The Battle of O-Rākau Heritage Society Charitable Trust
The Battle of O-Rãkau Heritage Society Charitable Trust is dedicated to working closely with our tangata whenua of the land, our local iwi partners (Waikato- Tainui, Maniapoto and Raukawa), local Marae (Paaraawera, Raawhitiroa, Whakamaarama, Mangatoatoa, Puurekireki, Te Koopua) and the Waipa District Council.
Who are we?
GOVERNANCE
Kaawhia Te Muraahi
Paraone Gloyne
Dr Kahu McClintoc
Hazel Barnes
We are a group of ordinary community people dedicated to the proper protection of the O-Rãkau battle site, identification and protection of the mass graves, planning for site development including a more compelling and inclusive war memorial and compiling oral histories related to the Battle and wider Waikato and Colonial wars. The Society is re-registering after a much deserved sieta . It is the only legal entity dedicated to protecting and preserving the history of O-Rãkau and the legacy left by those who fought and fell on its hallowed fields. We are a non-profit organisation of like minded people committed to making a difference in the wider community by building bridges between cultures through education and a more complete understanding of history. We work closely with local tangata whenua including Ngaati Te Rahurahu / Ngaati Paretekawa, Ngaati Takihiku, Ngaati Unu et al, local Marae and our three main Iwi partners Maniapoto, Raukawa and Waikato Tainui as well as Waipa District Council. We are inclusive and committed to making positive social change.
What do we do?
We plan and host the annual O-Rãkau and Colonial Wars Commemorations. We research and compile oral histories, and we inform the public and engage with community groups to raise awareness of the Colonial Wars as part of our Nation’s history. We were also responsible for planning and organising the 150th (Sesquicentennial) Commemoration of the Battle of O-Rãkau and the End of the War in Waikato, Tuesday 1st April 2014. A significant event for the Waipa - attracting over 4,000 visitors from NZ and offshore.
The concept of National Day Commemorating the NZ wars was first spoken about and promoted by our original Heritage Society Board members while framing the constitution back in 2010/2011. We took the concept of a national day and socialised it at our annual commemorations and in 2013 we raised the kaupapa with Te Arikinui King Tuheitia and his advisor Rahui Papa who became strong advocates. During an emotional field trip to Rangiaowhia and O-Rãkau two students from Otorohanga College made a commitment take the concept of a National Day in a Petition to Parliament. Their hard work stirred the interest and support of a nation. The rest is now history.
What is our long term objective?
The Society is leading a campaign to build a “World Class” Battle-site Interpretation "Legacy and Visitors Centre" dedicated to telling the story of O-Rãkau within the context of the wider Colonial Wars, and doing so in a way that is informative, accurate, compelling and transformational. We want the Centre to inspire visitors to learn about our unique history and understand how history shapes our view of the world and therefore how we perceive and treat other people. It is hoped the Centre will be a catalyst for transforming minds, nurturing a sense of community spirit, and developing meaningful relationships between Pākehā/Europeans and Mãori. After more than 150 years, the general public (non-Mãori) know very little, if anything, of the culture and the people who stood to defend their homes against invading, militarily superior forces who waged war against Mãori from 1843 to 1881.
There is still a significant way to go in terms of improving cultural understanding and race relations between the two founding peoples of this modern South Pacific Nation. In the New Zealand of today, we cannot afford to continue with such a divided national memory, where some remember, largely due to the intergenerational trauma they inherit, but where the source of this trauma is consistently forgotten in the ‘mainstream story’. Divided memories create divided peoples. Justice, however, is founded on mutual understandings of the past. The Society seeks to advance a more complete and fuller sense of our shared past through our commemoration mahi and research work.
Our Vision
The O-Rãkau legacy is captured in our vision, which distils the essence of our intentions.
“O-Rãkau a place where the enduring power of storytelling will capture, inform and transform hearts and minds of visitors while sowing the seeds of cultural understanding, peace, reconciliation and hope. In this place voices of the past will resonate through the corridors of time speaking directly into the hearts and minds of future generations telling of suffering, loss, of truths untold, courage, heroism and the determination of peoples to be free.
The events of our shared past, the deeds and sacrifices made so often and so long ago by tūpuna patriots now forgotten, call to us through time and space, yearning to be remembered, to be understood and reminding us of a sacred legacy, of an obligation yet unfulfilled. O-Rãkau shall be a medium for transforming community perceptions, prejudices, realities and relationships, over time.....transforming a nation”.
Why Commemorate something which happened so long ago, is it still relevant?
Our identity as a nation and the sacrifices made for our freedom were not only forged on the battlefields of Passendaele, Gallipoli, Malaya and Vietnam, or in more recent conflicts where our Kiwi soldiers have fought and fallen. Sadly our country has ignored, for more than a hundred years, the sacrifices made by the young soldiers from Australia, Ireland, Scotland and Wales who came to these shores as part of the colonial settlements and expansionist policies of the early to mid 1800’s. Many of the soldiers lost their lives on these shores during the wars waged upon Mãori who refused to sell lands to the newly arrived settlers. More importantly, the significant sacrifices made by innocent Mãori men, women and children who were forced to defend their homes and those of their tribal allies against the superior force of the combined Imperial and Colonial armed forces, intent on the destruction of a group of peoples, along with their economic, social and political infrastructures and support systems.
As a very new and modern democracy, it is important that the history of how this country was founded is not overlooked or ignored because of political expedience or fear of the truth. The horrific warfare, the many deaths and the intergenerational social and economic suffering which followed should not be swept under the carpet and forgotten, but rather spoken about and understood in context. It is in understanding and acknowledging the horrors of the past that we are able to understand how we came to be in the present. There is no doubt that the past holds insights into how we can be a better people and a better nation in the future. The key, however, is to unlock the teachings history has to offer and make these relevant in the present.
Present and future generations will continue to benefit from the sacrifices made on the many and bloodied battle fields across this land. However those who inherit this legacy have an obligation to compassionately remember those who lost their lives building the foundations of our society. When we forget where we have come from, we dismiss the sacrifices others have made in our name as meaningless. It is for this reason the Society in 2011 committed itself to promoting and advancing the idea of a National Day of Rememberance for the Wars of the Colonial Period. This was made public at O-Rãkau in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 and to date has gained the support of The Kiingitanga and Waikato Tainui leaders and many others. In remembering the past and those who fought for the privileges we all enjoy, we give appreciation and honour where it is due. We are today a Nation of many distinct cultures because of the sacrifices over three thousand Mãori, and around seven hundred Imperial and Colonial soldiers who died on our shores, have made.
It is unacceptable that only some of our Nation’s war dead are acknowledged and recognized publicly and their commemorations fully supported by the government, while others who are deserving of equal recognition are forgotten and ignored, and their commemorations receive negligible, if any, government support. The work of the Society is to bring balance to history and to ensure there is a more complete recognition of our past. A past which encompasses the Battle of O-Rãkau, the War against Waikato and the Kiingitanga and the wider trail of tears left in the wake of the Colonial Wars which ravaged our Nation from Wairau (Nelson) in the South to Ngãpuhi in the North, the East Coast across to Waitara and Taranaki in the west.
To accept and acknowledge our shared past is important, it is a major step in reconciling and making peace with ourselves as individuals, families and communities, thus providing conditions necessary for healing injustice and wrongs of the past. Building reconciliation and peace with our past, with ourselves and with each other, is a desirable state which should already exist. Unfortunately this is not yet the reality. Our predominantly European mainstream society and Mãori society are still polarised by prejudice and fear, manifested in cultural ignorance and at times callous attitudes. On this front alone, there is much work to be done and the Society has committed itself to being a builder of bridges between cultures.
The O-Rãkau Commemoration is about healing wounds of the past and creating a space where new, more informed conversations can be had, and where understandings and relationships based upon a more complete understanding of a shared history can be explored. This day is an important part of our ongoing search for a shared and common identity, a more complete and inclusive idea of Nationhood where the past can inform how and who we are in the present and more importantly how we behave and treat each other as we face the uncertainty of the future. This is a day when we pay tribute to forgotten ancestors. It is a day when we commit to putting our hands to the challenging task of bridge building.