Mission and Maori

Alfred and Charlotte Brown, along with the other missionaries, set themselves a formidable task. In order to be able to achieve their main goal of converting "heathen" Maori, they had to first learn to speak a strange language with only the minimum of learning aids. An essential tool was the dictionary of the Maori language prepared by the Church Missionary Society and printed in London as early as 1820, nine years before the Browns arrived in the Bay of Islands. The first edition of William Williams well known dictionary was printed in Paihia in 1844.

Once the missionaries had a reasonable grasp of Maori, they had to teach the basics of speaking, reading and writing the English language to their potential converts, without the benefits of a course in teaching English as a Second Language!

Although there must have been a temptation to claim as many converts as possible, Brown is known to have been very strict about those he passed for baptism. Those who passed his scrutiny were received into the church, Bishop Selwyn himself often performing this duty when visiting Tauranga. Brown believed in establishing separate pa for the Christian Maori so that they could give each other support. Many of these pa contained raupo chapels where daily services were held by Maori teachers. Brown held informal discussion groups in his own home in the evenings, intended mainly for these "native" teachers he supplied for the pa both near Tauranga and further afield. In 1840 he was responsible for a group of 13 Christian Maori travelling as far as Taupo, Wanganui and Cook Strait, preaching the gospel and distributing books, a mission which lasted three months.

Understandably Brown obtained great satisfaction from converting high-ranking Maori to Christianity, partly because it was a wonderful way to convince their followers of the value of the new religion. One of his earliest converts, while he was stationed at Matamata, was Ngakuku, a nephew of the great Ngati Haua chief Te Waharoa, who was, according to Brown, "a very desperate character". In 1836 as a result of problems at Matamata, it was decided that Brown and his Christian students should move over to Tauranga to establish the mission station there. This involved crossing the Kaimai ranges by the Wairere track, which led over steep, rugged terrain past the Wairere falls and down the eastern side of the ranges to Te Puna. A band of Christian Maori, including Ngakuku and a group of children from the mission school, set off towards Tauranga. While camped for the night near the falls they were surprised by a Te Arawa war party, which seized Ngakuku's daughter, Tarore, killing her and taking out her heart as revenge for the murder of a Rotorua man by Te Waharoa. In a truly remarkable display of forgiveness, Ngakuku urged his fellows not to seek revenge (utu) for his daughter's death, saying, "There lies my child. She has been murdered as payment for your bad conduct, but do not rise to seek a payment for her. God will do that. Let this be the finishing of the war with Rotorua. Now let peace be made."

This attitude was in marked contrast to the traditional Maori custom of "utu", and demonstrates how completely Ngakuku had embraced Christian teaching.

Another significant convert was Matiu Tahu. In 1828 when Ngati Maru of Thames destroyed the Otamataha pa, on the northern tip of the Te Papa peninsula the only dwelling left intact was that of Tahu, a greatly respected and feared tohunga. When the missionaries picked the Te Papa site for their station he became interested in the new religion, and was very helpful to them. His name appears on the deed of sale of the Te Papa land to A.N.Brown. Tahu was baptised by Brown on Good Friday 1839. In a remarkable public gesture he renounced his powers as a tohunga by placing on his head a container in which food had been cooked. The significance of this act would have been both obvious and shocking to non-Christian Maori. The head of the tohunga was particularly tapu or sacred, and to desecrate it by placing noa or profane items such as food on it would have been a horrifying thing to do. After his baptism Tahu, known now by his Christian name of Matiu (Matthew), took up residence in the Otumoetai pa, working there as a mission teacher until the 1850s, when he moved to Ohuki pa at Matapihi. Brown's relationship with Tahu was a strong and enduring one, and they often discussed matters of both political and religious importance.

Matiu summed up the Maori dilemma in the face of the strict requirements of the missionaries. He told Brown "You are not satisfied with us and you often express a fear that our religion is only lip service, that it has no root in our hearts. You forget what we were and what we have thrown away, our cannibalism, our murders, our infanticide, our tapus, which were gods to us. What prevents our return to these things but religion?"

 

Jinty Rorke