Waitangi

Well, Waitangi did not disappoint in more ways than one!

We stayed at Waitangi Holiday Park where we have stayed before - it's not fancy, but it's clean, sites are spacious and the people are friendly. And it's about 800 metres away from the Treaty Grounds and Waitangi Museum So definitely the place to stay.

Julia is always clear that she doesn't mind a walk to the toilets in the middle of the night, but that was not needed at Waitangi - we were just across the path from the facilities so we couldn't have been closer! 

I got chatting with the woman on Reception and discovered, as you do in this land of 2 degrees of separation, that we had people in common. Marianne's children are cousins of my friend Shona in Waitara. How cool is that?!

Marianne Lucas and me

 The day we arrived we told Julia we were taking her to the Treaty Grounds and to the Museums there. She moaned like a recalcitrant teenager and said she didn't like museums.

The day after we arrived, we told her we were going there after breakfast. She moaned again and we just ignored her complaints (all for the sake of effect...) all the way to and across the bridge. She moaned at the entrance and complained about the cost and told the staff she was there under duress. They laughed and we told her to behave.

And then in we went. The first thing was the powhiri (welcome) at the wharenui. I watched Julia and she was entranced and engaged. Thank you to Thelma and Arapeta for planting the seed at Ruapekapeka.

We then went through Busby's house and watched and read the displays.  Very instructive about how the British saw Māori as less human than them and a people to be exploited, subjugated because white was definitely more right than brown. They mistook lack of a written language for ignorance and lack of their brand of education with no recognition or knowledge of oral traditions of learning.

The place that captured Julia though was Te Rau Aroha, the Māori Battalion House. The museum commemorates the Price of Citizenship (Te Utu o Te Kiriraraunga), honoring the 28th Māori Battalion's sacrifice. 

After going around the displays, while I was still reading descriptions, Julia sat and watched the photo display of former members of the Māori Battalion as old men. And just watched.

This whole place never fails to move me. And obviously it moved her too.

There are posters which speak volumes. 

Dame Joan Metge in 2015

Gary McCormick 6 Feb 2007

Michael King 'Being Pakeha Now' 1999

Tze Ming Mok, 2005

 

On the way back to the camp, she and David walked part of the way to the passenger ferry wharf as the next day they were heading to Russell while I was due to attend part of a committee meeting by phone. But later that evening, Julia declared she didn't want to go to Russell, she wanted to go back to Waitangi as she hadn't seen all of it. Much quiet rejoicing by David and me ... I emailed Thelma and Arapeta to let them know and to thank them!

Altogether a very successful trip there. And a beautiful sunset.