Te Whare Hononga at the Taranaki Cathedral and the restored colonial vicarage. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
About 400 people, including a delegation from Waikato, gathered in New Plymouth on Thursday, for a huge milestone in the development of the Taranaki Cathedral.
The newly built Te Whare Hononga, which means the House that Binds, and a memorial for Waikato soldiers who died in the Taranaki wars, was formally blessed.
St Mary's Cathedral dean Jay Ruka said it was the start of a new era for the church in Taranaki, to accept its history and plot the future.
"Te Whare Hononga has been opened today in 2023, the same year that it is now law to teach New Zealand children our own story," he said.
"So Te Whare Hononga really is a part of that movement of educating Aotearoa, because it's in learning both the positives and the negatives you learn what to do and what not to do as we move into the future."
Jay Ruka Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
Ruka said two years ago a delegation went to Ngāti Hauā to ask if they wanted the men of Waikato who were buried at the church to be returned.
"Essentially since 1860 the conversations never been had between Ngāti Hauā and Te Ati Awa, so there's always been this little bit of mamae really. Why are these men here... and not at the very least still with the rest of the 38 men that passed away at Māhoetahi."
St Mary's is the final resting place of Ngāti Hauā chief Wetini Taiporutu, his son Hemi, Ngāti Apakura chief Whararangi, Ngāti Kōura chief Hakopa and two unnamed chiefs, all of whom were killed at Māhoetahi on 6 November 1860.
It was agreed that the men would remain at St Marys and the memorial to them would be built.
Ruka said the memorial work had allowed for a process of healing to occur.
Around 150 people of Ngāti Hauā made the journey down from Waikato to attend the ceremony and mihi to their dead.
Ruka said Te Whare Hononga was about telling the story of tangata whenua Ngāti Te Whiti and their relationship with the land, with New Plymouth and with St Mary's, both the good and bad of that history.
"Essentially what Te Whare Hononga is, and the memorial for Wetini Taiporutu mā, it's the picking of the fruit of the previous generations of challenging the colonial attitudes."
Ruka said the time had come for St Mary's to really deal with its past and with its role in the wars in Taranaki.
