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Heke and the flagstaff.

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Cutting it down was a highly symbolic act, reflecting Heke's unhappiness with the reality of British sovereignty. To him, the British ensign flying high above Kororāreka (on his flagstaff) reflected the loss of Māori mana.

After the flagstaff fell, Heke and other prominent rangatira reached out to Governor Fitzroy (Governor Hobson had died suddenly a few years earlier). Heke offered to erect a new flagstaff and urged Fitzroy not to send any soldiers. Fitzroy ignored the offer and ordered British officials to re-erect the flagstaff without discussion. This was a grave insult to Ngāpuhi and to Hōne Heke in particular.

Fitzroy had no particular desire to go to war with Heke. He did not have a warlike nature, and the colony's meagre resources were stretched to the limit as it was. However, the British flag was sacrosanct and the matter of the flagstaff was non-negotiable. Fitzroy wrote to the authorities in New South Wales requesting military support. Nearly 200 soldiers from Sydney were sent to Northland to protect the flagstaff and to "restore tranquillity". Māori reacted with indignation because soldiers represented a blow to chiefly mana and Ngāpuhi authority.

Fitzroy was prepared to talk matters over in person. He travelled to the Bay of Islands in late August and attended a hui at Waimate, organised by several influential missionaries. Heke, deeply offended by Fitzroy's earlier lack of communication, did not make an appearance at the hui. However many important Ngāpuhi rangatira did attend, determined to maintain the peace and to persuade Fitzroy to send the soldiers away.

The hui had a significant outcome, which explains in part how some Ngāpuhi ended up fighting alongside the British in the war that followed. Basically, a group of chiefs led by Tamāti Wāka Nene vouched for Heke's good behaviour. They promised to keep Heke under control, on the condition that the soldiers were withdrawn from the north. They also agreed to pay utu for Heke's actions. This was a final attempt to keep the peace and to prevent an armed invasion of Northland by all means necessary.

Relationships between the British settlers and Ngāpuhi continued to deteriorate after the Waimate hui. New arrivals were less likely to respect Māori authority, and more likely to infringe upon traditional laws or offend an important chief. Māori meted out traditional forms of justice such as the taua muru, loosely equivalent to a court-imposed fine. A party of warriors would descend upon the property of the offender, yelling and brandishing their weapons. The intention wasn't to injure anybody - it was to seize possessions to compensate for the offence committed. That said, taua muru must have been absolutely terrifying to a recently arrived settler!

The pole that was cut down belonged to me. I made it for the Native flag and it was never paid for by the Europeans.
Hone Heke, Letter to Governor Fitzroy, July 1844
The situation continued to deteriorate for the remainder of 1844, and the Governor refused Heke's request for a meeting. On 10 January 1845 Hone Heke chopped down the flagstaff for the second time, an act which demanded Fitzroy's attention. He issued a bounty of 100 pounds for Heke's capture and sent a group of soldiers to Kororārkea aboard the brig Victoria. Heke's actions also caused the political rift between the factions of Ngāpuhi to widen. After all, Tamāti Wāka Nene and others had vouched for Heke's good behaviour. Some were becoming concerned about Heke's motives: was he trying to extend his chiefly authority, to raise himself above all others?

The flagstaff was soon re-erected by the soldiers, but it was to stand for less than a day before Heke cut it down again. Governor Fitzroy resolved to quell the challenges to British authority by force. He began to prepare for conflict, sending to Australia for troops and naval support. The soldiers built a blockhouse on Maiki Hill (Kororārkea) next to the flagstaff and surrounded both with sturdy wooden palisades. The redcoats were made ready to fight for the symbol of British sovereignty.

Meanwhile, Heke had been gathering support from around Northland. Early in 1845, he sent a message to Te Ruki Kawiti, the distinguished warrior chief of Ngāti Hine. Heke sent to Kawiti a beautiful greenstone mere smeared with human excrement. This was no ordinary weapon. It was a named taonga with great mana, handed down from Hongi Hika. The message was clear: Ngāpuhi mana, honour and authority had been trampled by the British. Heke was asking for help, and Kawiti agreed to join with him.

Heke's fourth attack upon the flagstaff was to have dire consequences for the town of Kororārkea, and was the event, which marked the beginning of the Northern War.

¹ Fitzroy, July 1844, cited in R. Johnson 2006:112

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Te Ruapekapeka - Hōne Heke and the Flagstaff

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Cutting it down was a highly symbolic act, reflecting Heke's unhappiness with the reality of British sovereignty. To him, the British ensign flying high above Kororāreka (on his flagstaff) reflected the loss of Māori mana. After the flagstaff fell, Heke and other prominent rangatira reached out to Governor Fitzroy (Governor Hobson had died suddenly a few years earlier).

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Winners and losers.

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Ruapekapeka cast of characters.

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Ngapuhi chief

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ngapuhi chief

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Ngapuhi/Cheif

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Ngapuhi/cheif

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fighting staff

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Ngapuhi/cheif

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architect of Ruapekapeka pa

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Both the English and Maori used these to fight.

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club tucked into a belt

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On the English side they used canons.

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i mean like we have british laws and stuff

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Sword-like stabbing blade, which may be fixed to the muzzle of a rifle for use in hand-to-hand fighting.

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Tamiti was born around 1780 into a well known and well respected whanau, he had traced his descent from Rahiri the founding ancestor of Ngapuhi. Tamiti Waka Nene developed his skills as a warrior and war leader,during the early 1800s, he fought in battles between factions of Ngāpuhi.

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they used these as gun fighter pits they could fire through the outer palisade at ground level while remaining protected.

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Te Ruki Kawiti was a maori Rangatira (chief) who faught alongside with Hone Heke in the flagstaff war in ruapekapeka in 1845-1846. his role in the battle was fighting the british outside while Chief Hone Heke cut down the flag pole. he was a "hearty-hitter" and preferred fighting hand-to-hand in combat to the death

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Hone Heke was born in 1807 in Pakaraka in the Bay Of Islands. He was known as a very intelligent and troublesome kid. Hone Heke was an influential leader, and is important because he started out as a supporter of the treaty of Waitangi and was probably the first Maori chief to sign the document. Not only that, he is also the reason the British took Hone Heke's actions into the declaration of war. This making Hone's role in battle was to stay at Hikurangi trending food crops.

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Hone Heke was a powerful leader. He was the first chief to sign the treaty of Waitangi.

He was born around 1808.

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both British and Maori fighters used mortars which are portable cannons in battles The Maori set up mortars in fortified villages to defend against British attacks while the British used them to bombard Maori positions. These mortars were crucial in the conflict showing how both sides adapted and innovated in their strategies during the fighting.

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Because even though the british said they won it is still inconclusive.

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these were for the maori to stay covered from the british fire and they were also for the maori to fire back and protect what was theirs

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Who won the battle?

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A few weeks after the battle of Ruapekapeka, the rival Ngāpuhi leaders met at Kawakawa and agreed to stop fighting among themselves. Hōne Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti lacked the resources to continue the war.

Many on the British side also realised how difficult it would be to keep fighting. The inconclusive outcome at Ruapekapeka offered both sides a way out. For Governor George Grey it was important to bring the war to a rapid conclusion to reverse the flight of settlers from Auckland. He chose not to re-erect the flagstaff at Kororāreka. His actions may have been magnanimous, but they also showed that he knew how hard it would be to achieve a total victory. While he spoke publicly of victory, he convinced his superiors of the need to retain troops in New Zealand.

Historian James Belich contends that Grey won the propaganda war while Kawiti and Heke won the war on the battlefield. Others argue that Belich's revisionism goes too far and maintain that Grey's decisive action sent a powerful message to Kawiti and Heke about the nature of their new opponent. Grey showed his diplomatic skills when he pardoned the 'rebels' and did not confiscate any land. Some argue that Ngāpuhi's neutrality during the 1860s can be attributed to Grey's diplomacy in the aftermath of the Northern War.

Grey largely ignored the main reasons for Kawiti and Heke's protest - their wish for partnership in government and control over their lands. While peace was formally made with Kawiti in mid-1846, Grey and Heke did not meet until 1848, when Grey was presented with Heke's greenstone mere. According to Heke's biographer, Freda Kawharu, this was 'a token of acceptance of Grey's right to be in New Zealand and of Heke's expectation that the Queen's representative would honour the treaty.'

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Historian James Belich contends that Grey won the propaganda war and Kawiti and Heke won the real war. Others argue that Belich's revisionism goes too far and maintain that Grey's decisive action sent a powerful message to Kawiti and Heke about the nature of their new opponent.

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Images of the pā.

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The New Zealand Wars | Ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa Northern War took place around the Pēwhairangi (Bay of Islands) and began with the sacking of Kororāreka by Hone Heke in 1845. Its origins lay in the colonial government's increased imposition of British sovereignty over Ngāpuhi in direct opposition to the Te Tiriti o Waitangi | Treaty of Waitangi. SCIS no. 1965934

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Topic Explorer - The Northern War 1845-46

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The New Zealand Wars | Ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa Northern War took place around the Pēwhairangi (Bay of Islands) and began with the sacking of Kororāreka by Hone Heke in 1845. Its origins lay in the colonial government's increased imposition of British sovereignty over Ngāpuhi in direct opposition to the Te Tiriti o Waitangi | Treaty of Waitangi.

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Ruapekapeka, the Bat's Nest.

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Ruapekapeka (1845)

Last battle of the Northern War

Tensions increased after Governor William Hobson's transfer of the capital to Auckland in 1841 and an Australian depression created an economic recession in the Bay of Islands. Ngāpuhi resentment manifested itself most dramatically in July 1844 when the highly symbolic flagstaff above Kororāreka was felled. Three more times, in January and March 1845, Ngāti Rāhiri leader Hōne Heke Pōkai sent the Union Flag tumbling down, precipitating the First, or Northern, New Zealand War.

Soon more than flagstaffs were falling. After Heke and his ally Kawiti sacked Kororāreka in March 1845 the British reinforced their units and deployed Ngāpuhi allies led by Tāmati Wāka Nene. The Royal Navy easily controlled the seas, but it took longer to tackle Heke and Kawiti on the ground. Each side had to learn rapidly and each made mistakes in the battles of Puketutu (May 1845) and Ōhaeawai (July), the former a marginal British victory, the latter a bloody defeat.

The final battle was at Ruapekapeka, the Bat's Nest. Like Ōhaeawai, Ruapekapeka was a new type of pā, designed to counter bombardment. Late last century, historian James Belich made much of these artillery-proof pā, in which underground bunkers, communications tunnels and rifle pits replaced palisades and fighting towers as the key defensive measures. He credited northern Māori with inventing trench warfare. Perhaps. Māori had certainly adapted pā to suit the musket, but others dismissed Belich's claim as baseless post-colonial revisionism.

Conservator Fergus Clunie offered a third explanation. Buried like a musket ball in a footnote in Hugh Carleton's 1877 book The Life of Henry Williams, Archdeacon of Waimate is a reference to the recent death of 'Tapara, a native of the East Indies', a non-European 'Pakeha Maori'. 'It was he who drew the lines of the fortified pas, the scientific tracing of which caused so much surprise', Carleton commented. If Tapara had acquired 'the rudiments of Hon. East India Co. fortification techniques', Clunie speculated, it might have given him 'an irresistible opportunity [decades later but no less the sweeter for it] to give the sahibs a goodly kick in the balls for old times' sake'.

Whatever the engineering inspiration - and the debate is far from over - we can say with certainty that the next round of ball-breaking took place at Ruapekapeka, about 10 km inland from naval gunfire, atop a broad ridge in densely forested land. Designed to lure government forces, it had no strategic value and simply formed the nexus of a killing field. Behind a heavy wooden palisade of 7-m puriri trunks embedded almost 3 m in the ground was a warren of spaced rifle pits and bomb shelters, deep pits roofed over with timber and earth.

On 10 January 1846, while the new Governor George Grey watched, Colonel Henry Despard's guns began battering the site, huge 32-pounders rocking the earth, a lighter 18-pounder and several 12-pounder howitzers and Congreve rockets adding to Kawiti's misery. By next morning part of the defences had been breached and most of the defenders melted away, allowing the British and allied Māori forces under Nene to storm in.

Why? Old yarn-spinners had the defenders out in the bush, observing the Sabbath, but more likely this was (1) a ruse to lure the British to where they were more vulnerable, (2) a ploy to protect the evacuation of their wounded, or (3) a belief that they had wasted enough time taunting the redcoats.

Shortly afterwards Kawiti, Heke and Nene came to an accommodation. Grey, the arch spin-doctor, revoked martial law and pardoned everyone, ending the Northern War. Taking a part-deserted pā was not the Boy's Own triumph Grey tried to make it, but nor are revisionist attempts to portray the Northern War as a Māori victory. Bay Māori never again took up arms against the Crown. Historian Matthew Wright observes that 'it was as much a Ngā Puhi war as it was British. Nene's forces stood across Heke's key resource areas, and both Nene and the British were able to continue the war after Ruapekapeka, whereas Heke and Kawiti were forced to a halt.'

DOC manages Ruapekapeka, which is remarkably well preserved, enabling visitors to inspect both the pā and the British forward position about 300 m to the north. Local sensitivities made interpreting the site a minor battle in itself, but there is now an extensive set of signboards and markers.

Further information

This site is item number 17 on the History of New Zealand in 100 Places list.

Websites

Books

James Belich, The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian interpretation of racial conflict, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 1986

Matthew Wright, Two peoples, one land: the New Zealand Wars, Reed Books, Auckland, 2006

Text: Gavin McLean, 2013

Aerial images: Kevin Jones, 1995

Historic images:

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The last battle of the Northern War was fought at Ruapekapeka Pā, the distinctive features of which are well preserved.

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Scroll down to armaments.

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It seems the defenders were caught by surprise when a party of soldiers stormed the breach. Most of the warriors were not actually inside the pā at the time - they were among the trees at the rear, possibly setting up a trap. There was a fierce and bloody fight. A foolhardy group of soldiers rushed out the back of the pā, to be fired upon by warriors perched in the trees and crouching behind strategically fallen logs. This is how the British suffered most of their casualties - 12 killed and 29 wounded.

After engaging the soldiers for several hours, the warriors withdrew into the bush. It was no rout. Ruapekapeka was not a besieged castle, full of terrified women and children to be defended at any cost. Kawiti chose a location that had no strategic value - there was no particular reason to hold that particular ridge. The purpose was simple: draw the enemy in, cause them a great deal of trouble, and leave when necessary. An orderly withdrawal had probably been in progress for several days before the British entered the pā.

It is difficult, then, to talk of victory and defeat. The British had taken (or were given) the enemy position, but what value was an empty pā in the middle of nowhere?

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Te Ruapekapeka - The Battle of Te Ruapekapeka

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It seems the defenders were caught by surprise when a party of soldiers stormed the breach. Most of the warriors were not actually inside the pā at the time - they were among the trees at the rear, possibly setting up a trap. There was a fierce and bloody fight.