Sleeps Standing: A Story of the Battle of Orakau Read online

  Both fiction and fact, this is a kaleidoscopic exploration of the Battle of Ōrākau.

  During three days in 1864, 300 Māori men, women and children fought an imperial army and captured the imagination of the world.

  Instead of following the victors, this book offers varied Māori perspectives, centring on Witi Ihimaera’s moving novella, Sleeps Standing, featuring a boy named Moetū. Further giving voice to and illuminating the people who tried to protect their culture and land are Māori eyewitness accounts, images and a Māori translation by Hēmi Kelly.

  It is estimated that at the height of the battle, 1700 immensely superior troops laid siege to the hastily constructed pā at Ōrākau. Although heavily outnumbered, when told to submit, the defenders replied:

  ‘E hoa, ka whawhai tonu mātou, ake, ake, ake!’ ‘Friend, I shall fight against you for ever, for ever!’

  Contents

  He takitaki ki te mate

  Kāwhia Te Muraahi

  Prelude: The summer had passed

  Witi Ihimaera

  Introduction: Friend, we shall fight on for ever

  Hēmi Kelly

  Sleeps Standing/Moetū

  Witi Ihimaera, translated by Hēmi Kelly

  Māori eyewitness accounts: When all is lost save courage

  Paitini Wī Tāpeka

  Rewi Manga Maniapoto

  Te Huia Raureti

  Hītiri Te Paerata

  Poupatate Te Huihi

  Orakau

  Thomas Bracken

  Postlude: Settling matters

  Witi Ihimaera

  Acknowledgements

  Witi Ihimaera and Hēmi Kelly

  He Mihi Whakamutunga

  Hēmi Kelly

  Follow Penguin Random House

  ‘Entirely surrounded, outnumbered six to one, battered and hungry, a gallant 300 Māori men and women manned the crumbling battlements of Ōrākau Pā and flung defiance in the face of the British general who asked them to surrender.

  The Dominion, 1940, publicising the film Rewi’s Last Stand

  Rewi defying the British troops at Ōrākau, as illustrated by the Auckland Weekly News in 1893 from the viewpoint of the pā.

  Alexander Turnbull Library, C-033-004

  Whakamihi

  We thank Kāwhia Te Muraahi of Ngāti Maniapoto (Ngāti Paretekawa) for opening Sleeps Standing with a ritual takitaki.

  Stan Pardoe of Ruapani and Rongowhakaata also gave ongoing moral support for the Ōrākau kaupapa. We are grateful to them both for supporting this special project to honour those who fought at Ōrākau. Those ancestors will always be remembered; they can be seen still in the faces of the descendants left behind.

  Pānia Papa of Ngāti Korokī Kahukura checked the te reo Māori text, curated it and advised on dialectal differences, word selection and language nuances to effectively portray the essence of the English text.

  Finally, thanks to Tom Roa of Waikato-Maniapoto for advice on Ngāti Maniapoto, tribal battle tactics and, in particular, the children who fought at Ōrākau.

  He takitaki ki te mate

  Taka ka taka, taka ka taka, ka taka te mōtoi kura

  E kapo ki te whetū, e kapo ki te marama

  E kapo ki te ata o taku raukura kua ngaro

  Kimihia, rangahaua kei whea koutou kua riro?

  Tēnā, kua riro ki Paerau, ki te huinga o te kahurangi, oti atu koutou e

  Ki te pō uriuri, ki te pō tangotango, ki te pō tiwhatiwha

  Ki te wahangūtanga kei te korekore

  I whatiia iho ai te kuru o te marama, tau ki raro rā

  E te mate, kei whea rā te unuhanga, te puni rangatira kua ngaro?

  Kei ngā pakanga pea o Paerangi?

  I paheke ai a Whiro te tipua ki Tāhekeroa, ki te pō naonao?

  E te mate, kei whea rā te hekenga o aku kuru pounamu ka mania?

  Kei te puapua o Hine-kuku-tangata

  Kūtia rawatia a Māui-tikitiki, tau ki raro rā

  Ngā whare ariki, ngā whare tohunga, ngā whare tū tauā

  Ngā rūruhi, wāhine, mokopuna o ngā iwi huhua i mate atu i te hoari,

  i te pū

  Koutou i hingahinga atu rā i te mura o te ahi, i te marae o Tūmatauenga

  I Ōrākau te kauhanga riringa o ngā iwi e rua

  Takahia atu rā Te Ara-whānui-o-Tāne, tūria atu rā Te Tatau-o-te-Pō

  Ki Wharaurangi, ki a Hine-nui-i-te-pō

  Auē taukiri e

  Kāwhia Te Muraahi

  President

  The Battle of Ōrākau Heritage Society Inc.

  “I believe the Kingites have composed a haka about me. It’s a delightful thing, if a man can cultivate a sense of humour. How does it go?

  ‘He kau ra,

  He kau ra,

  U --- u!

  He kau Kawana koe

  Kia miti mai te raurekau

  A he kau ra, he kau ra!

  U --- u --- u!

  “There’s a swing to it and I’m not sure that I couldn’t

  chant it quite enthusiastically myself.

  ‘Oh, a cow

  A cow

  U --- u!

  You are a cow, O Governor

  You lick up all the vegetation;

  A cow: oh such a cow!

  U --- u --- u!’”

  (extract from Rewi’s Last Stand, A.W. Reed, A. H & A. W. Reed, 1924)

  Prelude

  The summer had passed

  Witi Ihimaera

  The summer had passed, the autumn was come and the days were shorter. Migrating birds flew overhead, calling to each other across the chill streaming air.

  Rewi Manga Maniapoto pondered the changing Māori world. The last few years had been filled with wars followed by political negotiations to establish the supremacy of the Māori King in the Waikato, and then with military manoeuvring as Governor Grey tried to unseat him. In the King’s name, Rewi had taken a Ngāti Maniapoto army to fight alongside Taranaki tribes against the Governor and his British troops who had invaded the lands to the west. Rewi saw enough to convince him that Grey intended to carry on asserting himself over Māori and taking their land. When Rewi returned to the Waikato, he found the people oscillating between hopes of living as Māori and living equally with Pākehā.

  Opinions were divided among Maniapoto and other kin of Waikato on how to deal with the situation. At a great hui of the chiefs, the Union Jack and the King’s flag — white with a red border and two crosses, the symbol of Christianity — were both flying. When an objection was made to the King’s flag, Rewi strode forward in a rage, pulled it down and threw it at the foot of the Union Jack to signify the utter subjection of the Māori if they didn’t wake up.

  Would attempts at procrastination have worked anyway? Intent on conquest, Grey had already persuaded settlers living in Auckland that they were at risk of being wiped out by hordes of Māori rebels from the King Country. He had instigated a ‘defensive’ war. A rolling tide of the Governor’s bayonets and big guns advanced into the Waikato.

  In October–November 1863 at Meremere, combined Māori forces held back the British troops, but they were eventually forced to withdraw to their second line of defence at Rangiriri. There, on 21 November, the British won the pā from Waikato by a deception — but Maniapoto vowed to fight on.

  On 9 December at Ngāruawāhia, the King’s capital was captured by the Waikato flotilla. The Governor’s peace terms required that all land and arms be surrendered. When these terms were rejected, the King’s forces fell back to their third line of defence: protecting their key agricultural foodbasket at Rangiaowhia. However, on 21 February, British soldiers burnt down the undefended villag
e there.

  In the sky had appeared a sign of war: a crescent moon enclosing a star. The moon represented a fort. The star was a war party attacking the fort.

  Three thousand British and colonial soldiers were ready to advance into the Waipā. With the sign above him, Rewi drew the fourth and final line on the earth below.

  30 March 1864. Here at Ōrākau will be the final stand.

  Introduction

  Friend, we shall fight on for ever

  Hēmi Kelly

  Whakarongo mai te rūnanga, me ngā iwi: Ko te whawhai tēnei i whāia mai e tātou, ā, i oma hoki hei aha? Ki tōku mahara hoki, me mate tātou, mate ki te pakanga, ora tātou, ora ki te marae o te pakanga.

  Listen to me, chiefs of the council and all the tribes! It was we who sought this battle, wherefore, then, should we retreat? This is my thought: Let us abide by the fortune of war; if we are to die, let us die in battle; if we are to live, let us survive on the field of battle.

  Rewi Manga Maniapoto, quoted in James Cowan,

  The New Zealand Wars, 1923

  1.

  Sleeps Standing has been written to honour the people of Ngāti Maniapoto, whose ancestors fought British and colonial troops in one of the most inspiring encounters of the New Zealand Wars. It has also been written and published to acknowledge the extraordinary decision, supported by the Crown in 2016 and enacted in 2017, to honour the New Zealand Wars with future commemorative events. The inspiration for this decision came out of submissions made to Government about the Battle of Ōrākau.

  2.

  While reading the various accounts of Ōrākau, I couldn’t help feeling overwhelmed with admiration at the bravery and selflessness exhibited by the assembled iwi, who faced an insurmountable battle. Hītiri Te Paerata of Ngāti Te Kohera explained this in his account of the conflict: ‘It became as a forlorn hope with us; no one expected to escape, nor did we desire to; were we not all the children of one parent? Therefore we all wished to die together.’

  The encounter has been considered the decisive action in the Waikato War. The battle lasted three days, 31 March to 2 April 1864. The pā had been quickly constructed during the final days of March; and while Rewi Maniapoto had called for supporters from other tribes to help in the fight, the British troops had prevented most of them from crossing their lines into the redoubt.

  It is estimated that, at the height of the battle, 1700 immensely superior soldiers, well armed and supplied, laid siege to the pā where the defenders totalled just over 300, a third of them women and children. The defenders resisted heavy gunfire, cannon and hand-grenade attacks. They were severely lacking in provisions and ammunition, and had no water. Surrounded by troops, they were weary with being constantly on the alert and with the bombardment and fighting.

  On the final day of the battle, Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron ordered Captain Gilbert Mair and another officer, R. C. Mainwaring, to negotiate a truce, and called for the defenders to submit. If they did, he would spare all.

  The reply was given:

  E hoa, ka whawhai tonu mātou, ake, ake, ake!

  Friend, I shall fight against you for ever, for ever!

  The defenders refused to leave in the same circumstances as their Waikato relatives had done at Rangiriri. There, a white flag had been raised — the international sign of protection and an indication of a truce or ceasefire and a request for a negotiated peace. The British had chosen to interpret the flag as a sign of surrender.

  The iwi of Ōrākau would not kiss the ground beneath the feet of the soldiers. Even when the pā was on the brink of being overrun, Rewi’s words and similar exhortations by other leaders inspired the men, women and children of Ōrākau to fight on, no matter that they were overwhelmed. With war chants and karakia on their lips, they ultimately chose death on the battlefield rather than to submit or surrender.

  3.

  The New Zealand Wars are a colossal part of our history. Full knowledge of them has lain dormant for many years, and only lately have they begun to appear in the curriculum.

  In the case of Ōrākau, those ancestors lived by the warrior’s maxim, ‘Me mate te tangata, me mate mō te whenua (the warrior’s death is to die for the land).’ Like so many others who fought and fell in the New Zealand Wars of the nineteenth century, they battled to retain the mana of the land and all its prosperities, not for their own personal gain but for the interests of those yet to come. Over 150 years later, we must ask ourselves the question: how do we honour the deaths of those who fell on the battlefields across this country?

  The Battle of Ōrākau, fought on the banks of the Pūniu River, marked the end of the war in the Waikato. After that battle, the Government carried out a wholesale raupatu (confiscation) of Maniapoto and Waikato lands for European settlement. A blockhouse remained on the site until 1875, in case of a fresh native outbreak. In recent years, Ngāti Maniapoto has commemorated the battle on the site where it was fought. In 2010 a small gathering took place to discuss plans for the 150th commemoration of the battle in 2014. Each year thereafter the hui have grown to include descendants of the various iwi who joined Rewi. The slogan ‘Homai te rā, give us the day’ arose out of the commemorations — a demand that the Government acknowledge this integral part of our country’s history and set aside a day to commemorate all of the New Zealand Wars.

  Finally, after many years of the land being used as an open commode for farm animals, the Government purchased the battle site of Ōrākau. Consultations are underway between local iwi, the Kīngitanga and the Battle of Ōrākau Heritage Society about the future of the site.

  In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students Waimārama Anderson and Leah Bell presented a petition to Parliament seeking a commemoration day, and for the history of the New Zealand Wars to be taught in schools. At the tenth koroneihana celebrations for Kīngi Tuheitia in 2016, 152 years after the battle of Ōrākau, the Government announced that it would set aside such a national day to recognise and commemorate the New Zealand Wars. At the same time, the Crown handed back the battle site of Rangiriri to Tainui.

  These moves to honour the New Zealand Wars alongside Anzac Day are a welcome sign that, as a country, we recognise and honour the deeds and sacrifices of Māori and the colonial and imperial soldiers who fought and fell on our own soil. One has to wonder why, however, it took so long. One of the ironies discovered during my research for this introduction was that in 1914 a committee was set up, representing the whole of the Waikato district, to celebrate the great fight at Ōrākau and ‘more particularly the fifty years of peace we have all enjoyed since’. Mr J. W. Ellis wrote a letter on behalf of the jubilee committee to the iwi involved. The letter was published in The Colonist newspaper on 5 March 1914:

  I have been appointed by this committee to inform the tribes who were then in arms against us of what is proposed, and to ask them to join with us in celebrating these great events. The Europeans will attend to their side of the celebration, and I am to ask the Maori tribes to organise their side, so that they will be suitably represented at Orakau on the 1st April 1914. The Battle of Orakau was fought on the 31st March and the 1st and 2nd April 1864. The European Committee has unanimously selected the 1st April, the middle day of this glorious fight, in preference to the 2nd April when Orakau fell, as a tribute to a brave and gallant foe, and to show that it is not the fall of Orakau that they want to celebrate, but the splendid defence made by the Maoris.

  At that time the Waikato Regiment had adopted Rewi’s words, imprinting them on their colours, and the Ōrākau monument was to be unveiled; a train, leaving from Auckland, was to bring veterans and members of the public to celebrate the day. ‘We Europeans’, Ellis continued, ‘have always considered that the grandest fight made by the Maoris … will never be forgotten, and will be valued as our common possession as long as our country lasts.’

  Well, it was forgotten. Perhaps the nation’s pursuit of another war, the Great War, had something to do with it. And after that war was the flu epidemic a
nd time and progress rolled over the events of Ōrākau. Some one hundred years later, it is fitting that we tell the stories of the battle, to remember, to share, to rewrite the curriculum and to educate ourselves and future generations on this nation’s history in its entirety, so that the sacrifices made here on our own soil will inspire New Zealanders to deeds of greatness, courage and selflessness.

  4.

  There are many and various accounts of the Battle of Ōrākau. Apart from the official reports presented to Parliament, one of the best is by James Cowan in The Old Frontier (1922), which he followed with a more comprehensive version in The New Zealand Wars in 1923. Since then, in the non-fiction field, accounts have taken the military perspective, mostly reporting from commanders or relying on the despatches of the day to provide interpretation. Some dispute the sequence of events and offer behind-the-scenes views of a number of the officers who tried to minimise the more savage actions of men under their command. Others investigate the context of the battle, placing it within an interesting framework. James Belich’s The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict (1986) took the lead. Recent examples of continuing scholarship are Richard J. Taylor’s thesis, ‘British logistics in the New Zealand Wars, 1845–66’ (2004) and Nigel Prickett’s Fortifications of the New Zealand Wars (2016). The most comprehensive account of the Waikato War to date is Vincent O’Malley’s The Great War for New Zealand: Waikato 1800–2000 (2016), in which he calls it ‘the defining conflict in New Zealand history’. O’Malley’s earlier essay ‘Recording the incident with a monument: The Waikato War in historical memory’, in Journal of New Zealand Studies NS19, 2015, is also fascinating reading. In the New Zealand Listener, 20 February 2017, O’Malley further provided a graphic description of the British Army’s attack on Rangiaowhia, thus ensuring the end of our historical amnesia about this shameful incident.

  A selection of New Zealand poets subsequently memorialised Rewi and the battle. Among them were Thomas Bracken (best known for writing the national anthem), Henry Matthew Stowell (writing as ‘Hare Hongi’) and Arnold Cork, writing in strophes such as this (published in the Auckland Star, 6 August 1935):