Te Ārai ō Wairau
On 17 June 1843, a significant incident now known as the Wairau Affray was the first major conflict between Māori and Pākehā after the signing of Te Tiriti only three years before. It was also the first of many conflicts that were part of the New Zealand Wars | Ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa.
Four Māori and 22 Pākehā were killed at Tuamarino when an armed party of New Zealand Company settlers from Nelson clashed with Ngāti Toa over land rights in the Wairau Valley.
Although Ngāti Toa had not sold any rights to the Wairau, the NZ Company went ahead with survey’s of the valley with the intention of settling it with British settlers. Te Rauparaha, Te Rangihaeata and other senior Ngāti Toa chiefs travelled to the Wairau to evict the surveyors from their land. The eviction was peaceful with Ngāti Toa escorting the survey parties back to the Company's ship. There was no violence to the surveyors, but they burnt their temporary shelters, and destroyed their survey pegs and ranging rods.
The site at Tuamarino river.
When the survey party returned to Nelson, the local Magistrate, Henry Thompson, issued a warrant for the arrest of Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata, on charges of arson. Thompson and Arthur Wakefield, the NZ Company agent in Nelson, recruited forty-seven Special Constables and sailed to the Wairau to execute their warrant. Most of the recruits had no police or military training, and some had never handled a weapon.
On 17 June 1843, the NZ Company party formed on one side of the Tuamarino Stream, with Te Rauparaha and his party, including women and children, opposite. Despite pleas for peace were sought by Rawiri Puaha. However, Wakefield and Thompson ordered their constabulary forward, to arrest Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata.
In confronting them about the charges of arson of the surveyors’ shelter, Te Rangihaeata is quoted as saying:
“Have I stolen a single nail, that you should come and imprison me? Have I injured a European, or touched anything in his tent, although pitched upon lands you are plundering me of? May I not do as I please with my own blanket? You and your own people are the robbers, and not me; go and manacle them, I will not go with you.”
In the confusion and heat of the situation, Te Rongo, the wife of Te Rangihaeata, was shot by one of the NZ Company parties. The resulting skirmish saw several Special Constables killed and the remainder put to flight. Some who attempted to surrender were executed by Te Rangihaeata, as utu for the death of his wife and comrades.
Both Wakefield and Thompson and another twenty settlers were killed. Four Ngāti Toa, including Te Rongo, were also killed in the skirmish.
This pakanga is remembered by Ngāti Toa as yet another example of British injustice. It came hot on the heels of the murder of another Ngāti Toa woman, Rangiawa Kuika, and her son. The felon, Dick Cook, was not convicted for her rape and murder which only confirmed Ngāti Toa’s lack of trust in the British justice system.
As told by Ammon Katene.