Tears flowed as a taonga with whakapapa to Tūhoe prophet Rua Kēnana was returned home last week ahead of a symposium this weekend to reflect on his life and legacy.
Te Papa Tongarewa kaimahi Lisa Osborne and Moana Parata with Tūhoe kuia Lucy Hona carry the kahu huruhuru which was stolen from prophet Rua Kēnana’s daughter Pinepine in a police raid over 100 years ago. Photo: LDR / Whakatāne Beacon / Troy Baker
The taonga, a kahu huruhuru (feathered cloak), belonged to Rua Kēnana's daughter Pinepine and was stolen by armed police when they raided the village of Maungapōhatu in the Urewera Ranges to arrest Rua Kēnana on false charges 105 years ago.
Police also killed two Māori men at the settlement, including Rua Kēnana's son Toko.
The symposium will be held at Tuapou Marae on the anniversary of the invasion. It also marks one year since the passing of the Rua Kēnana Pardon Bill in which the Crown apologised for the atrocities committed and provided a statutory pardon restoring Rua Kēnana's character, mana, and reputation.
The kahu huruhuru is on loan from Te Papa Tongarewa and will be displayed alongside other taonga with whakapapa to Rua Kēnana at the marae.
For Pinepine's great-granddaughter Toni Boynton it was emotional to see her great-grandmother's kahu huruhuru return home with a pōwhiri at Te Whare Taonga ō Taketake - the Whakatāne Museum and Research Centre.
"It's incredibly emotional to see this and have a physical connection to her," she said.
"It's almost like my kuia has come back. It has me thinking about what happened to her and the atrocities committed against her and other women and how, despite it all, she held a lot of mana. She never lost that."
Boynton said the pardon of Rua Kēnana and the symposium reflected mana being returned to him and his mangainga (descendants).
As a child, whenever Boynton was ill, her whānau would ask Rua Kēnana to watch over her.
"We always just knew him as koro," she said.
"We always had a connection to him, and we were always speaking about him. It wasn't until I was older that I learnt the true significance of his story."
As a child, she was told not to mention her relationship to Rua Kēnana as it could lead to ridicule. However, the pardon was a turning point.
Te Whare Taketake has provided several taonga from its collection to the symposium to be displayed alongside the kahu huruhuru.
Collections and research manager Mark Sykes said the symposium was the "beginning of something more" and by connecting the kahu huruhuru through whakapapa with whānau, hapū and iwi, the taonga finally got a voice.
He said he would like to see it come home permanently.
Pinepine’s great-granddaughter Toni Boynton (centre left) sits alongside her kuia’s kākahu and other taonga which will be exhibited at a Rua Kēnana symposium this weekend. Photo: LDR / Whakatāne Beacon / Troy Baker
Te Papa kaitiaki taonga Māori Lisa Osborne accompanied the kahu huruhuru home alongside several other Te Papa staff members and said she too would like to see it come home for good.
"It was a real honour and a privilege to bring this taonga home to the iwi," Osborne said.
"Moments like this are absolutely wonderful to experience and it's the reason why I love my job. It's wonderful to bring it home and to support the hapū and iwi in this kaupapa."
The kahu huruhuru is owned by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Osborne said, and there were some logistics that needed to be worked through before it could return permanently.
Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi professor of Māori and indigenous development Taiarahia Black is leading the kaupapa around the symposium and has released four booklets of research about Rua Kēnana collated by his PHD students.
He said it was his hope, and the aim of the symposium, to expand opportunities for life-long learning and to advance research and scholarship for Māori communities.
"The aim of the symposium is to promote higher standards of research and scholarship," Dr Black said.
"It is also to ensure an exceptional and distinctive learning experience for our Māori communities within that reo rangahau (Māori language research).
"By developing the symposium, we want to strengthen our connections with whānau, hapū and iwi and to encourage reo rangahau as our way forward for the future."
Dr Black said the symposium was built on partnership and collaboration between Te Whare Taketake, Te Papa, Tuapou Marae and Ngā Toenga o Ngā Tamariki a Iharaira Ngā Uri o Maungapōhatu charitable trust.
The symposium would allow the creation of new knowledge and to generate growth for under-graduate and post-graduate study in the te ao Māori research space, he said.
"Students can embark on journeys of knowledge acquisition in te reo and embrace that knowledge relevant to their hapū, iwi and marae,' Dr Black said.
The symposium is the first of three planned. The second will be hosted at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, and the third at Maungapōhatu.
Local Democracy Reporting is a public interest news service supported by RNZ, the News Publishers' Association and NZ On Air.
