Dr Paul Moon: Chance to give warrior burial he wanted

Hone Heke, painted here by William Duke, is best known for his assaults on the flagstaff at Russell. Photo / Supplied

For those who think history is found only in dusty archives, the plans announced recently by a Ngapuhi hapu to shift the bones of the 19th century chief Hone Heke are a reminder that history can also be a pressing and current consideration for some people.

Heke's bones lie in a small cave in the Pakaraka area of Northland, not far from the intersection of State Highways 1 and 10. There is a smattering of buildings in the vicinity of this junction, but the two most prominent are the Pakaraka Primary School and the Holy Trinity Church, the latter built by the missionary Henry Williams.

This was where Williams chose to live out the end of his days, away from the commotion of the main missionary centre at Paihia, in the Bay of Islands. It was exactly the sort of location Thomas Cowper envisaged for retirement: "The statesman, lawyer, merchant, man of trade, pants for the refuge of some rural shade, where all his long anxieties forgot, amid the charms of a sequester'd spot."

The church and its setting are picturesque, unmistakably English and certainly have a sequestered feeling. Built in a breezy field, with large oaks and other exotic trees framing the site, it is enclosed by a white picket fence which also surrounds the graveyard.

The church was opened in April 1851. Two years later, Heke's accomplice in the Northern War, the Ngati Hine chief Kawiti, was christened there.

Apart from the occasional car speeding past, Pakaraka is a much more sleepy place now, and Williams' imprint of a little England is still strong here 150 years later. By contrast, there are no physical signs at all at Pakaraka that Hone Heke's physical remains lie close by.

Heke received roughly equal measures of notoriety and admiration during his lifetime, and remains one of the best-known figures in our history, principally on account of his several attacks on the British flagstaff at Russell in the mid-1840s, and the ensuing war against Crown troops. This ended in early 1846 with Heke, together with his ally Kawiti, succumbing to a prolonged bombardment and retreating from any further engagements with the British.

In the days before his death in August 1850, Heke was visited several times by the Rev Richard Davis, who recorded the details of his final conversations with the chief. Davis' overriding concern was that Heke convert to Christianity before entering eternity, as he noted in his journal:

"On the Sunday before he died he was much exhausted, but expressed much affection. His mind appeared to wander. I told him to keep his mind fixed upon Christ. He replied, 'IT IS THERE FIXED'... His own people asked him, in his last hours, where he would recommend them to live together after his decease. He replied, 'IN EVERLASTING LIFE'."

As soon as Heke died, Davis requested that the chief have a Christian burial, "as it was his wish, although he knew it would not be granted by his followers". Heke's people respected Davis' request but remained faithful to their own traditions and prepared their chief's remains accordingly.

Davis described seeing Heke's corpse after it had been prepared: "I found the body tattooed and lying in native state, both body and place highly ornamented. The body was covered in front with a scarlet cloth fringed at the borders. The cloth was drawn up so as to cover the mouth. A strip of black crepe was tied over the eyes. The head was dressed with beautiful white feathers."

Davis then put his surplice on and read a funeral service over the body, which he delivered "to the best of my power". This was the last Davis saw of Heke's remains.

What happened next was that those who had been closest to Heke blew up a metaphorical smokescreen in order to obscure the exact whereabouts of the chief's body. False rumours were deliberately and convincingly circulated about his place of burial, and by the 20th century, various Maori factions in the region each had their own favoured location where they suspected the remnants of Heke's body lay. The fatal deficiency (if I can use that phrase without insensitivity) with all of these theories was that none of them could be proven.

As long as most people were unable to locate the remains, they would be safe from enemies who might wish to take the bones and use them against Heke's hapu and iwi.

Now, with the threat of possible development encroaching on Heke's resting place in Pakaraka, the chief will once again be on the move, and maybe this will represent an opportunity for another generation of New Zealanders to become familiar with an important part of our history.

It may also allow Heke to have the burial that both Davis and the whanau's oral histories suggest he wanted.

Dr Paul Moon is Professor of History at AUT University, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.