[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.
