Recently a very important museum loan agreement at MTG Hawke's Bay, started in 1937, came to an end.
The purpose of the agreement was to look after and care for four significant Hawke's Bay poutokomanawa, Te Kauru-o-Te Rangi, Te Hauwaho, Te Hūmenga and Te Pou-ā-Mate.
Airini Donnelly had possession of the poutokomanawa, and they were eventually put into the care of the museum by Maude Donnelly, Airini's daughter. The museum's responsibility and honour of caring for these four gentlemen has finally ended, after 84 years.
When the new meeting house, Hau Te Ananui at Waiohiki, opened last Saturday these noblemen presented themselves inside to kaitiaki Ngāti Paarau.
Te Hauwaho and Te Hūmenga are brothers, with Pou-ā-Mate a nephew. When the father of Pou-ā-Mate died he was fostered by his uncle Te Hūmenga. Te Hauwaho is the dad of Te Kauru-o-Te Rangi.
Everything is based on whakapapa and the descent from Kahungunu himself is shown on the picture above through these four poutokomanawa, carrying through to Airini's daughter Maude.
Everything is based on whakapapa and the descent from Kahungunu himself is shown on the picture above through these four poutokomanawa, carrying through to Airini's daughter Maude.
These four rangatira also stand sentinel in Gisborne city to specifically keep their whakapapa ties alive from the Turanga area to Hawke's Bay.
Waiohiki Rangatira Tareha commissioned Ngāti Porou to carve these four poutokomanawa in honour of their memory.
These four fell defending their home Te Pākake, an island pā inside Ahuriri Heads, against invasion from Waikato and Hauraki invaders, together with Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Maniapoto, and Ngāti Raukawa lending a hand.
It was 1824, a time of the musket wars among Māori, and unarmed with muskets Hawke's Bay Māori were subject to a devastating massacre.
The musket wars were first introduced by the house of Rahiri, Ngā Puhi of the far north, the first tribe to trade preserved, or "smoked heads", a currency of the time, for procuring muskets.
In 1807 Ngā Puhi had been dealing with Pākehā for an entire generation before the rest of Aotearoa had seen Pākehā. With this early interaction Ngā Puhi were the first tribe to acquire the new technology of muskets and to use it against other tribes.
By early 1800s when Pākehā sailed into the Bay of Islands, local Ngā Puhi would be paid one musket for every ship that was replenished with water, food, repairs to sails and spars, and the provision of wives and daughters to pleasure the sailors.
The latter, mostly in exchange for alcohol and ship nails, earning the Bay of Islands its global reputation as the "Brothel of the South Pacific".
However two muskets could be traded for one preserved head resulting with the planned siege of Whetumatarau Ngāti Porou by Ngā Puhi chief Pōmare. He enslaved 1700 Ngāti Porou on his first attack.
The Ngā Puhi armoury was built on Ngāti Porou heads, with their enslaved women used to breed the next army. This changed the culture of Māori - attitudes to warfare, the relationship of Māori with their gods, and the disciplines and tapu that governed Māori life, tikanga and kawa.
Another generation was to pass before the rest of the country's tribes became armed with muskets, this was the period of the Musket Wars - none of it very nice. In this period it is estimated that the Māori population was almost halved, with Ngāti Kahungunu under constant attack over a 30-year period.
In Hawke's Bay Ngāti Kahungunu did not acquire the musket as others did, making them vulnerable to musket carrying tribes, as was the case in the 1824 musket massacre on Te Pākake.
Te Pākake was a "go to" pā for all in time of invasion. In the 1824 invasion, raiding Māori slaughtered most inhabitants of Te Pākake who were without the musket. Te Kauru-o-te-Rangi, Te Hauwaho, Te Hūmenga and Te Pou-ā-Mate fell in this bloodbath.
Te Pākake is a devastating example of the desolation caused by the musket throughout this period.
When the whare at Pā Whakairo burnt down, Airini kept these four poutokomanwa in storage at her Ōtātara residence. Eventually Airini's daughter Maude put them into the museum in 1937. Now, these four poutokomanawa are back in the realm of Pā Whakairo, Waiohiki, and Te Hau Ananui.
E Te Kauru o te Rangi, e Te Hauwaho, e Te Hūmenga, e Te Pou-ā-Mate. Tenei te mihi aroha, tenei te mihi tangi kia koutou ra.
• Te Hira Henderson is Curator Maori at MTG Hawke's Bay
