#CHTH217

[evsacademicessaysblog]

CHTH217 Essay on the Prophet Rātana and his Theology

CHTH217 Special Topic: Māori Religion and Theology Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana was a prophet prophesied and the fulfilments of the dreams, prayers and prophesies of a century of Māori Christians. Seeing himself as another Moses, in a long line of Māori Prophets come both to deliver the Māori people from the subjugation and oppression of colonial New Zealand, and to liberate his people also from the false gods of idol worship and the degenerated state of tōhungaism which after a century of colonialism had turn to superstitious worship of half remembered medicines and practices with the underlying purposes and science lost in the struggle to preserve it against Pākehā assimilation, becoming a tool keeping Māori sick and ignorant instead of healing them. To these purposes Ratana was called, tested and driven by God to heal his people’s wounds and to rally and lead them, not to a promised land or a return to their ancient home but to the liberation of Aotearoa through Te Tiriti, biblical inspiration and parliamentary process.   T.W. Rātana was of the line of Ngāti Apa and Ngāti Raukawa chiefs and of a line of tōhunga leaders, the most recent his aunt, Mere Rikiriki who as his godparent and primary teacher of maramatanga (here meaning spiritual knowledge, tōhungaism and biblical education), Rikiriki represents the whakapapa of his knowledge, Christianity, and ministry as well as of his blood. Through this and through the many prophecies that will be discussed later, Ratana was uniquely positioned in the worlds of Christendom and Māoridom to be a powerful force for change.  

On the 8th of November 1918, arriving as a cloud the Holy Ghost came to Ratana, having searched every nation of the world Ratana was chosen to be the mouthpiece of God, the next prophet to his people to heal and bring to peace and the gospel (Henderson, 1972). Ratana was tested, driven to madness and acts of danger and harm, racing through fences and leaping into blackbury bushes (Newman, 2006). He was given a mission to heal and sent with this gift to pass the miracles of God’s healing on to the Māori people. As with the prophets of the bible, this calling was not for his benefit, in the months before this the influenza had more than decimated his family (Newman, 2006) and while his first miracle would be to heal his son, his mission would also see him lose that same son (Henderson, 1972) during his later world tour as a sign of the fulfilment of that side of his calling.

Ratana would become first a faith healer, travelling New Zealand, casting out the remaining Atua and healing those sickened by the influences of the dying Atua and arts of tōhungaism as well as those suffering of the European diseases, polio, Te Mare (TB) and influenza, cancers and the great injuries of the great war. He would later travel to Europe, Japan and America on this purpose to heal the spiritual wounds made to the world by this war as he had healed the physical wounds of his people. Ratana was also called to start a movement and a church, with the aim of political change to heal Māori from the wounds of Pākehā after he had healed them from the wounds of tōhungaism.  

By the time of his death in 1939 Ratana had revolutionaries New Zealand, set in place a political alliance that would hold the Māori seats for half a century, delivering recognition of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and many substantial reforms for Māori. He would heal thousands of Māori, and even some Pākehā although he made clear his mission was for Māori and would not go out of his way to heal Pākehā until all Māori were healthy (Henderson, 1972). He would found a Church and build a community that 100 years later is still strong and still works for the benefit, health and liberation of Māori (RNZ, 2018).  

Ratana differed from the typical image of prophets and faith healers, shying away from dramatic performances, his healings were matter of fact and often grounded entirely in common medicines, instructing the healed how to take care of themselves, even providing quotes and explanations from Pope’s Health for the Māori an 1884 publication alongside the more miraculous healings unexplainable without consideration of the power of God (Henderson, 1972). During his early stage,

his healing was grounded in fighting back the dark influences and shadows of false healers and tōhungaism, later when this focus was replaced with healing Māori from the consequences of settler rule his manner and style of healing, not great proclamations and showmanship but slowly drawing out his watch  or puffing on his pipe while giving the patient a few quiet moments to believe, and try being healed (Henderson, 1972).  

Ratana had two missions to heal the Māori people, first the mission spiritual to heal their souls and bodies from both the European diseases and from Tōhungaism (Newman, Ratana revisited : an unfinished legacy, 2006), and the mission political, to restore their lands, get te tiriti recognised and get meaningful representation in politics to carry out meaningful steps towards the liberation of Māori. Much of the Ratana symbolism focuses on these two missions, his sons Arepa and Omeka were personifications of these missions and the passing of Arepa is considered the ending of the first mission, in the successful defeat of Tōhungaism and the passing of Omeka marked the end of the first step towards the second, with the Te Tiriti petition and party body to contest the Māori seats set up. The two whales were beached by the waves in March, 1918 before the vision in his first calling to serve, are seen as representing these twin missions (Henderson, 1972). Through these two missions Ratana was called like the previous Māori prophets to resolve the spiritual and political challenges against Māori in the modern world, but provided with a framework to deal with them separately (Dacker, 1994) and through his spiritual mission, healing and good works build both the legitimacy and respectability needed to fulfil the political and the political base and support to take on the colonial establishment.  

Ratana was preceded by many prophecies, that establish his calling and his mission. These follow in the biblical tradition of prophets and link into his role beyond the prophets in his dual missions, echoing the many prophecies that foretold of the New Testament.  

In 1886 at korotuaheka, Hipa Te Maiharoa the Moses of Waitaha, healer and prophet of the South Island foretold that “a very little child will come from the north under Taranaki; he will finish my work for Jehovah. (Dacker, 1994, p. 96)” This work was the work of holding on to Māori land, reclaiming soviegnty, fighting tōhukaism (tōhungaism), uniting Waitaha, Kāti Maemoe and Kāti Rākai and uniting the Christian and te ao Māori worlds through the deaths of the Atua and the indigenisation of a Christianity based in the text of the bible from a Māori perspective, not the traditions of European colonialism. (Dacker, 1994)

Te Kooti, himself the fulfilment of the prophecy of Toiroa Ikariki, said in 1893 that a child would arise from the west and unite the people, and in another prophecy that two stars would arise, a statesman from Ngāti Porou in the east and a spiritual leader, a prophet in the west. Te Kooti’s third prophecy foretelling of the coming of Ratana was that “a garden of many flowers shall come forth from out of the mouth of the Whangaehu River, and its fragrance will be dispersed throughout the four winds of the country.” (Newman, Ma te wa: the sign of the broken watch, 2012, p. 3).  Three decades early in 1863 the prophet of Ngaphui Aperahama prophesied that “There is a man coming however, who will be carrying two books: the bible and the treaty.” (Henderson, 1972).  Through these prophecies we can see the aspects of Ratana as holding the Te Ture Wairua, his spiritual mission in one hand and the Te Ture Tangata, his political and worldly mission to restore Te Tiriti and Māoridom in the other. Through the garden his mission to reach out to all Māori not just his Iwi as did other Māori prophets as well as his political campaign of the four quarters and together with Te Kooti’s other prophecies are confirmation of his location.  

Mere Rikiriki, the Māori prophetess of peace, and aunt of T.W. Ratana, herself the heir of Tawhiao of Te Whiti, something she worded as wearing their cloak about her shoulders, prophesied before

Ratana’s birth that there would come a child who will take action directly, lead a great mission without favouritism and who will be more than a man in his attributes. As Ratana grew, Mere Rikiriki saw that man in him, saying that he will wear her cloak of wairua. She repeated this prophecy many times, including to him such as in 1911 when he studied under her (Henderson, 1972) and when she named two of his sons, Arepa and Omeka,   and would not touch them as the tapu within them was so great, beyond even that of normal infants, saying that those children were far above her, their name coming from the Son (Jesus) himself (Newman, 2006).  

As Te Maiharoa, Te Kooti, Te Ua Haumene, Te Whiti and the other prophets drew together biblical and hapu or Iwi traditions to create a creed of peace, survival and resistance against land being stolen, T.W. Ratana drew together biblical traditions, Christian theology and Māori traditions from across many Iwi and Hapu, to create a creed of political engagement, Māori revival and the reclamation of land long stolen. For this reason, I see T.W. Ratana not as he framed himself, another Māori Moses, but as the first Māori New Testament (NT) prophet, sent not to continue the struggle against occupation but to reform and fundamentally change Māori and Christianity into something greater than the sum of their parts through building on what was already achieved and directly taking the message to the imperial establishment.

We also see through all the prophecies the importance of T.W. Ratana as above the other prophets, foreseen not in one people or by one leader by for a century from prophets of many hapu, iwi and faiths. This aligns again better with the NT narrative than the old, proclaimed and foreseen by many prophets and across many scriptures like Christ and with parallels in imagery to both Christ and the apostles, Ratana was given the mission of being a fisher of men. Ratana broke from the earlier prophets again by drawing more on the New Testament in his works and preaching while the older prophets leant more on the old, often exclusively. Where the apostles worked within the Roman political establishments and systems, took the tools of Rome and used them for Christ, Ratana revived this tradition in using the tools and means of Pākehā, the newspapers, wireless broadcasts and the politicial system to modernise his message and reach the Imperial ears.  

Like his contemporary, Sir Āpirana Ngata, Ratana was adamant in his fight against Tōhungaism, however unlike Ngata, Ratana’s work of healing, ministry and spiritual leadership drew upon the traditions and knowledge of Tōhunga (Newman, 2006), he regarded this not as a contradiction as despite what his followers kept trying to claim, his healing and work did not have it’s source in his power, his personal mana or his mana tipuna, but God (Henderson, 1972). Likewise he was challenged in his lifetime with claims that his title Mangai, or Mouthpiece of God was putting himself in the godhead or claiming heretical power, however pre-contact the term was used for any who spoke the words of the atua, not for those who   claimed an atua’s power or to speak for them (Henderson, 1972), and so we can see that from a te ao Māori perspective this title is no more grandising or heretical than the any Christian who speaks the words of God with any authority, be they layman, priest or scholar. Opposition to this title was not rooted in Ratana breaking with the Christian tradition, but the Pākehā self-appointed guardians of that tradition lacking the familiarity of te reo and te ao Māori to understand the connotations.  

Another proposed claim of breach with the Christian tradition proposed by Pākehā opposition to Ratana has been his acknowledgement of both himself as Mangai and the Faithful Angels as intermediaries between the Morehu and God as the same as worshiping angels or Prophets instead of God. This claim of idoltry is made unlikely through Ratana’s long war against idols in his te ture Wairua, locking away the old gods in the ‘whare Māori’ (Henderson, 1972), however the word the mangai used, in English to describe this relationship is intermediary (McDonald, 1990), the same

term used by European Christians for anyone who prayers for another, for the Saints and for figures such as a Pope or bishops who lift up the prayers of others to greater attention. It is reasonable to put this either down to a double standard or to a lack of familiarity with, and suspicion born of prejudiced against te ao Māori perspectives within Ratana’s approach to in this case, fairly orthodox Christian practices of acknowledging Angels, Saints and intermediaries.  

Through his building on the previous prophets, the legitimacy and prophecies they foretold of him and the tutoring of Mere Rikiriki and his chiefly and tōhunga lineage combining with his western education and bible study from Methodist, Anglican, Welseyian and Presbyterian perspectives throughout his early life, education and publications available allowing an approach to his ministry grounded as much in the New Testament and theology Pākehā society understands as in authentic te ao Māori beliefs both Christian and pre-contact. Through this T.W. Ratana was successfully able to synthesie Christianity into te ao Māori, by Māori for Māori without losing the tolerance of the Pākehā establishment to create a movement capable of winning momentum and driving last political change for Māori in its lifetime, a key force in all Māori revival since and a strong movement, over 40,000 strong today (McDonald, 1990) without ever having to compromise on its commit and promises either to Māori or to God.  

Bibliography

Dacker, B. (1994). Te Maemae me te Aroha; The Pain and the Love. Dunedin: University of Otago Press.

Henderson, J. (1972). Ratana: The Man, The Church, The Political Movement. Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed LTD.

McDonald, M. (Director). (1990). Pounamu - Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana [Motion Picture].

Newman, K. (2006). Ratana revisited : an unfinished legacy. Auckland: Reed.

Newman, K. (2012). Ma te wa: the sign of the broken watch. Mana Maori + Christianity, 3.

RNZ. (2018, Novemeber 8). RNZ. Retrieved from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNAwptZQCz

[evelynstarshine]

The Māori Theology CHTH217 paper at Otago, it wasn't just the most enriching, it was life changing. I had lost my love of learning after two years of Tcol and it's condescending, water treading in place of learning, then that course, all the lectures were held in 1 week, but it was the same amount of actual hours learning as it was a week on Marae in the North Island, I went up to Whakatane and lived for a week together as class with people from all over NZ studying all types of degrees, classes all day and workshops at night. And the subject matter itself, examining the pre-missionary Māori religious movements, and then the anti-colonial Māori Prophet's with guest speakers who were their grandchildren!

Immersion in history and cultural learning, in the most beautiful place I have ever been and such community and just such a passion for the course content from the lecturers and no 'dumbing down', the course had people who weren't even students but no one felt they needed to make it 'accessible' or restrict information to an appropriate level but instead supported learners to reach for the stars not deny them the chance, and just nothing compares with it. After that week it was then acouple months of essays and zui's to discuss how it's going, and I did terribly on the essays, not on content just I'd never done a theology course before and struggled with it's style requirements and citation system being completely different from Ind-development or educations.

I'm out of study now and in the workforce and it's that course, not my actual vocational papers that I am drawing from every day, thinking about everyday. I'm going to Japan this year to continue the learning I started in that paper. It was an interest paper, it didn't even count to my degree but without it I would have dropped out instead of graduating.

can't do this one as a poll bc there's endless choices but if you're in college/university or went to college/university what's been the most fun/enriching class you've had?

[evsacademicessaysblog]

CHTH217 Māori Role in the acceptance and shape of Christianity among Southern Māori in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Essay for CHTH217 Special Topic: Māori Religion and Theology

Christianity came to New Zealand with colonisation, as a tool to adapt the Māori people into European civilisation to prepare them for the arrival of European settlers, both to secure their survival through assimilation or to quiet their resistance. However in the bible Māori found their culture, language and world and instead adapted Christianity to the Māori people and through this made it both a tool for the survival of their culture and a salve for the ailments and disruptions brought by the Europeans, within a generation of contact, Southern Māori like many of their northern cousins, would become majority Christian and frame their sovereignty, wellbeing, resistance and identity through biblical and Christian terms.

In the early years of the 19th century Māori society was in crisis and yearning for a fundamental change, the centuries tried and true methods of (muru) compensation and utu (fair justice) cycles had been broken by the arrival of the musket and the unprecedent escalation of violence it brought to warfare (Rielly, et al., 2018). Equal compensation as a method of preserving peace failed when the wrong to be compensated was beyond what any recompense would pay and with the imbalance of access to muskets throughout the nation lead the rejection of traditional peace processes by more powerful aggressors, for example; Southern Māori (Kai Tahu, Waitaha & Kāti Maemoe) could not persue utu against Ngāti Toa for Te Rauparaha musket raids and could only seek utu individually, leading to an escalation of violence against family members of Te Rauparaha and his warriors, which were responded to in kind (Cormack & Orwin, 1997), a breakdown and escalation not previously possible without the power imbalance of European muskets and cannon.

The second need was brought by the Europeans, Māori had no tikaka (correct practices) or methods to respond to the introduced diseases, that spread in ways unalike the native illness and to which Māori had no natural immunities against. Before missionaries had even arrived in New Zealand, influenza, tuberculosis, measles, scarlet fever and typhoid had reached Māori through sealers, whales and Māori returning home from work in Sydney and on Pacific trading ships (Dacker, 1994). Both returning Māori and these itinerant Europeans also brought with them the bible, the bible spoke to Māori and fit within te ao Māori (Māori view of the world) which both Māori and Missionaries made use to understand each other’s worlds. These diseases eroded faith in the tōhukaism (Māori traditional medicine, science, and health practices), as the old methods of disease prevention and cure that had work for centuries against the native maladies, had no effect against the introduced diseases (Henderson, 1972).

By the 1830s, unscrupulous Europeans, like the Foveaux strait sealer, John Boultbee, were taking advantage of this. Being familiar with influenza Boultbee able to claim to have interceded with his Atua (God) for Kikoro’s recovery, knowing that he would soon, for the return of property he had lost as utu in a dispute, following the recovery of Kikoro this incident and others like it spurred an interest in the Atua of the Europeans as a cure for the European diseases among Southern Māori (Dacker, 1994). This combined with the owner of the Waikouaiti whaling station, John Jones urging of both the authorities in Sydney and the local chiefs of Ōtākou for a mission to improve the welfare of Pākehā and Māori around what is now Dunedin (Pybus, 1954) and the benefits of literacy Koroko Karetai & Mātenga Taiaroa, the chiefs of Ōtākou and Tūhawaiki, the paramount chief of Kāi Tahu and all Southern Māori, had witnessed in their travels to the North Island and during contact and work with the Europeans (Dacker, 1994), to create a desire for a Missionary presence in the South Island.

While there had been missionaries to the south before, Rev. James Watkins, appointed at the joint requests of Karetai, Taiaroa and Jones, had the most impact on Southern Māori Christianity. Arriving in June 1840, by November Watkins was running two writing classes a day and holding reading classes nightly. Māori took quickly to the practice of the sabbath (Dacker, 1994) and sought literacy hungrily (Haami, 2007) by did not seek baptism or inclusion within European society, in part as the majority American whalers and sealers would not accept Māori into their societies and protested Watkin’s education and inclusion of Māori in his services (Pybus, 1954). As literacy grew, bibles were sparse but available through whalers and via Māori travelling home from Sidney (Pybus, 1954), making the bible the primary means of learning reading and writing among Southern Māori.  

As literacy grew and literate Māori began to travel and teach, literacy and the bible, to other Māori as missionaries and without Pākehā missionary supervision they began to see themselves and their world in the bible, the many similarities between the worldviews of the ancient Hebrews and Māori. As well as connections between the dual corrective and genealogical stories of the bible to Māori pūrākau and pakiwaitara (Māori narrative forms), both telling the histories, lineages and achievements of ancestors, tracing their connections and role modelling correct behaviour (Woodhouse, 2019). Māori saw a “shared symbolic language” (Dacker, 1994, p. 15), with the Old Testament, disaster as a result of transgression and the shape of the bibles oral tradition roots and prayers, especially the psalms as aligning with the forms and patterns of Māori karakia (prayers) and oral history and drew connections between Mary and Maui’s mother and seeing Christ’s death as both utu for mankind’s sins and an echo of Maui dying to save the world from death (Dacker, 1994), the stories and shape of the bible aligned with pre-existing te ao Māori understandings and expectations of religion making the introduction of Christianity initially an inclusion to their beliefs, not a replacement.

While the missionaries, notably the Catholic Pompallier (Who arrived at Ōtākou on November 17th the same year as Watkin.) sought to absorb Māori beliefs syncretically (Dacker, 1994) to assist immediate conversion with later correction, others such as the German, Johan Wolhers (Who was established at the invitation of Tūhawaiki, eager to repeat the success of Watkin’s school, to Ruapuke in 1844 (Natusch, 1990)) and to some extent Watkin, sought to destroy the native beliefs, condemning non-European social practices (Dacker, 1994) and the burning and breaking of sacred places to break their tapu and kill their Atua (Pybus, 1954). They capitalised on the similarity with te ao Māori seeing disaster a consequence of transgression to make the case that the cause of the high mortality of Māori from introduced diseases, alcohol and muskets was the sins of paganism and the continuing the old practices even after being offered the salvation in Christianity.

These arguments framed in the te ao Māori understanding did drive Māori conversion, but the disdain and intolerance of te ao Māori combined with the growing cases of missionaries siding with Pākehā settlers and whales in disputes would direct the new Christian Māori towards Māori Christianity, that is to say adopted Christianity but on their terms not the terms of the missionaries but based within their culture, merging the two theologies through Māori culture (Rangiwai, 2018), seeing the greater acceptance of Christianity among Southern Māori not through the actions of the missionaries but through the baptisms of elder line chiefs (Dacker, 1994) and the spreading the gospels, prayers and catechisms by Māori, either memorised and fit in to Māori oral traditional structures (Pybus, 1954) or through the still rare in the south commodity of books (Pybus, 1954).

Horomona Pōhio was a Kai Tahu chief of senior Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe and Kāi Tahu lineages (Te Maire Tau, 1990) and one of the first Southern Māori missionaries, baptised by Watkin on the 18th of June 1843 at Waikouaiti (Dacker, 1994), his mana tīpuna (ancestral status (Mead, 2003)) and his intelligence and strength of personality (Pybus, 1954) made him a forceful teacher of Chritianity (Pybus, 1954), driving the adoption of Christianity in Ruapuke and related communities and his later achievements fighting the land sales and in politics (Te Maire Tau, 1990) would raise the esteem of Christianity among Southern Māori through his deeds (Dacker, 1994).

Tiramōrehu, baptised as Matiaha on the 30th of June 1843 (Dacker, 1994), the same year as Pōhio, was another leading Kai Tahu chief, renowned tōhuka, and a hero of the defence against Te Rauparaha brought his people to the Wesleyian faith, the Anglicians having sent one of Te Rauparaha’s sons as a missionary to the south. Tiramōrehu would set up the first wharekura (A school using traditional Māori wanaka methods) at Moeraki (Evision, 1990), uniting biblical literacy learning with te ao Māori education and tōhukaism traditions. Wharekura on this model would be spread throughout Southern Māori communities, eventually becoming the model of the later schools of the prophet Te Maihāroa (Dacker, 1994) and other Southern Māori teachers. Students from this school, such as Hoani Weteri Korako would return to Ōtākou to continue teaching (Pybus, 1954). In this period literacy and Christianity were intrinsically tied and for much of post-contact history the bible would remain a key tool in Māori learning to read and write both their own language and English (Haami, 2007). As Māori thirst for literature and this new tool of writing would be a driving force in the spread of Christianity in the 19th century wharekura and those tōhuka and missionaries leading them would shape that Christianity.

Another of the students of Watkin, Tare Weteri Te Kahu was one of the most respected among Pākehā and Southern Māori, intially a leader of the Wesleyian movement and the appointed preacher to the Māori people by Watkin (Pybus, 1954), he would later become a convert and follower of Te Maihāroa (Dacker, 1994). A veteran of the battle of Tuturau (Parata, 1901), after conversion, armed with literacy, he became a teacher, land assessor and administrator (Pybus, 1954). He and the others that follow show how the first generation of Māori converts in the south came from important chiefly lines, converted at the requests of important chiefs of the old generations, and went on to be the leaders of the generation of resistance and the fighting funds. The legitimacy and esteem of Christianity and it’s acceptance by Māori is steeped in the mana, prestige and respectability of these leaders, chiefs, war heroes and tōhuka.

Pōhio and many of these leaders, would like Te Maihāroa (Mikaere, 1988) in the decades after this period, break the tapu spaces and drive out the Atua (Te Maire Tau, 1990), as Watkin and Wolhers had attempted (Pybus, 1954) but grounded within te ao Māori did so for deliberate outcomes, to right specific wrongs and frame these actions as for the good of Māori within the framework of traditional corrective actions (tikaka), not as an attack on Māori culture or to clear the way for Christianity.  

Where Boultbee and the sealers, had exposed to Māori a Christianity as a shield against just treatment and obligations towards Māori (Dacker, 1994), and the intolerant missionaries like Wohlers to a Christianity that condemns Māori life (Pybus, 1954), family (Dacker, 1994) and values these Māori Christians, rich in Māori authority and knowledge brought a Christianity affirming of and affirmed by Māori, not to destroy or escape the traditions of Māoridom but to revolutionise them with new ideas , innovations and strengths to face the new challenges and correct the failings perceived in the old tōhukaism inability to address contemporary needs. A Christianity that Māori could accept and take up in their own hands, understood through the common links and that upholds and empowers that which Māori saw as good in the culture, while casting away what was seen as broken or undesirable. The Māori leaders lent their mana and respectability to Christianity, while modifying the expected outcomes of Christianity to align with the lives of Southern Māori allowing conversation of Māori terms for Māori and creating a Christianity that empowered the fight to preserve Māori land rights, culture and history, led by Māori Christians, a Christianity that would be adopted among so widely as  to define the land rights movement of the coming decades, start new religious and political movements and become a vessel of preserving Māori traditions (Cormack & Orwin, 1997) through the policy of assimilation and language loss (Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou, 2022) until the modern Kāi Tahu revivial.

As in the North Island (Guy, 2011), much of the early acceptance of Christianity among Māori and success of Māori Christianity was lost when the colonial missionaries and incoming settler Christianity turned against Māori (Pybus, 1954), falling away to be displaced by the Māori Prophet’s Māori Christianity, assimilation into settler Christianity and return to Tōhukaism (Taylor, 1950) this initial acceptance of Christianity by Māori, on Māori terms before the ruin of colonisation would set a foundation for future Māori Christianity to build itself and for Southern Māori to find themselves in Christianity during the years of assimilation. Despite all that happened to Māori after this period (Walker, Reclaiming Māori education, 2016) of missionaries and Māori lead Christianity, the mana and mantle of these earlier Māori teachers, missionaries and chiefs remained (Dacker, 1994) in Christianity in New Zealand and show that peace and progress through Christianity were both possible and desirable.

Without these Māori leaders, the chiefs who invited Christianity to southern shores (Karetai, Taiaroa and Tūhawaiki.) and the converts who redefined Christianity on Māori terms, Christianity could not have been accepted by Māori only imposed by Pākehā. The responsibility of this transformative adoption lies wholly with the Māori who made these innovations, who taught, preached, and extended their mantle of Christianity and te ao Māori interwoven to Māori, this is their achievement and legacy that Christianity did not supplant Māori. That the two redefined each other.

  References  

Cormack, S.,  & Orwin, J. (1997). Four generations from Maoridom : the memoirs of a  South Island kaumatua and fisherman. Dunedin: Otago University Press.

Dacker, B.  (1994). Te Maemar me te Aroha; The Pain and the Love. Dunedin:  University of Otago Press.

Evision, H. C.  (1990). Tiramōrehu, Matiaha. In G. Scholefield, Dictionary of New Zealand  Biography. Wellington: Department of Internal Affairs.

Guy, L. (2011).  Missionary and Māori. In L. Guy, Shaping Godzone: Public Issues and Church  Voices in New Zealand 1840-2000. Wellington: Victoria University Press.

Haami, B. (2007).  Putea Whakairo: Maori and the Written Word. Huia Publishers.

Henderson, J.  (1972). Ratana: The Man, The Church, The Political Movement.  Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed LTD.

Heremara, W.  (2000). Māori Pedagogies. Wellington: NZCER.

Mead, M. (2003). Tikanga  Māori: living by Māori values. Wellington: Huia.

Mikaere, B.  (1988). Te Maiharoa and the Promised Land. Auckland: Heinemann.

Natusch, S.  (1990). Wohlers, Eliza and Wohlers, Johann Friedrich Heinrich. In G.  Scholefield, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Wellington:  Department of Internal Affairs.

Parata, T. (1901,  June). The Wars of Kai-Tahu (Ngi-Tahu) with Kati-Toa (Ngati-Toa). Dictated by  Taare Wetere Te Kahu to Taare Parata. Journal of the Polynesian Society,  10(38), 94-100.

Pybus, T. A.  (1954). Maori and Missionary: Early Christian Missions in the South Island  of New Zealand. Wellington: Reed Publishing (NZ) Ltd.

Rangiwai, B.  (2018). Atuatanga and Syncretism: A View of Māori Theology. Te Kaharoa, 11.

Rielly, M.,  Duncan, S., Leoni, G., Paterson, L., Carter, L., Rātima, M., & Poia, R.  (2018). Te kōparapara : an introduction to the Māori world (2019  ed.). Auckland: Auckland University Press.

Taylor, W. A.  (1950). Lore and History of the South Island Maori. Christchurch:  Bascands Ltd.

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