The history of Tuahiwi, a Kāi Tahu village in North Canterbury, was the subject of a talk by Antony Nihoniho, who has made this the subject of his PhD research. He stressed that the dynamics of both cultural groups, Māori and British, were equally valid, and that the history he was presenting was an example of the colonial process that went on throughout Aotearoa. In the early days there were six Māori communities with marae in Christchurch, and Kāi Tuahūriri were the most influential historically, and now. They saw land as not able to be owned, but rather conferring responsibilities, and giving the right to resources. The rights of the individual were embedded in the community, and rights of access came through highly complex relationships with land and people.
In England in the 18th and 19th centuries there had been a change from feudalism to capitalism, and land had been commodified. Acts of Enclosure created legal property rights to land previously held in common and many rural people became paupers. After their land was no longer available the only thing they had left to sell was their labour. As some British moved to Aotearoa there was a clash between how people viewed land and its ownership.
Kāi Tahu had moved to Te Wai Pounamu/ the South Island and absorbed the tribes of Waitaha and Ngāti Māmoe. In 1700 they established a pā at Kaiapoi (Kai-a-poi, the place food was swung in and out of) which was the centre of the Kāi Tahu economy. In the late 1790s sealers and whalers settled, especially in the south of the island, and inter-marriage was widespread. The Kāi Tahu economy thrived, and included international trade. In 1829-32 Te Rauparaha sacked the Kaiapoi Pā. At the same time Māori were affected by measles, influenza, and tuberculosis pandemics, introduced by immigrants.
In 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed, and between 1844 and 1864 most of the South Island was sold under eight deeds known as the Kāi Tahu Covenants. The largest of these was the Kemp Deed of 1848, where 20 million acres were sold for £2,000. The Deed had two versions, in Māori and English, and they were different. It was promised that 10% of the land would be reserved for Kāi Tahu and that schools and hospitals would be provided. Māori expected they would still have access to food sources, but neither this expectation or the promises were fulfilled. Kāi Tahu were given just 6,356 acres, with no schools or hospitals, the British expectation being that the tribe would soon die out. From 1849 Kāi Tahu claimed that the Deed was neither just nor honoured, and they pleaded for land to be allocated so they could participate in the growing economy. The tribe descended into abject poverty with children dying, and people living in squalor unable to feed their families.
After the sacking of Kaiapoi Pā people fled south and settled at Tuahiwi, the home of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, which became the centre of Kāi Tahu recovery. Families were allocated just 14 acres each, despite the fact that the British believed 50 acres was the minimum to sustain a family. From 1848 the Canterbury Association surveyed and sold land, and in 1853 the Canterbury Provincial Council was established. Swamps and wetlands were drained. Pastoral farming was imposed and boomed, but Kāi Tahu were unable to participate. By 1865 572 farms had been established by settlers north of the Waimakariri. Kāi Tahu were unable to vote or stand for local body elections, e.g. for school and drainage boards, and Agricultural and Pastoral Associations. Land which had been in Kāi Tahu ownership was purchased by people sitting on local boards, and only one-third of the Tuahiwi Village is occupied by Māori today. Lawyers were allowed to represent both the Māori owners and the Pākehā purchasers, and sometimes bought land themselves. Benefits available to non-Māori were not available to Māori. In 1966 Rangiora County Council decreed that only one house was allowed on each ten acres, (remember, Māori whanau had only 14 acres each), and this was not changed until 2011. Tuahiwi was not provided with water-lines, sewerage, footpaths, or other amenities.
Antony spoke of his paternal grandmother, Te Uira Barrett (1907-79) who had been a significant landowner and should have had a prosperous life. In 1937 there was a Māori Housing Survey where each family was graded. Extensive records of this were kept, with patronising comments judging whether some Māori were able to live “like Europeans”. Because there was little alternative, land was either leased or sold. Te Uira went from owning five sections to just one, and in the 1930s gained a subsidy to build a house there.
Kāi Tahu are no longer invisible, and today are involved in assisting the Christchurch City Council in caring for the land, as can be seen in many aspects of the Christchurch rebuild. Antony spoke movingly of how, just two months ago, he was privileged and honoured to be able to buy back a section at Tuahiwi that was originally his family’s land, and will now be occupied by an eighth generation.
He spoke of how all parties involved had been trying to operate out of the best interests of their family, and considered how we can prevent such a disaster happening again. One way is to make the partnership between our two peoples work.
The story told of Tuahiwi
applies also to other Kiwi
Ruth's Reflections 