Ohaeawai Maori Church Nz

edmondsallan - Hello - did you know about the following
St Michael’s Church, also known as Ohaeawai Maori Church, is located at Ngawha, approximately 4 km south-west of the Northland town of Ohaeawai.

Built in 1870, the church stands on the site of the famous Ohaeawai pa. The scoria wall surrounding the burial ground marks almost exactly the outer line of the stockade that surrounded the pa. In the winter of 1845 this was the scene of a major British defeat at the hands of the faction of Ngapuhi led by the Ngati Hine chief Te Ruki Kawiti.

On 1 July 1845, after withstanding a week-long bombardment, Kawiti’s 100-strong garrison faced a determined assault on the pa by a British force commanded by Colonel Henry Despard. Some 250 troops from the 58th and 99th Regiments, sailors and marines from HMS Hazard and Auckland militia rushed at the defences. In a matter of minutes, 40 troops were killed and 70 wounded.

The troops who died in this ‘disastrous affair’ were buried on the battlefield three days later. The grave site is thought to have been the site of the British encampment, 200–300 m from the pa. Officers killed at Ohaeawai were buried at the church of St John the Baptist at Waimate North.

In a dispatch to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1870, New Zealand Governor Sir George Bowen described his recent visit to Ohaeawai. Bowen noted that local Maori had just erected a church on the site of Ohaeawai pa, ‘among the now decayed palisades and rifle-pits’, and that they had reserved the entire site as a cemetery.

When the Bishop of Auckland shall have consecrated this new burial-ground, the Maoris intend to remove into it the remains of our soldiers who now lie in unmarked graves in the neighbouring forest, and to erect a monument over them; so that (as an aged chief, formerly conspicuous among our enemies, said to me) ‘the brave warriors of both races, the white skin and the brown – now that all strife between them is forgotten – may sleep side by side until the end of the world.’

The chief was probably Ngapuhi leader Heta Te Haara. ‘I question,’ said Bowen in 1870, ‘if there be a more touching episode in the annals of the warfare of even civilized nations in either ancient or modern times’.

In January 1872 the government agreed to pay Ngapuhi £30 to exhume the British remains and reinter them in the grounds of St Michael’s Church. On 29 June 1872, the remains were removed from their original graves by several tohunga (Maori priests) and placed in six large coffins. Two days later, on the 27th anniversary of the battle, the coffins were conveyed to the burial ground in ‘wretchedly cold and wet weather’. Each was covered with a red ensign and marched to the grave site in procession.

Led by Te Haara, the coffins were followed by a long train of Europeans and Maori. The procession was met at the grave site by Archdeacon E.B. Clarke, who conducted the burial service. After the ceremony three volleys were fired over the grave. The crowd then moved indoors for speeches and to enjoy the hospitality of Te Haara and his people. Till we meet again -Regards - edmondsallan

Ohaeawai NZ Wars memorial cross', URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/ohaeawai-nz-wars-memorial-cross, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 14-Oct-2010