Prayers at site of 1864 massacre

Hamilton Bishop Stephen Lowe went to Rangiaowhia near Te Awamutu for early morning prayers on the anniversary of the 1864 massacre of Māori by British forces.

At 10.30am Mass at the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary later on the same day, February 21, in his opening remarks, Bishop Lowe spoke about this incident.

“It was on this day in 1864, it was a Sunday — Ratapu, the Māori call Sunday — the holy day. And the people of Rangioawhia were asleep in their beds,” Bishop Lowe said.

The bishop noted that Rangiaowhia is the site of the first Catholic mission in the area of what is now Hamilton diocese.

“There were three churches at Rangiaowhia — a Catholic church, an Anglican church and a Māori church. We had a school there and a technical school. Māori and Pakeha lived there in harmony and peace. And it was a real sign of what the Treaty could bring,” Bishop Lowe said.

“[However], the Land Wars were going on, but Rangiaowhia had been designated as a safe place for the women and for the children. But on this day in 1864, the colonial troops arrived. Their horses’ hooves were wrapped, so they made no noise as they sneaked past the warriors, who were further down the river.

“The troops arrived, they burnt the houses, people were killed. Children hid in the swamps amongst the eels for days. Women were raped. It wasn’t a battle. It was a massacre — and our diocese of Hamilton is intrinsically tied up with that.” The leader of the British forces, Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron, reported that 12 Māori were killed. Five British soldiers died. However, Ngāti Apakura elders say many more of their number were killed than the official figures estimate. Some put the number of Māori fatalities at more than one hundred.

Some of the Māori dead were reportedly found in a burned whare karakia, or house of prayer.

In his homily on February 21, Bishop Lowe also noted that the evil that took place at Rangiaowhia in 1864 was done by Christians. “It was the colonials who brought Christianity here to New Zealand. It was them who stripped Ngāti Apakura of their land after their massacre at Rangiaowhia.”

This showed how Christians could get things wrong, he added. In his opening remarks, Bishop Lowe noted that he had been at Rangiaowhia that morning for prayers.

“And the message that comes from Rangiaowhia is one of reconciliation, and that is what this season of Lent is about — about being reconciled to God, about being reconciled to one another.

“We come before him who was also massacred. And we come to celebrate his sacred mysteries.

“His word for us, when we hear it at the end of the Lenten season, when he had died and arisen, is peace.”