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.
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