Sleeps Standing: A Story of the Battle of Orakau

by Ihimaera, Witi

  Portrait of Captain William Gilbert Mair, who called out to Rewi to surrender; after Ōrākau he was promoted to lieutenant, and shortly after, major. In later life he became a judge of the Native Land Court.

  Alexander Turnbull Library, PA2-1870

  The Charge of the New Zealand Cavalry at the Battle of Ōrākau, by Frank P. Maloney.

  Alexander Turnbull Library, Publ-0197-3-569

  Sketch of Ahumai Te Paerata, who became a leader of the women at Ōrākau Pā. New Zealand Railways Magazine, v. 10, issue 1, p. 20

  Actress playing Ahumai Te Paerata in the film Rewi’s Last Stand.

  Photograph by C. Troughton Clark.

  Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 471-9756

  Scene from Rewi’s Last Stand: Māori defending the pā. British Films London

  Posters for Rewi’s Last Stand, directed by Rudall Hayward. Auckland War Memorial Museum, B6144, 1974.103.8

  MĀORI EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS

  When all is lost save courage

  Witi Ihimaera

  I am a fiction writer, not a historian.

  However, when I am tackling narratives and characters within the genre of historical fiction, my work is driven of necessity by history. Research is therefore a crucial methodology in my work and, in particular, locating the Māori voice within the historical text. In this respect, Māori historians face huge difficulties, and I take my hat off to them. They work within a context in which the history of events like Ōrākau has already been written.

  Primary documents are crucial to my work, and it is hugely fulfilling and humbling to discover accounts written from a Māori perspective by Māori informants, as Hēmi Kelly and I did when putting together Sleeps Standing. Therefore I honour the narratives of Rewi Maniapoto, Hītiri Te Paerata, Te Huia Raureti, Paitini Wī Tāpeka and Poupatate Te Huihi. Even though three come in English translation, they offer direct Māori perspectives, views from inside a Māori world on a particular encounter in which the Māori point of view has not always been taken. Compromised though they may be by translation, tribal perspective and other biases, interestingly, the accounts appear to be clear-eyed and do not stint on criticism. In the case of the Hītiri Te Paerata transcript, the translator was Major Mair, who fought for the British at Ōrākau. We must assume that Mair (as well as Wilkinson and Best for Rewi Maniapoto and Paitini, respectively) were fair and honest in their translation, although some bias in their wording will grate with Māori.

  Two of the eyewitness accounts are in Māori only. However, they also exist with contemporary English translation in the source publication I extracted them from: The Battle of Orakau: Maori veterans’ accounts: Commemorating the 150th anniversary 1864– 2014, published by the Ōrākau Heritage Society and the Maniapoto Māori Trust Board, 2014. This valuable publication also prints both English and Māori translations of other eyewitness accounts from Te Wairoa Piripi, Peita Kōtuku, Te Pūtene Umanga, Harehare Atarea and Winitana Tūpōtahi.

  The two te reo accounts extracted here – from Te Huia Raureti and Poupatate Te Huihi – come from sterling interviews by Te Huia Raureti’s son, who typed them up and sent them to James Cowan. I wanted to honour the fact that they were originally in te reo only, present them as they had been written over a century ago and therefore have their voices come to the reader untouched by translation.

  James Cowan requires a special acknowledgement. Throughout my research I realised how important he was to Māori of the time. His work as a Māori historian shows amazing breadth and depth and sympathy, and he should be better known.

  French theorist Foucault asked fiction writers an interesting question: Does it matter who is speaking?

  For Māori fiction writers the question is particularly pertinent, and we have learnt that, yes, it does matter.

  All of us living in a country maturing within a Treaty framework should be grateful that a new approach to history is enabling us, through oral witness and recovery of alternative Māori text, to recreate an inclusive picture of our partnership. We must continue to read bifocally through the English texts, particularly those that have established the predominant interpretations on Māori life, history and culture, and learn how to decipher the unwritten as well as the written; how to hear the unspoken as well as the spoken.

  More important is for all New Zealanders to write our history ourselves. Hēmi Kelly and I hope that Sleeps Standing encourages you to write about your tūpuna and thereby offer the narratives of your own whakapapa to the future.

  Note: Although macrons have been added to the headings, the text of the eyewitness accounts and any following notes have been reproduced as they originally appeared.

  The Siege of Ōrākau Pā Tuhoe warriors engaged aiding the Waikato’s

  PAITINI WĪ TĀPEKA

  of Ruatahuna

  Elsdon Best published the original transcript of his conversation with Paitini in Tuhoe: The Children of the Mist, 1925

  We heard of the fighting in the north, of how the tribes of Waikato were trying to beat back the pakeha soldiers. Then a meeting of the Tuhoe tribe was discussed by all, Piripiri Te Heuheu, one our leading chiefs, and the last survivor of the adepts of the whare maire (school of occult and priestly lore), proposed that the fighting men of Tuhoe should march north. He said ‘Listen to my word, O Tuhoe! The island is in anguish. I propose that Tuhoe here assembled to greet the land, that the men be in advance while the land lies behind.’

  Hereupon another chief, Te Ahoaho arose and said: ‘My idea is this — give heed to it — let Matatua be sheltered. Leave it, secure from harm, in the shed.’ Here the speaker spoke of our tribal lands as the ancestral canoe Matatua on which our ancestors came from far land. He objected to going afar off to fight, but wished to see the tribe stay at home to protect their lands only if attacked on them.

  The chief Te Whenua-nui agreed to the last plan and remarked: ‘I agree that Matatua shall be sheltered, for the fighting is coming near to us.’ Thus the bulk of the tribe agreed to remain and guard the tribal lands.

  Then Piripi stood up and said: ‘I agree to your remaining here but I and my people will march to show my sympathy for the island in trouble.’ Hereupon Tuhoe separated into two parties, the majority remaining, the few went forth to fight. After those people had gone then Te Whenua-nui regretted that he had not joined them, even so he also went north, thus abandoning the resolution that Matatua should be sheltered. The reason why he changed his mind and followed the war trail was that he feared that Piripiri would jeer at him and make some taunting remarks such as ‘Some stayed at home as women, while others went as men to war.’

  The tohunga of our force was Penetiti and his assistant was Tapiki. Penetiti was the human medium of the god Po-tuatini. The tohunga spoke to us, saying: ‘When you reach the land of Waikato, should you find those people fighting the white men, do you also fight them, but if peace has been made do not persist in fighting or you will surely fail.’

  Then Penetiti gave us some small bottles containing a medicine he had made from various herbs and the bark of trees. He told us that when going into battle, we must drink the mixture in the bottles and then no weapon could harm us, the bullets of the enemy would be turned aside. Friend! When the white men rolled down on us like a flood at Orakau, when we charged out of our fort and through their ranks, then I drank of that priest’s medicine. O son! The deceitful tricks of the Maori! For it did not prevent the pakeha bullet from passing through me, nor did it save my father and many others from being slain. Such foolish things did we in the days of darkness!

  So we marched northwards under Te Heuheu, Te Waru, Paerau and Pareihe. Tama-rau Waiari went with us as also his wife and other women. Hakopa of Ngati-Manunui, and Hamiora Po-takuru of Ngati-Whare, were with our party. A daughter of Te Whenua-nui accompanied her father and was among the slain.

  When we were encamped Te Whenua-nui and his party joined us. There were about 50 fighting men of Tuhoe, of Ngati-Whare there were about 20. Piri
piri proposed that a messenger be sent to Rewi Maniapoto (the celebrated fighting chief) asking him to come to our camp and discuss matters. When Rewi arrived, then Tuhoe showed themselves to him, that is to say they performed a war dance. Then Te Whenua-nui rose and said ‘Listen, O Rewi! The reason of our sending for you is, that you give us Orakau as a place for us to use our guns and ammunition. They are too heavy to carry all this way for nothing.’

  Rewi told Tuhoe that he had had a vision of ill-fortune for Tuhoe if they fought at Orakau. He recited the omens he had seen and told Tuhoe to fight at Maungatautari not at Orakau. Undoubtedly the practiced soldier realised the weakness of the position at Orakau and in the Maori way endeavoured to persuade Tuhoe not to fight there. Tuhoe persisted, and at last Rewi agreed and joined Tuhoe. But very few of his people went with him, and those who did join him did not do much fighting. They remained on that side of the pa where the fighting was not severe.

  Even so, when Venus was flashing above the horizon, we marched to Orakau. All that night we toiled at building that fort, men and women working hard. We erected two lines of earthworks. At grey dawn we went and pulled down some fences, using the timber as palisades which we erected before the outer earthwork. There was no entrance way in the outer line of defence, but there were four such in the inner one. A low wall, a platform, was built inside the earthworks, on which we knelt when firing over the defences. We also built a small earthwork defence outside the main one, with which it was connected by means of an excavated way. Four men occupied the small defence throughout the fighting. We took no rest until these works were finished. Our numbers within Orakau amounted to about 400 [editor’s note: 300] once told, 200 brace of men.

  Now, I have already told you that if the crescent moon encloses a star that is a war sign. The moon represents a fort, the star is a war party attacking that fort. If the star passes behind the moon and reappears it is a sign that the fort will fall. We saw such a sign just before the fight at Orakau, and we thought it a good omen. But we built a fort and so turned the omen against ourselves. The fort did fall, but then it was our own fort.

  We did not have the time to finish that fort in a proper manner, and provision it, when the European soldiers surrounded us. We of Tuhoe had no food except pumpkins, which we ate raw as we had no fuel. It was in the morning that we saw the hosts of the white soldiers advancing to attack Orakau. They were very numerous. I then saw what a numberless people are the pakeha. They covered the land.

  Then arose Hapurona Kohi, a famed fighting man of Tuhoe. He had a gun in each hand, one a tupara (double barrel shotgun) the other a hakimana (flintlock musket). He said ‘O Tuhoe! Be stouthearted in the fray. Let the enemy approach close before you fire on him. When his hand is about to grasp you then let the guns respond.’

  But Rewi said, ‘Not so. If you allow the soldiers to come up to the defences you will perish. They will not retire. Keep them at a distance. You would kill the first but the others would still come on.’

  Hapurona bounded on to the earthworks. The soldiers were now quite close. We were armed with double barrelled fowling pieces and flintlock muskets. Each man had two bandoleer cartridge belts, and some wore three, full of cartridges. Just then Hapurona cried ‘Pūhia’ (fire) and we fired on the soldiers. Then we heard the cries of the soldier chiefs to their men, and the applauding shouts of our women. Do not say that it is wrong to allow women to accompany a war party, for they encourage us and urge us on in fine style.

  About that time Piki mounted the defences and five soldiers fell to him before he himself was killed. The soldiers were driven back. We fired as fast as we could load. Some men had two guns and a person told off to load them. The cartridge makers worked in an underground chamber. They worked incessantly at making cartridges. When a man’s cartridge box was empty he ran to the place to refill it, or the women carried them to us. There were six men who remained in that underground place making cartridges. They were Te Whenua-nui, Rewi Maniapoto, Te Waru, Te Heuheu, Topatopa and Paora.

  We fought the soldiers all that day until night fell. Many pakeha fell on that first day. The fighting continued for two days and a night. On the second day a great force of soldiers assaulted Orakau. Hapurona proposed that we should leave the pa and charge the soldiers but Rewi said: ‘Do not leave the pa. The soldiers have now sat firmly down. They will not retire. We cannot drive them off, but during the coming night (of the third day) then it will be well to charge out of our fort.’ And all the chiefs assented.

  We slew many soldiers during those first two days. We had no food for two days and two nights. Fighting was our only food. What helped Tuhoe was the way in which they tightly cinched their cartridge belts so as to compress the stomach. This prevented the feeling of faintness caused by hunger. I tell you that fighting was our food, but we ate some raw pumpkins as a relish for that diet. Some of our young men stole out of the fort and proceeded to where some white pine trees were seen. They climbed up into the tops of those trees to gather the berries, but the soldiers saw them and shot them.

  During the second day of the fight was seen a pakeha method of fighting. Bags were filled with earth and then placed to protect the heads of the soldiers. These soldiers had become cautious and kept at a distance while firing at us. They had also separated more than they had on the first day. So the braves of Tuhoe pondered how this new method of fighting might be met. Then Kauae-roa of Tuhoe said that he could accomplish it. The chiefs asked, ‘How will it be done by you?’ He replied: ‘Wait until the dusk of evening comes.’

  It was agreed to. In the evening Kauae-roa seized his tomahawk. The soldiers were digging a ditch (sap) near the pa. Some were in front, throwing out the earth. Behind them were soldiers. Now Kauae-roa sprang from his position to the head of the sap. Four yards was the distance that he leaped. With a blow of his tomahawk he killed the foremost man in the ditch, and shouted in triumph. Then were heard the applauding cries of the garrison. When that leading man in the ditch was slain we thought that the rest of the soldiers would retire but they did not.

  On the third day the end came. The Europeans assembled their multitude of soldiers, they had dug their ditch round a side of the fort until it was near our defences. It was filled with soldiers, and many more were collected in the hollow from which they had commenced the ditch. Then the bugles sounded and the soldiers assaulted Orakau. The small outer defence was taken by them. Then we left and so fell Orakau.

  We were driven away from that fort like a flock of sheep. The soldiers were behind us and on both sides. They shot and stabbed us continually with their bayonets. Friend! We were driven for miles. The only thing that enabled a few to escape was the swamp; that swamp was our salvation. It was the cause of the pursuit lagging.

  Thirty of Tuhoe were slain at Orakau, about twenty of us escaped. Of the eight Tuhoe women who were in the pa, three were killed. One of them was the wife of Tamarau Waiari. Tamarau himself had a narrow escape. A bullet struck his patu which was stuck in his belt, and glanced off it. My father was killed at Orakau, but I shot three soldiers to square that account.

  When we left the defences we did so in a body, chiefs, fighting men, women and young people. The soldiers almost surrounded us and many of our people were slain, and many wounded. I loaded my gun, a double barrel, while running. An old man of Tuhoe was in front of me. He fell, shot through the hips. As I passed him he said: ‘Son, this is the end. Be strenuous to save yourself.’ The soldiers were firing into us all the time.

  A fence, overgrown with fern, stood in front. As we scrambled over it, we saw more soldiers before us, a long double line of them. We rushed that line. They shot us and stabbed us with bayonets. We strove to break the line. As we reached it a soldier tried to bayonet me. I parried the point and shot that soldier. He fell against the next man who shook him off, as a man from the rear line stepped forward into the vacant space. I shot that man with my second barrel and darted through the line.

  I had not run far when I fell, shot t
hrough the thigh. I feared that the soldiers would bayonet me, so I crawled away into cover, dragging my gun with me. I lay under cover and reloaded my gun. The soldiers rushed past me in pursuit of others, but the Maori were much more active, especially in the swamp.

  I kept under cover until night fell, then I crawled away into the swamp. I had to drag my wounded leg along, it had lost all power. I found some foul water in a hole and drank much of it and as I proceeded I found muddy water in horse tracks and that helped me. We few survivors of Tuhoe met at Aotea-roa. Tapiki cut the bullet out of my leg.

  Then I got a stick and walked home to Rua-tahuna. There were many of us wounded. Te Whenua-nui had been shot in the knee. Another was shot in the breast, the bullet passing through his body and coming out near the shoulder. We returned to Rua-tahuna by way of Te Whaiti. We had one horse also badly wounded, with us, and those most severely wounded took it in turns to ride it. That was how we returned home.

  We were armed with flintlock guns at Orakau, and our ammunition ran short, so we used peach stones for bullets. It was not until the fighting under Te Kooti occurred that we obtained rifles (percussion locks).

  [Paitini Wi Tapeka ends his account with his return to Ruatahuna and waiata. Elsdon Best offers some closing remarks including this paragraph: ‘The native loss at Orakau was severe, being about 50 per cent of those engaged, the loss among the Tuhoe portion being 60 per cent killed. Some 1700 troops were engaged in the attack on Orakau a matter of over four to one against the Maori, rifles and Armstrong guns against flint-lock muskets and shot guns.’]