April 09, 2021
Ngapuhi history recognised in heritage listings
Māngungu at Horeke in the Hokianga has been added to the New Zealand Heritage List / Rārangi Kōrero as wāhi tūpuna – a place important to Māori for ancestral significance and associated cultural and traditional values.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Northland manager Atareira Heihei says while Māngungu Mission House is already listed as a Category 1 historic place, it was important to acknowledge the deep connection many Māori have to the wider landscape.
By providing a base for Wesleyan missionaries in the late 1820s, rangatira such as Eruera Maihi Patuone, Tāmati Waka Nene, Makoare Te Taonui, and Muriwai made Māngungu a significant place of cultural exchange on the Hokianga Harbour.
It was also the site of the third and largest signing of Te Tiriti on February 12 1840.
Pouhere Taonga has also recognised Piakoa at Tākou Bay on Northland’s east coast as a wāhi tapu area containing sites sacred to Māori in the traditional, spiritual, religious, ritual or mythological sense.
It’s a network of traditional burial caves in the cliffs where a number of very significant rangatira were laid to rest including Auwha who, with Whakaaria led the Ngāpuhi conquest.
Ms Heihei says Auwha’s grandson Hongi Hika was also placed there after his death from a musket ball wound in 1828 before being removed to another burial place near Kaikohe.
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