Pukerangiora - where ghosts walk

Pukerangiora is an ancient pa sitting high on a cliff top above the Waitara River. Its slopes were once planted with crops and it was protected by "the barrier"- the fighting pa Te Arei.

The people of Pukerangiora lived through times of peace and war. That is how it was. A period of peace ended when the well armed Ngati Maniapoto force arrived from the Waikato in 1831. These warriors were ready for revenge and this week's story tells us more.

Rewind

Decide if these things were really happening in Taranaki from the 1800s to the 1830's. Just answer true or false and check your answers at the end of this week's TreasureLink.

1. About 500 pa or the remains of pa can be found along Taranaki's coastal belt and the river valleys to the south.
2. Taranaki tribes are not armed with muskets like tribes to the north are.
3. The first of Taranaki's Pakeha people are living in what one day will be New Plymouth.
4. The first settler ship from Britain arrives in Taranaki waters.
5. Maori in Taranaki are leaving their ancestral lands.

Word watch

All the words and phrases below are in this week's story. Choose the best meaning and then check your choices when you later read the story. The answers are at the end of this week's TreasureLink.

1. hapu (a) clan or (b) tribe
2. military sap (a) a form of attack when a line of soldiers fire their muskets and kneel to allow the line behind to shoot or (b) a trench dug to protect soldiers while they approach the enemy
3. redoubts (a) forts or (b) watch towers
4. taua (a) bad luck or (b)war party
5. sanctuary (a) a place where people or animals are trapped or (b) a safe place
6. mass evacuation (a) many, leaving a place together or (b) a big attack
7. magnitude (a)the early shakes in an earthquake or (b) greatness in size
8. sacking (a) an itchy loosely woven type of material or (b) destroying a place by wrecking and setting fire to it
9. strategic places (a) important places for defence or attack in times of war or (b) safe places in times of war
10. booby trapped (a) a hidden weapon that an enemy can activate accidentally or (b) a hidden but live bomb

Where is Pukerangiora?

This week's story is set at the Pukerangiora pa. Locate the pa on this map. Find the place on the Waitara River that is closest to Tikorangi. The pa sits high above the river a couple of bends further on. It's on the side closest to the mountain.

Look here to find out which iwi (tribe) the Pukerangiora hapu belong to.

Why war?

There was no single reason why Maori fought each other. They fought for the same reasons people were fighting in other parts of the world then and now. The proverb below shows two common causes:

Mo te wahine me te whenua
e mate ai te tangata

Women and land are the reasons
men are prepared to die.

Competition for land was the reason behind many battles.

Think, pair and share your ideas about the question below, with a classmate.

What special features would the land have to make it worth fighting for?

Ancestral lands

This week's story involves the iwi listed below. Check out their traditional lands so you can see where the different tribal groups came from.

Look here to see the traditional Te Ati Awa lands.

Look here to see the traditional Ngati Maniapoto lands.

Look here to see the traditional Tainui lands.

More reasons for war

So why else did Maori head into battle?

To settle questions of authority- for example, who was to lead the hapu.

To avenge insults to individual and tribal mana (prestige, authority).

When the group decided that their mana had been trampled on they sometimes looked for revenge. Utu is a word that has been translated into revenge but a better meaning is "balanced exchange". If a wrong had been done it was balanced up through the concept of utu.

Some feuds went on for decades but the fighting didn't. War came and went. The Maori word for enemy was "hoariri" which meant "angry friend". The enemy might be angry today but friendly tomorrow. War was a part of life like birth, growing crops or death.

The coming of the musket

In pre European times many battles were quite small. The fighting involved individuals or small raiding parties and it didn't last long. Even when large war parties attacked each other the numbers killed may have reached 60 but rarely more. It was hand to hand fighting but all that changed with the coming of the musket. Some tribes had them while others didn't and that was a recipe for disaster.

Discuss the questions below with a classmate and then find another pair and compare their answer with yours.

1. Which tribes were more likely to get muskets first?
2. What big advantage did the musket have over traditional weapons?

Setting the scene 

The first three parts of this week's story set the scene. They tell you what the land around Pukerangiora was like. It's top dairy farming land today but people recognised it's fine natural features hundreds of years ago. Pukerangiora is an ancient pa.

Read through to the part in the story called The pig sty and list three features that made Pukerangiora an ideal site for a pa.

A palisade built to trap!

One reason for war was to avenge insults and loss of mana. Te Wherowhero was the leader of the Waikato and the chief who later led a big war party on the siege and attack of the Pukerangiora pa.

Read The pig sty and Te Rauparaha travels south and find two events that Te Wherowhero probably found insulting. He returned home after one of these events but neither was forgotten.

Share your ideas with a classmate.

Free to return home

With many Waikato trapped behind the palisades Te Ati Awa suddenly decided to let them go. No one really knows why. It is a bit of a mystery.

Read After the Battle and then use this decision maker in a small group to look at the advantages and disadvantages these actions.               

New siege, new prisoners

The next two parts of the story are both savage and sad. Te Wherowhero has returned and is ready for revenge.

Find out what happened by reading through to On to Otaka pa.

The ancient acts of war

Heads became trophies of war partly because they were thought to be the holders of personal tapu or one's sacred life. The head was also a warrior's most recognizable feature.

Eating the enemy was the ultimate revenge. It was done to degrade the enemy and allow the conqueror to absorb the enemy's mana and mauri (life force).

These acts were savage but so were the things happening on other battlefields around world. War was as brutal then as it is now.

A good time to leave?

Te Ati Awa won the next big battle with the Waikato. This time it was at the Otaka pa near where the old New Plymouth cool stores stand today.  Read On to Otaka pa. If you want to read more about this great battle look here.

Most Te Ati Awa people left their ancestral lands and began a long trek south to Kapiti. Think about what had happened in the past. Which of the three options below would you have chosen if you had just been part of the battle at the Otaka pa?

(a) Leave for the south.
(b) Stay but rebuild and strengthen pa and

     build up the musket supply.

(c) Carry on just as before.

A new enemy

Less than 2000 Pakeha settlers lived in New Zealand when the first of Taranaki's settler ships arrived in 1839. By the time war broke out near Pukerangiora in 1860 almost 60,000 settlers had made New Zealand their home. Many of them were looking for land and a lot had arrived in Taranaki.

This time the war was between Maori and Pakeha and it was the first clash between the British and a big combination of Maori tribes fighting as one.

Read Pakeha and Maori conflict and Major-General Pratt takes command.

Now check out this interactive and try fighting on both sides to find out what happened at the Battle of Puketakauere.

Attack along the sap

The British were well beaten at Puketakauere so they learnt to be careful with Maori fortifications and their battle tactics.

When the time came to attack Pukerangiora General Pratt tried a new strategy. He ordered his men to dig forward instead of rush forward.

Team up with some classmates and read this quick play to see what actually happened.

General Pratt's cunning sap

Characters: General Pratt, Private Charlie Diggle, Captain Tom Thistle, Sergeant   Scooter.

General Pratt: I say chaps. What oh- gather around and listen to my cunning plan.
 
Charlie: Who is that geezer Tom?

Tom: That's the new General Charlie. He's over here from Australia.

Charlie: From Australia Tom? What's he doing here then?

Tom: He has a cunning plan Charlie.

General Pratt: Righty oh lads. Listen to me now. We took a bit of a hammering at Puketakauere. We were outnumbered by the Maori and they hit us with some sneaky tricks. Dash bad luck but there you are.

Charlie: We weren't outnumbered Tom. They had clever leaders and we didn't. That's all.

General Pratt: Quiet in the ranks chaps. Now this time we will dig a trench deep enough to protect us from enemy fire.

Sergeant Scooter: How long will we sitting in this ditch for then General?

General Pratt: Not a ditch Sergeant Scooter, a sap a military sap.

Sergeant Scooter: Good idea Sir but what if the men get trapped in the sap Sir?

Charlie: (whispering) Trapped in the sap with General Pratt. How is that?

General Pratt: What was that Private Diggle.

Charlie: Sir! I said that General Pratt will have a cunning plan Sir… to see we don't get trapped. In the sap Sir.

General Pratt: Quite… Men, I plan to dig almost up to the Maori pa whereupon we will begin a bombardment followed by a rapid foot attack and assault on the Maori positions.

Tom: It could take many weeks to dig your sap General. We are a long way from the pa. It looks about a mile.

General Pratt: So be it Captain Thistle but the men's safety is paramount.

Charlie: Hear, hear General.

General Pratt: Righty oh chaps, break out the spades and get to work.

Charlie: General Pratt Sir - permission to be the second digger behind you Sir.

General Pratt: I won't be digging Diggle. I am the General and Generals don't dig. You should know that Diggle.

Tom: What should we do with all the dirt General?

General Sap: I've thought of that Captain Thistle. We will use the dirt to build eight forts to protect the sap while we move forward. We will call these forts, "redoubts".

Charlie: Dirt forts would be a better name.

Sergeant Scooter: It could be dangerous building the last redoubt closest to the pa Sir.

General Pratt: Diggle will build that one Sergeant. He's small and nippy. He should be safe enough if he doesn't stand in one spot for too long. At the double now- arrange your diggers.

Tom: One more thing General Pratt

General Pratt: Yes Captain?

Tom: The front of the sap Sir. Should we protect it in some way?

General Pratt: Capital idea Thistle but I had already thought of it. A heavy roller at the top end of the trench, rolled into position and booby trapped each night with a nasty bomb. And Diggle…

Charlie:Yes General Pratt Sir?

General Pratt: Set and defuse the booby trap night and morning will you. Toodle pip. I'm off to make more plans.

The End

Read on!

Finish the story now and see what actually happened once the sap was built.

Fast forward to 2005

It's 174 years since the tragedy at Pukerangiora and it is thought that as many as 1200 people lost their lives there. Some places in the world have memorials built when a large number of lives are lost in a single event. Would a memorial be appropriate for Pukerangiora?

Decide in small groups and then share your ideas with the rest of the class. Consider the good points first - why it may work. Then consider the not so good points - why it might not work.

Rewind answers
1. True.  Some pa may have been lived in for many generations and others for only a few days or weeks but evidence, even today, shows they were there.

2. True and without guns Taranaki people suffered in times of war.

3. True. Dicky Barrett and Jacky Love made their homes in Taranaki and worked as traders at first.

4. False. The first settler ship was the William Bryan and it didn't arrive until 1841.

5. True. In June 1832, the Te Ati Awa tribe along with Barrett and Love, led by chiefs Te Puni, Te Wharepouri and Te Tautara, set out on Te Heke Tama Te Uaua - the great trek south along the Te Whakaahurangi track.

Word watch answers
1a, 2b, 3a 4b, 5b, 6a, 7b, 8b, 9a, 10a