veritable engine of destruction for any tribe’s ambition for long term and secure land tenure’.2 Historian Judith Binney agrees, describing the court as an extension of the tools of war: ‘an act of war’ itself.3 Understandings of Customary Marriage in the Native Land Court The Native Land Court has attracted much scholarly attention.