While driving along the highway not long ago, I pulled over to check out what the Historical Places sign I spotted might have for us in the way of interest.
'Pa' is a Maori word meaning an earthen fort or stronghold. Rangiriri is the name of the geographical region.
We parked and climbed up the hill to have a look. The pa was fenced and we entered over the stile. I love stiles. I think they're so neat.
It was a nice quiet spot, there behind the giant tree dangling its load of spanish moss. It didn't look like anything very significant, really, just a gentle grassy berm of earth and what might be a moat, there on top of a hill.
But I did my research, and whoa. This place saw some action. It was the site of one of the worst battles of the British-Maori Land Wars.
You can read the story here, and see pictures here, but I'll summarise:
As so often tended to happen in those days, the folks-who-were-there-first got a bit peeved when the newcomers started insisting that THEY now owned this land. Words were exchanged over the matter, then fisticuffs. Finally the armies got called out and intermittent mayhem was wrought for a period of decades.
The battle at Rangiriri came when both sides had simply just had it with the other and decided to put an end to things once and for all. The Maori withdrew into the relative safety of the pa, and the British launched their attack. Which involved not only small-arms fire (with a civilised break for tea, of course, at least in the version in my head), but gunboats lobbing explosives all the way in from the river, and what sounds like some sort of cannon that launched bombs.
1400 British and 500 Maori fought here, right here at this tranquil spot. About 50 people were killed on either side. However, the British also managed to take captive a rather large number of Maori, and the battle ended in their favour. As did the ultimate conclusion of the Land Wars.
And to think that 150 years later, two little boys would dash --playfully chased by their mother, shrieking with laughter and completely unaware of its grim history-- up and down the slopes of that earthen fort.
'Pa' is a Maori word meaning an earthen fort or stronghold. Rangiriri is the name of the geographical region.
We parked and climbed up the hill to have a look. The pa was fenced and we entered over the stile. I love stiles. I think they're so neat.
It was a nice quiet spot, there behind the giant tree dangling its load of spanish moss. It didn't look like anything very significant, really, just a gentle grassy berm of earth and what might be a moat, there on top of a hill.
But I did my research, and whoa. This place saw some action. It was the site of one of the worst battles of the British-Maori Land Wars.
You can read the story here, and see pictures here, but I'll summarise:
As so often tended to happen in those days, the folks-who-were-there-first got a bit peeved when the newcomers started insisting that THEY now owned this land. Words were exchanged over the matter, then fisticuffs. Finally the armies got called out and intermittent mayhem was wrought for a period of decades.
The battle at Rangiriri came when both sides had simply just had it with the other and decided to put an end to things once and for all. The Maori withdrew into the relative safety of the pa, and the British launched their attack. Which involved not only small-arms fire (with a civilised break for tea, of course, at least in the version in my head), but gunboats lobbing explosives all the way in from the river, and what sounds like some sort of cannon that launched bombs.
1400 British and 500 Maori fought here, right here at this tranquil spot. About 50 people were killed on either side. However, the British also managed to take captive a rather large number of Maori, and the battle ended in their favour. As did the ultimate conclusion of the Land Wars.
And to think that 150 years later, two little boys would dash --playfully chased by their mother, shrieking with laughter and completely unaware of its grim history-- up and down the slopes of that earthen fort.
4 comments:
Wow - that's quite a bit of history for such a peaceful looking place! But the spanish moss hanging on that tree does evoke some melancholy feelings in me...
So, could I conclude from your explanation of this site that a "Pa" must be like the Maori equivalent to the British "redoubt" that you blogged about earlier this year?
I think it is a lovely thought to have such a pleasant memory of the place in today's world. That is the way life should be. Out of darkness, comes light. There is no greater light than those two precious boys with their wonderful Mother.
Yes! A pa and a redoubt are the same thing! I hadn't thought of that but you're just right. How ironic that both sides built them.
Thank you for your loving words.
So happy to read of peaceful things where war once reigned...
Blessings and love to all...
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