Reflections of a Family Reunion

By Anna Smart

Anna par­ti­cip­ated in NZCMS’ gap year program in 2019. She is now in her fourth year of her Bach­elor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws, and is involved with the Karuwhā Trust on a vol­un­tary basis. She respon­ded to an invit­a­tion to the Karuwhā Trust to attend and support the Wil­li­ams Family 200 year Reunion on April 13 – 16 at Paihia.

Ko Te Tiriti o Wait­angi tōku kawenata
I tipu ake ahau i raro i te maru o ngā pae maunga o Remu­taka ki te taha o Te Awakairangi
Ko Te Ati-Awa te mana whenua
Kei Te Whan­ganui-a-Tara ahau e noho ana
Ko Hāhi Mihingare te whare karakia
He Pākehā ahau
Ko Anna Smart tōku ingoa.

Last Wed­nes­day, after sub­mit­ting a law essay and throw­ing some clothes in a bag, I got on a plane to Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland before meeting my friend and tuakana to drive to the Bay of Islands for the Wil­li­ams Family Reunion and 200th Anniversary Com­mem­or­a­tion. I am not a Wil­li­ams’ des­cend­ant myself and atten­ded the gath­er­ing by invit­a­tion of Te Tii marae (to the Karuwhā Trust) to support the prac­tical mahi required to host the 800 des­cend­ants attending.

Four days of laughter in the kitchen and being blown around in a tent at the Wait­angi Holiday Park was accom­pan­ied by the unique and priv­ileged oppor­tun­ity to attend some of the kōrero held through­out the Wil­li­ams Family Reunion. Prior to attend­ing, I knew little of the Wil­li­ams’ story, and most of what I did know was shad­owed by the pre­vail­ing aca­demic nar­rat­ive that the mis­sion­ar­ies were bad and simply agents of col­on­isa­tion in Aotearoa. While there is some truth in those sen­ti­ments, and cer­tainly not everything the mis­sion­ar­ies did is to be cel­eb­rated, the desire to under­stand more of the com­plex­ity gnawed at me. After all, Henry Wil­li­ams (or ‘Te Karuwhā’ as he was known by local Māori) is carved inside the wharenui at Te Tii marae holding te Paipera Tapu and wearing his sig­na­ture spec­tacles. (1)

At Waitangi this weekend, I learnt that Henry Williams was a peacemaker and a rebel, and his friendship and advocacy with Māori so affronted the British Crown that the government at the time sent Governor George Grey to silence Henry Williams who had “become annoying”. (2)

The Wil­li­ams’ whānau in those early years had a strong rela­tion­ship with local hapū and in many ways advoc­ated for the pro­tec­tion of Māori interests as settler colo­ni­al­ism expan­ded its reach in Aotearoa.

Through­out the kōrero I was privy to this weekend, many speak­ers returned to the idea of legacy and the respons­ib­il­ity belong­ing to the Wil­li­ams whānau to honour such a legacy today. One speaker from the Wil­li­ams whānau at the pōwhiri remarked, “It is our chal­lenge as the des­cend­ants to commit to the Treaty in the manner desired by our ancest­ors col­lect­ively”. I would add that those of us who find belong­ing and iden­tity in Te Hahi Mihingare or in the New Zealand Church Mis­sion­ary Society, are spir­itual des­cend­ants of Henry and Mari­anne Wil­li­ams. Thus, this legacy, and there­fore the respons­ib­il­ity to commit to Te Tiriti, belongs to us also. Sim­il­arly, Rev­er­end Lyndon Drake speak­ing at St Paul’s referred to himself as “an uri o te moemoeā o Te Karuwhā”, a des­cend­ant of the dream of Henry Wil­li­ams (3). Per­son­ally, I found this lan­guage helpful as it locates my life in the broader story and neces­sit­ates that I live and act in light of that story.

At a com­mem­or­ative hīkoi at the Wait­angi Treaty Grounds on Sat­urday morning, Pīhopa Te Kitohi Pikaahu and Ngāti Kawa (chair­man of Te Tii marae) addressed the Wil­li­ams whānau with chal­lenge and encour­age­ment (4). Pīhopa Te Kitohi asked the whānau, “Who will be a Henry today, in this gen­er­a­tion?”. This chal­lenge trav­elled home with me from the shores of Wait­angi to my flat in Te Whangaui-a-Tara, it rever­ber­ates and calls me to respond. This chal­lenge begs the ques­tions in me: what kind of man was Henry ‘Te Karuwhā’ Wil­li­ams that his like­ness is remembered in wood inside the wharenui at Te Tii marae, that his des­cend­ants were warmly and gen­er­ously received by hau kainga in Wait­angi this weekend?

What does it mean to stand in the legacy of a man who advocated for his Treaty partners so well that he annoyed the colonising forces of the day?

As I washed dishes and handed out deli­cious hāngī over the weekend my mind returned to the early rela­tion­ship between the Wil­li­ams whānau and North­ern Māori, perhaps a symbol of what the rela­tion­ship between tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti could become in this land. At the Wait­angi Treaty Grounds, the restored Busby cottage, and the Whare Runanga stand­ing side by side can also be seen as sym­bolic of this Treaty rela­tion­ship. Dr Alistair Reese writes in a recent article that the two whare are “…emblem­atic of two worlds stand­ing in their respect­ive auto­nom­ies yet rep­res­ent­ing the meeting of two cul­tures” (5). Over the weekend I have wondered if our task – as spir­itual des­cend­ants of the dream of Henry Wil­li­ams – is to be brave enough to walk across the grass and humbly meet one another in the liminal space between.

Ref­er­ences:

(1) https://images.app.goo.gl/2LZFftWEqrWCES456
(2) Car­oline Fitzger­ald: His­tor­ical Talk at St Paul’s, Paihia, Friday 14^th April.
(3) Quiet Euchar­ist at St Paul’s, Paihia, Friday 14^th April.
(4) Wil­li­ams & Wait­angi at Wait­angi Treaty Grounds, Sat­urday 15^th April.
(5) https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/treaty-challenging-—-worth-it