1864: The Old Man of Rangiaohia

July 26, 2022

By AHNZ

Old Man of Rangiaohia is a story that could be made into an exciting action drama. Check out some of these quotes:

“This is not someone to underestimate..”

“Any more you send to me, I’m sending back in bags. Any one you send to my kid, I’m sending back in pieces.”

“You have no idea what I did, who I was…”

“There’s a villian in every story. Nobody ever sees themselves as playing that role.”

“There’s no limit to the damage he’ll do. Or the things he’ll destroy.”

“It’s what I’m built for. Defending things.”

These are, in fact, quotes from the trailer of the new streaming show Old Man (2022) as is the image (left.) Ref. trailer

These lines could just as well apply to a tall old Maori man, clothed in a white blanket, named Hoani Papita. He made his last stand at Rangiaohia. This was a supply village to the Kingite Maori who had invaded Auckland and started the Waikato War and it was swiftly being deconstructed by General Duncan Cameron and his men. The operation went very well, most Maoris surrendering peacefully and being treated well. Hoani was one of the few hold-outs. When officers came he decided to go down swinging.

“I heard my father say to my grandfather:  ‘Let us lay down our guns and give ourselves up as prisoners.’ My grandfater said: ‘Am I greater than your uncles who were taken at Rangiriri? My father again said to my grandfather: ‘Let us go in peace and according to law.’ My grandfather would not agree..” – Evening Star (1883,) Papers Past 

“At this point, Captain Wilson ordered Sergeant McHale, the sole Australian volunteer in the cavalry, to enter the hut and take the occupants prisoner. Potatau again: ‘The European went inside of the house.  My grandfather shot him and killed him. Some of the others dragged the body in the house.  At this time my mother and self arose and went through the soldiers and between the troopers.  They did not interfere with us, but allowed us to pass.” – What happened at Rangiaowhia in 1864? John Robinson (2017)

“But these last hold-outs put up a very brave fight, refusing to surrender their combustible thatched fortress. They keep shooting back at the overwhelming Imperial forces surrounding. A Cavalryman, a soldier, a Colonel, a Corporal, a Ranger- all killed by the hold-outs!” – 1864: Rangiaohia, AHNZ

“Boy, if ever there was an engagement that the Maori feel bitter about it is this one. Marmaduke Nixon was beloved of his troops. His being shot from the resisting whare who had been offered surrender would have resulted in only one outcome for those inside. Especially when further troopers were shot. There is a video on youtube of the commemoration of the plaque marking this event. It has the NZ Army, politicians and academics in obedient attendance all infused with solemn guilt. The plaque reads ‘This stone is a memorial to the atrocities suffered by Ngati Apakura, Ngati Hinetu and others at Rangiaowhia on the 21st of February, 1864’ Atrocities!, what a joke, you have to get into the history of what Te Kooti did to know what atrocities really were.” – Comment to AHNZ

“Rangiaoawhi wasn’t ‘unfortified’ or ‘undefened’ every single person in the village was armed. The floors of the whares were 3′ below ground level…(why would you do that in the soggy old waikato? If it was going to fill up with water.? …except for defence.?” – Comment to AHNZ

“The Church which was allegedly set on fire, burning women and. Children inside, strangely was able to appear in photographs some years after.” – Comment to AHNZ

A “war crime….And I use those two words deliberately. We remember the massacre in Christchurch but Rangiaowhia doesn’t seem to be part of the national conscience…Speaking later in the morning, Roa said he was hopeful the Crown and politicians would begin speaking to Ngati Apakura about the possibility of a reconciliation package.” – Reconciliation called to officially recognise ‘war crime’ at Rangiaowhia, Stuff (2020)

Grandfather Papita had come to the house of his son for a last stand but found that his family didn’t want to die that way. They surrendered with the rest of the settlement and their lives were saved.  Sergeant McHale, an Australian who spoke Maori, conveyed the Papitas away and was shot dead by Papita Snr for it. This is according to Potatau Papita’s eye-witness account from having been in the house when his grandfather started his attack.

Cavalry Captain Wilson was the next officer to offer a kind hand to Grandpa Papita and at once stopped the soldiers from returning fire. “What are you shooting the Maoris for?” he said, jumping from his horse and entering the hut. He soon discovered what and backed out before he could be blasted too. Before it was over the Old Man and his helpers took down many more.  A soldier of the 65th also died in front of the hut. Colonel Nixon himself was the next to go, shot through the lungs while firing his pistol through the doorway. Corporal Alexander was shot through the throat from out of the darkness before he could discharge his carbine. Von Tempsky emptied his pistol in the direction from where the fatal shot had come and the Rangers dragged Alexander’s body away.

The hut was shot up and caught fire but the Old Man, the last survivor, was still not dead. Out of the blazing hut he came he came. According to the historian James Cowan the Old Man emerged from the doorway with arms outstretched, unarmed. “Spare him, spare him!’ shouted the nearest officers. But next moment there was a thunder of shots. … the old hero  … swayed slowly and fell dead to the ground.  The episode enraged the chivalrous officers who had entreated quarter for him.“

If those officers were enraged by the Old Man being killed in hot blood how much more upset would they be to know how this story would be revised in the 2010s? In our current ‘Aotearoa New Zealand’ era the story has been given a new spin of “brutality” and “genocide.”

• 2014 The State plants a memorial marker at Rangiaohia to the “atrocities” (see image)

“It’s making a lie of my nan, its making a lie of my mum… what I’d like to happen to that book, is for it to be taken off the shelves,” she said.” –New book says brutal attack in NZ Land Wars never occurred, One News (July 2022)

We erect new revisionists markers and defend on national television the mythical history of “brutal” “genocide.” Meanwhile, our true history monuments that have been around for generations are toppled and denigrated. For example, see O’Malley’s fellow Difficult Histories team mate Liana MacDonald trying to oust the monument to Boulcott’s Farm Raid. Ref. 1846: Boulcott’s Farm Raid, AHNZ

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