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RNZ News
3 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
'I've had to reconcile that' - Ngāti Hine leader reflects on King's Birthday tohū
Ngāti Hine leader Pita Tipene speaking at Waitangi. Photo: RNZ Tipene is to be a [ Companion of the King's Service Order] for his contribution to his community through governance as a Māori leader for more than 30 years. Tipene has been the chair of the Ngāti Hine Forestry Trust for 20 years, helping grow and transform the financial assets, chaired Te Kotahitanga o Nga Hapū Ngāpuhi for 16 years and has chaired the Manuka Charitable Trust, which protects Manuka as a taonga in the global market. He is the chair of Motatau Marae and is a familiar face to locals and politicians at Waitangi, often speaking at the dawn ceremony as chair of the Waitangi National Trust from 2018 to 2025. He is also a member of the National Iwi Chairs Forum and has presented to the Waitangi Tribunal on behalf of Ngāti Hine and Ngāpuhi since 2010. Speaking to RNZ, Tipene said service to his people before himself is the most important measure of his career. His mahi means he often has to fight against the Crown to recognise Māori rights and interests under Te Tiriti o Waitangi - the same Crown who have just recognised him for his services to Māori. "I have had to reconcile that, in talking with my own whānau," Tipene said, "I'm talking about my wife, tamariki and the wider whānau." In March, Tipene was nominated for and won the Tai Tokerau Māori Business Leader Award, a tohū he initially refused to be nominated for. "[That was] until I was reminded of my father's first cousin, Sir James Henare who was given his knighthood in 1978. He would come up to our home in Motatau and talk with my dad because they were both 28th Māori Battalion and they were first cousins and they were good friends." "Sir James alerted my dad to the fact that he had been nominated and asked what my dad thought. From what I can remember, there was a tenseness for him to even receive that award." While that was "all history now" and people remember Sir James with pride, the conversation still rings through his head. "I remember him saying, 'e kore e te tangata e taea te mea he māngaro ia, ko hau tāu he kumara'." "He was saying that the māngaro is the sweetest of all of the kumara and a person or human being cannot allow themselves to be described as that. It was one of the things that we've been raised on - whakaiti or humility." "What Sir James was saying is, to be awarded a knighthood, a whole lot of people in the local community who he served had put his name forward as well as the wider regional and even national community supported him to receive a knighthood. "Who was he, despite all his humility - and we remember him for his humility - who was he to deny everyone else's support for him to become a knight?" Those words meant Tipene "reluctantly" accepted the Māori Business Leaders Award. "Given my approach to the business leaders award, why would it be any different to this, knowing full well that it's a government award - there's that part of it too. That needs to be reconciled, but the same thing applied to Sir James Henare. "I'm certainly not putting myself in his category. Not at all. He was a leader of… a real leader. Put it that way. "But the principle of why he accepts is the same principle upon which I'm accepting something that I've tried to reconcile because he in his very diplomatic way, but no less strong, opposed successive governments in his time." Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf Tipene was raised in Opahi, south of Moerewa on a small dairy farm only milking about 50 cows, and is the third youngest of 11 children. "When I was being raised, our parents always spoke in te reo Māori and so we grew up being bilingual, bicultural, having gone to Motatau school and having a generation of kaumatua and kuia who are very much still part of our hearts and minds today and who handed us values of humility of to this to the people before service to self. "They are values that I hold dear to and have been reflected throughout my life," Tipene said. "There is no fulfilment that is more important than serving your own people and doing your best to put your shoulder to the wheel to improve the circumstances of your communities whether they be in Motatau, Opahi, Ngāti Hine or Tai Tokerau." Shane Jones and Pita Tipene at the Ngāti Hine joint venture launch on May 31. Photo: RNZ / Lois Williams Pita was educated at Māori boy's school St Stephens, which he credits as giving him a more "national" and "international" outlook on the world. "Coming from Motatau, you never went to Auckland or very rarely. So, St Stephens was another great part of my life journey that I savour and remember with much fondness." From St Stephens he moved to Waikato University and was lectured by the likes of Timoti Karetu, Te Murumāra John Moorfield, Hirini Melbourne, Wharehuia Milroy and John Rangihau and even flatted with former Education Minister Hekia Parata in his first year. "The relationships that were made really strong with all my peers of the time are all really strong leaders throughout Aotearoa. "I think I've been very fortunate because through all that time our mum and dad sacrificed much because they were running a dairy farm. "Not only did they have to pull the money together to pay for my fees and my time at St Stephens over five years, but they were also doing it without somebody who could help on the farm. "In hindsight, that was a significant sacrifice for them to make, so, anything that I've done to honour the aspirations that they had for all of us as children, all of my siblings, cousins, has all been brought out of those values and sacrifice." Ngati Hine leader Pita Tipene during the 175th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Ruapekapeka Pā in 2021. Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf Tipene is a keen historian, a trait he credits to his mother. "For us here in Ngāti Hine, we place a lot of stead on what our tupuna said and did in their times and sacrificed. For instance, Kawiti signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi along with his two sons in 1840. Kawiti refused, on the 6th of February, by the way, and incidentally signed in May almost to the week. "He then was one of the main leaders against the British in war, five years later in 1845 and 46, so only a couple of weeks ago we commemorated one of those big battles raged here in the mid-North on the shores of Lake Omāpere." He said not long after those battles in 1846, Kawiti was credited with a phrase commonly called "Te Tangi a Kawiti". "Ka kakati te namu i te wharangi o te pukapuka, ka tahuri atu ai kotou," Tipene said. "He sent a message to future generations saying 'I have committed myself to a partnership through Tiriti o Waitangi', which is the 'pukapuka' described in that line… and therefore, given my commitment to this partnership, should that partnership ever be threatened, you and each generation must stand up and uphold what I have committed to. "We will all stand up continually to how we envisage the Crown is doing its best to undermine the honour of Kawiti and all of his peers who signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi which really leads to the work I've done in the Waitangi Tribunal and anything to do with Te Tiriti o Waitangi. "Kawiti's words ring in our hearts, and it really motivates and drives us here in 2025," Tipene said. 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RNZ News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Hundreds to gather to remember Battle of Te Kahika
Ngati Hine leader Pita Tipene during the 175th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Ruapekapeka Pā in 2021. Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf Hundreds of people are expected to gather at Northland's Lake Ōmāpere on Saturday to remember a battle that event organisers say is as pertinent today as it was 180 years ago. The Battle of Te Kahika, one of the early confrontations of the Northern War, began on 8 May, 1845. Ngāti Hine leader Pita Tipene said British forces were unable to take Hone Heke's pā at Te Kahika but they did inflict heavy losses. The dead included Taura, the son of Kawiti, Hone Heke's most important ally. Saturday's commemorations were due to start at 5am and would include karakia, haka and a re-enactment by more than 100 students from Northland College, Ōkaihau College and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Kaikohe, with the action illuminated by fires and strobe lights. Spectators would be taken to the pā by shuttle bus from Ōkaihau College starting at 4am, returning to the school afterwards for wānanga and breakfast. Among those sharing their stories would be descendants of those who fought in the battle. Warriors from mass haka group Te Tira Taua advance on a waiting crowd during 175th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Ruapekapeka Pā in 2021. Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf Tipene said the reasons Māori went to war in 1845 were as relevant now as they were 180 years ago. "The motivation for the conflict is what we're putting the focus on. Why were they fighting? And it was all about rangatiratanga and the eroding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi," he said. Tipene said the organisers were deliberately drawing parallels with what many Māori saw as erosion of Te Tiriti today. "As Māori, we've put the muskets and cannons and the other fighting weapons away … but the struggle continues to hold onto our rangatiratanga, our authority, that was promised in Te Tiriti o Waitangi." Māori fought on both sides in the Northern War, so reconciliation was another aim of the commemorations. "There is still some deep-seated bitterness that some Māori in the North were fighting for the British Crown, so talking the truth and being forthright about why that all happened, and what it means in 2025, is also important," Tipene said. Other goals were ensuring New Zealanders knew their own history, and having the Northern War included in the school history curriculum. Tipene wondered if students at Ōkaihau College, for example, were taught about the battle, despite their lessons taking place less than 5km from Te Kahika Pā. "While we rightly commemorate Anzac Day, as we should, other battles, and people who sacrificed their lives, are largely forgotten. So, when we say 'lest we forget', we are already forgetting battles on our own patch." Tipene said there was no obvious sign today of Te Kahika Pā. Hone Heke chose the site on a slight rise for its good "field of fire" across the surrounding terrain. Tipene said the seeds for the Northern War were sown not long after the signing of Te Tiriti. Despite promises they would retain their rangatiratanga, the northern chiefs soon found their authority diminished. For example, chiefs Hone Heke, Kawiti and Pōmare had previously collected anchorage fees from ships in the Bay of Islands, a busy port in those days. However, within months of the Treaty signing, customs officers employed by the Crown started collecting the fees instead, Tipene said. Hone Heke had earlier gifted the timber for the flagstaff atop Maiki Hill in Kororāreka (now Russell) but, as anger mounted, he cut it down three times during the summer of 1844-45. He then travelled to Waiōmio, south of Kawakawa, to seek Kawiti's support for stronger action. He presented Kawiti with a greenstone mere, named Te Mere Whakakopa, but when Kawiti took it out of its kete, he found it was smeared with human excrement. Kawiti understood the symbolism immediately, Tipene said. "The greenstone mere was the authority of the Māori people, and the excrement was the defiling of that rangatiratanga by the British authorities," he said. Members of the New Zealand Wars Re-enactment Society stand to attention during 175th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Ruapekapeka Pā in 2021. Photo: RNZ/Peter de Graaf On 11 March, 1845, Kawiti, Pumuka and others led an attack on Kororāreka township, while Hone Heke again cut down the flagpole on Maiki Hill. The entire British population fled to the safety of Auckland while the Governor called for reinforcements. Troops sent from Sydney blockaded the Bay of Islands and, on 31 April 1845, attacked Pōmare's pā at Ōtuihu in an attempt to bring the rebels to heel. Ōtuihu is straight across the water from where Ōpua wharf is today. Just over a week later, British forces attacked Te Kahika Pā, which Hone Heke was still building. The battle took place in the open with losses especially high among the defenders. "Kawiti lost his own son, Taura, so it was devastating," Tipene said. "The British also suffered casualties, though not as many, but they were eventually forced to withdraw and returned to the Bay of Islands without taking the pā. It was inconclusive. You could call it a draw," he said. British forces then travelled up the Waikare River to attack Te Kapotai and, in late May, fought a battle at Te Ahu Ahu, just outside present-day Ōhaeawai. The penultimate battle, at Ōhaeawai on 1 July, 1845, was a disaster for the British, who launched a frontal assault against a heavily fortified pā. At that point, Kawiti resolved to take the war back to his own territory, and spent the next six months building Ruapekapeka Pā, south of Kawakawa. The British made the long march inland to Ruapekapeka and eventually took the pā, though not Kawiti or his fighters, on 11 January 1846. Tipene said the theme given to Saturday's commemorations was Te Mere Whakakopa, the name of the greenstone mere Hone Heke gave to Kawiti to symbolise the defiling of Te Tiriti. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
