D is for Dog (skeleton)

 

Excavation at Ōtūmoetai pā on Levers Road, 2005. Image courtesy of Tauranga Museum.

In 2005, archaeologists made a significant discovery at Ōtūmoetai pā on Levers Road - an intact dog skeleton, or kuri, buried in a grave at the highest point of the pā. Such finds are highly unusual in New Zealand archaeology. According to the country’s leading expert on kuri, Dr Geoff Clark, this suggested something out of the ordinary, possibly ritual in nature and associated with a person of high status. 

A mounted kuri. Image courtesy of Otago Museum 

Kuri were descended from Polynesian dogs, which accompanied the first people to Aotearoa in the thirteenth century. Medium-sized and long-haired, kuri are often described as being roughly the size of a modern border collie. They arrived as part of wider voyaging traditions, with waka travelling from Hawaiki carrying a variety of animals and plants, many of which did not survive in the cooler climate of Aotearoa.

Dog skeleton found at Otūmoetai pa. Image courtesy of Tauranga Museum.

Kuri were valued not only for food but also their bones, which were used for making fishhooks. Several hooks dating to before 1600AD were unearthed during the Heritage New Zealand excavation at Ōtūmoetai pā. Archaeologist Ken Phillips who led the dig was reported as saying that “to be buried intact is pretty unusual considering most of his mates probably ended up as fishhooks.” 

Matau made from dog's jaw bone. Image courtesy of Tauranga Museum

It is generally believed that interbreeding with European dogs led to the extinction of the kuri by the 1860s. This period coincided with major upheaval at Ōtūmoetai pā, which was caught up in the confiscation of 50,000 acres of Tauranga land by the government in 1865, following the New Zealand Wars.

New Books: Transgressing Tikanga, by Trevor Bentley

During the 1800s published stories about Europeans captured by 'savages' thrilled and horrified British, Continental and North American audiences. Hugely popular and known as captivity narratives, they entertained urban readers and frightened those still living on colonial frontiers.

This anthology contains 20 first hand captivity accounts written or dictated by 16 European men and four women captured by iwi throughout New Zealand between 1816 and 1884. Some were seized when they unknowingly transgressed tikanga Maori (the customary laws of tapu, utu, mana and muru). Others were seized when they or their countrymen committed blatant acts of aggression against Maori. Two of the women (Maria Bennett and Mary Jane Briggs) were captured when they were shipwrecked. Bennett escaped and Briggs was freed by her captors.

The captives were held for weeks, months and in several cases for years before they were rescued or ransomed, for utu (redress) could be obtained by preserving life as well as taking it. Some escaped and others were freed by their captors. Of interest to Bay of Plenty readers will be the captivity of John Atkins (Whakatane, 1829), George Budd (Opotiki, 1834) and James Curlett (Tauranga, 1867).  A government surveyor seized at Paengaroa during the Tauranga Bush War of 1867, Curlett spent six months amongst Maori 'rebels' in the Kaimai Ranges before escaping and travelling to Cambridge.

Packed with drama and action, the narratives create a vivid picture of Maori and Pakeha interactions during the 1800s. They also provide rich insights into Maori life, including the principles of captivity and utu, social order, religious practices, everyday customs and the conduct of warfare. Each narrative is followed by a brief essay providing historical and cultural context.

This anthology makes an important contribution to understanding the cross-cultural tensions from which contemporary New Zealand society has emerged. Many anthologies containing first hand accounts by Europeans captured by American Indians and North Africa's Barbary pirates have been published overseas. Transgressing Tikanga is New Zealand's first anthology of Maori captivity narratives.

Trevor has a special interest in researching and writing about the interaction of Maori and Pakeha in pre-Treaty New Zealand. He is currently contributing a series of vignettes to the Society’s website titled ‘Early Vessels and Visitors to Tauranga.’ Transgressing Tikanga is Trevor’s sixth New Zealand history book.

The publisher's site (https://www.pottonandburton.co.nz) allows you to read a sample captivity narrative. The book is also  currently available in all local Paper Plus and Whitcoulls stores.

The Matakana Island Incident, November 1842

By the 1830s, European mariners who seriously transgressed tikanga Maori were increasingly subjected taua muru rather than taua ito.
Angus McBride: ‘Natives and Captain Cook,’ Look and Learn, Issue 813, 13 August, 1977

Between Abel Tasman’s visit in 1642 and the attack on the cutter Jane at Turakina in 1840, there were 112 recorded taua ito (blood vengeance) and taua muru (ritualised plundering) raids against European ship’s crews who transgressed tikanga Maori (customary laws). Serious offences included killing, kidnapping, assaulting and insulting Maori and plundering crops and tapu sites. Before the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, vessels like the Waterloo, John Dunscombe, Harlequin, Byron, David, Active and Lucy Ann were plundered by taua muru. Their crews were released minus their clothing and personal effects after being harangued, and in some cases beaten, as the tribes, over time, and in the interests of trade, moderated their responses to European transgressions.

One of the last incidents involving the stripping and plundering of offending Europeans in the Bay of Plenty region, occurred near Katikati in November 1842. Sailing their cutter Nimble from Maketu to the fledgling Auckland settlement with a cargo of pigs, the traders Charles Joy and Peter Lowrie were obliged to anchor inside the northern entrance to Tauranga Harbour due to contrary winds. Encouraged by their three Arawa passengers, the traders went ashore at Katikati and began plundering a crop of potatoes to sell in Auckland. They were seen by the local Waitaha people on Matakana Island, who immediately launched a large waka. Swarming aboard the Nimble, the warriors slashed the sails before stripping the traders and towing the cutter with the naked prisoners, pigs and potatoes aboard, back to Matakana. The three Maori passengers fled into the forest.

The senior Ngaiterangi rangatira Tomika Te Mutu negotiated the release of Charles Joy and Peter Lowrie on Matakana Island in 1842.
John Nicol Crombie: ‘Tomika Te Mutu,’ PA2-2893, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, NZ.

The utu extracted for the theft of tapu crops, whether by Maori or Pakeha plunderers was always severe. Waitaha tracked the Arawa passengers and killed one of them. After being held captive for some days, Charles Joy was freed at the instigation of the senior Ngaiterangi rangatira Tomika Te Mutu to travel overland to the fledgling Auckland settlement, clad only in a shirt, where he arrived ten days later. Thomas Lowrie was freed to proceed to the Tauranga settlement.

Waitaha kept the cutter Nimble and its cargo as compensation. The two surviving Arawa passengers were rescued and fed by the Tauranga trader James Farrar and a companion aboard their cutter George, which passed by two days after the attack. The rescued men promptly repaid their saviours by stealing their boat. Arawa at Maketu, subsequently used the 16 ton George to launch a successful taua ito against the inhabitants of Mayor Island (Tuhua), before returning it to Farrar.

References

Best, Abel, The Journal of Ensign Best, Wellington, Government Printer, 1966.
Brown, A.N. The Journals of A.N. Brown, Gisborne, The Elms Trust,1990.
The New Zealander, 18 November, 1848.
Thomson, Arthur, The Story of New Zealand, Vol 1I, London, John Murray, 1859.