Rangiātea Church

Transcription

[1950s archival audio] Reverend Father in God, we the church warders of Rangiātea, on behalf of the parishioners, and all the Māori people present, greet you, and the Bishop of Aotearoa, His Excellency the Governor-General, and all our Pākehā brethren. We desire that you, my Lord Bishop, offer thanksgiving for the church of Rangiātea, built 100 years ago by our forefathers. [Narrator] In the town of Ōtaki stands a splendid replica of the historic Rangiātea church. The original church was destroyed by fire in 1995. This act of arson saw New Zealand lose one of its most beautiful buildings. Completed in 1851, the Rangiātea church embodied the aspirations of both European and Māori to live peacefully in a district torn apart by tension. Rangiātea will always be associated with two men: the great Ngāti Toa chief, Te Rauparaha, and the missionary, Octavius Hadfield. During the 1820s and '30s, Te Rauparaha became well known as his Ngāti Toa tribe conquered much of central New Zealand. However, from 1839, Te Rauparaha looked for more peaceful ways to advance his people's interests. In the same year, the young Anglican missionary Octavius Hadfield arrived at Waikanae on the Kapiti Coast. By 1843, Hadfield and many Māori whom he had converted had built a big church at Waikanae. However, 'Hadfield's Church', as it was known, did not last long. Within a few years, windblown sand had buried much of it, and many of Hadfield's Māori converts left to return north to their ancestral homelands in Taranaki. Ōtaki now succeeded Waikanae as the centre of activity. Hadfield moved there and worked amongst the local Ngāti Raukawa iwi, the tribe of Te Rauparaha's mother. But it was as a great fighting chief of Ngāti Toa that Te Rauparaha attracted the attention of Governor Grey, who feared the chief would oppose the spread of European settlement in the Wellington region. In 1846, Grey captured Te Rauparaha and held him prisoner for 18 months without trial. On his release at Ōtaki in 1848, Te Rauparaha thrust his sword into the sand and stated his vision for the future: [Te Rauparaha -- actor's voice] Come, take this weapon! I no longer survey the land, I shall survey the heavens. Build a church for us all. [Narrator] Te Rauparaha's vision matched that of Octavius Hadfield, and together they built the church. Hadfield provided the broad design based on his earlier Waikanae Church, while Te Rauparaha and the Ngāti Raukawa people supplied the materials and labour. Three great tōtara logs, symbolising the holy trinity, were given by the Ngāti Tūkorehe tribe from Ohau, to the north of Ōtaki. These became the centrepieces of the church's structure. Another neighbouring tribe, Ngāti Wehiwehi, donated a handful of sacred soil from the ancestral Pacific Island of Rangiātea, the name given to the church. Soon after construction began, ill health forced Hadfield to leave Ōtaki. His successor, Archdeacon Sam Williams, oversaw the church's completion, including resolving a dispute over the length of the ridgetop roof beam by stealthily reducing its length with a saw one night. The exterior of Rangiātea resembled many Anglican churches -- austere and largely devoid of embellishment. However, on the inside, Rangiātea resembled an ornate wharenui, or Māori meeting house. The ceiling was decorated with kowhaiwhai, or traditional Māori rafter patterns, and the walls with tukutuku -- decorative wall panels. The standard church fittings such as altar, communion rail and pulpit were ornately carved. This, perhaps the finest Māori church in the country, displayed the best of both Maori and European design and style. News of Rangiātea's destruction by fire in the early hours of 6 October 1995 shocked the nation. It was some time before the arsonist was eventually imprisoned. But within weeks of the fire, plans were made to rebuild a replica of Rangiātea. By 2003, the new church had been completed.