Military barracks, photographed in 1870, were built on top of Marsland Hill during the Taranaki wars.
The new Aotearoa New Zealand Histories curriculum will be implemented in schools this year, but is the country ready – and who will bear the cost? Federico Magrin reports.
The kākā chief
In the second half of the 19th century, Pūkākā Pā was levelled down by several metres to accommodate the needs of British settlers in Taranaki.
The green hill dotted with red pōhutukawa flowers has always been a strategic outpost in New Plymouth.
The name of the hill comes from the call of kāka, because during the 15th and 16th centuries, Pūkākā Pā was a place where you could still hear the bird’s call.
There are not many educators who know this story, but Damon Ritai (Te Atiawa, Ngati Te Whiti) is one of the few who does. He is the person local schools go to, to learn local stories.
Ritai is certain about one thing: the stories have to come from the local marae, local hapū and local iwi.
Pūkākā Pā is just one of the thousands of places filled with stories ripe for the telling, and the new Aotearoa New Zealand Histories curriculum represents a chance for these stories to finally be told in schools – but teachers and Māori are being asked to learn and build these stories with insufficient resources.
Damon Ritai, one of the leaders at Ngāti Te Whiti, is the Māori educator Taranaki schools go to, to learn local stories.
The Ministry of Education has been working alongside 43 iwi and hapū across the country and has spent around $3.85 million to create 124 pūrākau (stories). Developing ancient histories from their original oral form has been a strenuous job for Māori educators, and the $3000 licence fee paid to storytellers has seldom been enough.
The missing metres on the top of the hill were the fortress of Ngā Pōtiki-taua hapū says Ritai, a former school principal who is now the Māori achievement collaborative iwi liaison for schools in the rohe. The kākā was a bird that had been a symbol of Ngāpōtiki-taua rangatira, so the place where the chief resided was to be called Pūkākā.
Ritai’s voice is sonorous as he narrates how Ngāpōtikitauā, which he describes as a “hybrid tribe”, occupied the site. Only the terraces have remained. Everything else has changed and cars can be heard running on Carrington Rd past the base of the hill.
The occupation of the pā site was significant back in the 1700s, as the hapū on the hill would hold an advantage over other tribes. But the vantage point didn’t always play a major role. When Waikato tribes descended on Taranaki in 1832, seeking revenge for the battle of Motunui in 1822, the people staying at the Pūkākā pā fled and went to Ōtaka Pā – a settlement closer to the shore in what was soon to be renamed New Plymouth.
Pūkākā Pā, sketched in 1842, when the top was still intact.
Ritai describes Māori history as full of significant migrations, treaties and battles.
Since the 1800s, Pūkākā Pā has been known by a different name: Marsland Hill. What is now a reserve in the heart of New Plymouth, was a military outpost during the Taranaki wars.
The legacy of the British Empire looms over New Plymouth.
The British name came from an officer, John Marsland, who had no connection to the whenua. The combination of early Māori fortification and subsequent British colonisation up that hill is an example of how the history of New Zealand is not an easy task to be taught.
Dean Jay Ruka says Te Whare Hononga will play a central role in educating teachers in Taranaki.
‘Reconciliation is a journey, not a destination’
At the bottom of Marsland Hill stands the stony Taranaki Cathedral Church of St Mary. The man responsible for looking after the site is Dean Jay Ruka (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Mutunga), who describes Pūkākā Pā as a textbook example of what not to do in terms of reconciliation.
Ruka has been working with Ngāti Te Whiti and Ritai to learn and teach local stories from a tribal perspective. He has been the dean of cathedral for the past 18 months, as well as the director of Te Whare Hononga – The House that Binds, a new education centre that was recently unveiled next to the cathedral. The centre is likely to play a role for schools in the new curriculum.
Next year, after Te Whare Hononga is fully working, the centre will train teachers by supporting mana whenua to tell their stories.
Ruka says importing new ideas without an adequate conversation with mana whenua is a recipe for disaster. Especially ideas charged with the religious motifs for which he is responsible. The cathedral, a religious symbol reflecting people from another land, was built without consultation with iwi in 1846.
Stories from mana whenua will be told at Te Whare Hononga in Taranaki.
The tall, slim dean is wearing a pair of sneakers and a hoodie, and his grey hair belies a relatively young age. Ruka represents a generation of Māori who have come to terms with their ancestral path, after too long spent away. When he was living in the UK, more than 15 years ago, he began thinking about his heritage as Māori. A sense of belonging had grown within him – he had to come home and embrace his Māoritanga.
The enlightenment resulted in a change of name, from Jay Lucas to Jay Ruka. His great-grandfather had to change his name from Enoka Ruka to Robert Lucas during World War I. Reconciliation with his past for Jay Ruka meant adopting tikanga and understanding the depth of te ao Māori.
“Reconciliation is a journey not a destination. You don’t necessarily arrive at a point of being reconciled, you arrive at big milestones, you arrive at some pretty big moments in time.”
The history curriculum is one of these big steps.
Local stories from iwi archives will now help students gain an understanding of the past. Primary and secondary students will hear about the history of Aotearoa New Zealand from teachers and educators – and iwi and hapū have been at the centre of this change.
Coastal Taranaki School principal Scott Walden say local schools have banded together and collaborated to tell the same Māori stories.
‘We are developing the content for our own people’
Coastal Taranaki School principal Scott Walden (Te Atiawa, Ngāti Haupoto) says schools are places where civil society can meet iwi and students can learn tikanga. Telling local histories is a necessary step to shape the future of the country, he says, and mana whenua and tangata whenua must be prioritised.
Schools in the area have collaborated to create a network called Te Ara Taiao. After meeting with hapū and iwi members, all the schools which are part of Te Ara Taiao agreed to tell the same Māori stories…