Latest News
Tauranga OMS
Matiu Parakatone Tahu
This painting looks into the history and cultural significance of the geography of Te Papa, the site of Alfred Brown’s mission station. This painting continues my recent explorations of decoration and its connection to sacredness. European traditions of landscape painting are combined with particular tukutuku patterns that are chosen to continue and enhance the narrative.
Henry Williams first visited Tauranga in 1826. The local Maori were keen to trade with the missionaries, hoping to get muskets. Williams visited again in 1827 and continued on to Whakatane. On his return voyage he stopped again, but found a very different Tauranga. Ngati Maru from Hauraki had attacked the pa at Te Papa killing or enslaving nearly all of the inhabitants. To the horror of the missionaries, all they found were bodies and remnants of cannibal feasts.
Alfred Brown settled in 1838 and fully established the Tauranga mission station we now know as The Elms. Brown was the central character of this place and era, but it is one of his associates that I want to draw attention to.
Matiu Parakatone Tahu was the Tohunga (priest) of the people who lived at Otamataha Pa, the area that now is the site of the mission cemetery. He was feared and respected even by his enemies and his dwelling was the only one left intact when Ngati Maru attacked the pa. He became a valuable friend and ally of Brown’s and as one of the original owners of the land the mission station was on, he signed the deeds of conveyance over to the Christian Mission Society. He converted to Christianity and renounced his powers as a tohunga. He was a senior spokesman for the local Maori and aided Brown in cultural and political difficulties that arose. In 1951 he accompanied Brown to Hauraki to make peace with the Ngati Maru who had slaughtered his people. He preached a sermon based on John 17:12, “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.”
The scene is based on sketches from the 1850’s looking East from Chapel Street toward the Otamataha Pa, Sulphur Point with Mauao in the distance. The tukutuku pattern has at its centre a white cross, a symbol of death, remembrance and the Christian faith. The tukutuku beyond that is a combination of the Poutama pattern, and the Porourangi pattern. Poutama represents the steps of progress and advance, growth and acension to higher levels of learning and achievement. Porourangi is used to tell the story of Papa and Rangi, the earth mother and sky father of Maori mythology, cosmology, and theology.
