1836: Pukaki’s Gateway
January 6, 2025
By AHNZ
Little did we know that our 20c coin these last 20 years featured a cannibal chief in the midst of a necrophilic sex act!
Pukaki, a Te Arawa warlord from 1700s Rotorua lived a violent life. Maoris at this time lived in a Hobbsean war of all against all. Constant strife was either simmering or breaking out but always explained by some pretense at righting the scales of social justice even if the imbalance had to be found many generations before. No Rousseauian Golden Age where “noble savages” could enjoy picnics or admire our unspoilt beaches. These were the days before Pax Britannia came to New Zealand which granted Maoris British citizenship. Back then a native away from his fortress had to be on guard lest he be captured and enslaved or killed and eaten.
Even Captain James Cook, upon discovering the situation, did not immediately comprehend how dire this fearful world was to live in. In 1769 he offered a ride to some of his Poverty Bay Maori guests to a destination outside their narrow corridor of safety. They turned pale at the thought. It was such a violent hot-spot that they knew they’d be slaughtered and eaten by their countrymen if caught. It was after this that Cook learned these were islands of cannibalism. Ref. 1769: Cook Rediscovers New Zealand, AHNZ
Chief Pukaki and his enemies did have a mechanism to resolve conflicts: inter-marriage. However, as we see, it failed badly in his case.
Rival chief Te Anumatao proposed to make peace by offering up his daughter Ngapuia to be one of Pukaki’s wives. This was done and they had many children. For a while there was peace. However, despite the compact, Pukaki went ahead and ate his father-in-law, Te Anumatao, anyway. This freaked Ngapuia out so much she fled with their young son back to her people.
Ngapuia’s tribe were so angry that they took her child, killed him and ate him in revenge!
“In Pukaki’s case, his lower gateway structure was sawn off, including the head of his wife, Ngapuia, so he might sit comfortably on the marae. Since this alteration, the sexual joining of Pukaki and Ngapuia is no longer easily distinguishable and, in recent times, has given rise to some novel interpretations from those unfamiliar with his original form.” – Pūkaki: A Comet Returns. Paul Tapsell (2000)
These are the people depicted on our 20c coin, based on a 1836 carving above. On the other side of the coin, Queen Elizabeth II. Or, King Charles III.
In 1990 the Reserve Bank decided to retell the abusive family story on the 20c coin. This was during the Governorship of Don Brash. According to Tapsell the bank didn’t consult the owner of the carving, Auckland Museum, or the descendents of the tribe. Before they started minting money out of Pukaki having intercourse with his decapitated spouse one Maori elder gave the greenlight to the disgust of many. Tapsell reports in his book that some Te Arawa Maoris made a vain attempt to collect and stockpile the Pukaki coins to keep them out of the currency! This became more impossible from 2006 when Pukaki money became the majority 20c coin. Ref. Wiki
Pukaki and Ngapuia’s carving started out life in 1836 as a gateway arch to a Te Arawa fortress. It was observed as “grotesque” for showing very non-Missionary marital relations and is viewable on the online Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
Most of Ngapuia was removed by later Maoris out of a sense of shame for their pornographic art. Yet, her dismembered lower body remains dangling between her estranged husbands legs.
It is this image that the Reserve Bank has put on our money instead of the kiwi and fern we had before. Ngapuia’s lower body and legs are still connected to her estranged family member.
“The image on the 20 cent coin is a reproduction of a specific carving of an 18th century Māori warrior leader called Pukaki. He was a Rangatira (Chief) of the Ngati Whakaue iwi of Te Arawa in the Rotorua district. The carving was made in 1836 and you can see it today in the Rotorua Museum.” – RBBZ
“Inside our wallets and pockets lays a piece of Rotorua and Te Arawa history. For the past 20 years, revered ancestor Pūkaki has ventured across the motu on the 20 cent coin.” – 1 News (2024)
New Zealand’s Legacy Media will still be taking their Christmas holidays well into February so there isn’t much “news.” But a government-sponsored (“Local Democracy”) item from Laura Smith about the Pukaki coin has been circulating widely. 1News, Stuff, NZ Herald, etc. However little of the above information is in the article. If Laura wanted to keep covering for her lazy co-workers some more there is plenty more to write than simply ripping off the RBNZ’s website. I suggest she contact Mr Wainwright of Tararua for his reaction, the man appalled to have his territory invaded by a giant Maori carving. Ref. 2019: “Let’s take his phallus”, AHNZ
If Kiwis knew they had a necrophilia pornography in their pockets how would they react? Maybe they wouldn’t have signed off on Don Brash’s freaky money. Very few know and despite talking a great deal about it on the TV news and in print the Mainstream Media has still managed to avoid revealing this!
As a good Anarcho-Capitalist I wouldn’t usually say this….in fact if anyone does I will generally reach for my copy of Francisco d’Anconia’s Money Speech from Atlas Shrugged (1957) and read it out to them…but in this case….
Talk about money being the root of all evil.
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Image ref. Jacqui Reid, Pintrest
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