Mayor hails progress as occupation remembered
The relationship between Mā ori and the Whanganui council today is “vastly different” compared to 29 years ago, Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe says.
Tripe attended the annual Pā kaitore celebrations on Wednesday, honouring the day in 1995 when Whanganui Mā ori began a 79-day occupation to reclaim the riverfront site and highlight grievances over the river and land.
The historic site, then controlled by the council, had been renamed Moutoa Gardens by settlers after the battle at Moutoa in 1864, and it housed many of the city’s monuments and memorials.
Tripe said the occupation caused a lot of division in the community and nationally.
“I do remember it. From Whanganui District Council’s perspective, its relationship with iwi and hapū now is vastly different and better.
“Let’s look at 29 years ago compared to today: the council at the time came down to Pā kaitore to order the protesters of the day to move out. I’m here to celebrate what [the protesters] did. That’s the difference.”
Addressing the crowd in te reo Mā ori, Tripe was one of the speakers during the pō whiri.
He said the annual anniversary of the protest was an opportunity for education.
“You need to go back into history, back into the 1800s, to understand what it was like to be Mā ori. I don’t think people like me — Pākehā — have fully understood what it is to have a te ao Mā ori worldview. That’s our challenge today.
“They’ve been asked to be part of our worldview, the Statute of Westminster worldview. We need to understand the te ao Mā ori perspective.
“We’re back here 29 years from that day to celebrate, but also to educate our people [on] what those 79 days of protest were about.”
Hundreds gathered on Wednesday to remember the protests, including children from kō hanga reo and kura. The mayor said it was great to see tamariki and rangatahi marking the day and understanding their history.
“That’s the great thing. They’ve got this in them already, and that’s really important. It shapes their identity and what they stand for, and [means they] hold on to the history that has gone before us but is also ahead of us,” Tripe said.
Mā ori were here a long time before Europeans, he said.
“We’ve come a long way. We’ve got a very healthy relationship, and I saw that today when I got lots of hugs and hongi. That’s great, but there’s more to go.”
On the controversial decision by the Pā kaitore Historic Reserve Board to remove the country’s oldest war memorial from the Whanganui reserve, the mayor confirmed the monument would be relocated.
“It’s going to be removed from that site, potentially. There is still a process to go through, but it will still remain somewhere.
“It’s honouring history, it’s not eradicating history at all. We’re not trying to say that it didn’t occur.”
Whanganui River iwi representatives called for the removal of the 158-year-old Weeping Woman monument last year, saying its inscription condemning upriver Mā ori for “fanaticism and barbarism” was offensive and a blight on the history of Whanganui.
Tripe said the battle took place 80km upriver from Whanganui and therefore the statue was not commemorating the site of a historic event, just the fact the battle happened.