Please note: we will be closing early on Friday 24 (4:30pm) and Saturday 25 June (5pm).
Come celebrate Matariki with us! View our Mānawatia a Matariki programme
Please note: we will be closing early on Friday 24 (4:30pm) and Saturday 25 June (5pm).
Come celebrate Matariki with us! View our Mānawatia a Matariki programme
He taonga nui te tohutoa a Te Pahi ki te motu whānui: ko te koha tapu tuatahi nā te kāwanatanga ki tētahi rangatira Māori.
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The Te Pahi medal is a taonga
taongatreasureMāori | Noun of national importance: the first official state gift given to a Māori chief.
The Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King, had the medal made to mark Te Pahi’s three-month visit to Sydney. John Austin, a convict silversmith, probably crafted it from two watch cases.
King hoped to secure resources for his colony from Te Pahi, and protection of whalers and traders in the Bay of Islands. Te Pahi aimed to establish trade ties and acquire new technology.
I te wā ka manaakitia a Te Pahi, māuiui kē a King, kua wherū i te noho ture kore o te koroni o Niu Haute Wēra. Ka rua ngā tau ka mate i te tau 1808.
Philip Gidley King, Governor of New South Wales, had the medal made for Te Pahi ‘to give him some proof of the estimation he was held in’.
Philip Gidley King, about 1800. State Library of New South Wales (IE204307)
In 1810, tragedy struck in Northland. A local chief’s son had been flogged on the Boyd, a cargo ship. In retaliation, his tribe massacred all on board. Te Pahi was wrongly blamed.
Revenge was swift – British whalers sacked Te Pahi’s island pā
pāfortified villageMāori | Noun killing up to 60 Māori. Te Pahi was fatally wounded. During the turmoil, the medal vanished.
I ponitaka te whenua o Te Pahi i te rohe o Rangihoua i Pēwhairangi.
Te Pahi’s rohe surrounded Rangihoua Bay in the Bay of Islands. It included Rangihoua Pā, shown in this landscape 11 years after his death.
Augustus Earle, Ranghe Hue, [i.e. Rangihoua] a New Zealand fortified village, the residence of Warri-Pork [i.e. Wharepoaka], 1827. National Library of Australia (Solander Box C18 #T178 NK12/141)
Te Pahi’s medal all but disappeared between 1810 and 2014. It was only mentioned once, in an Australian will dated 1899. How it got to Australia from the Bay of Islands is a mystery.
In 2014, the medal resurfaced at Sotheby’s Sydney auction house. Te Pahi’s iwi
iwitribeMāori | noun, Ngāpuhi, explored a legal challenge to its sale, fearing the taonga could be lost to a private collector.
On auction day, Ngāpuhi performed a haka
hakadefiant chantMāori | noun outside the sale venue. Meanwhile, Te Papa and Auckland Museum, with Ngāpuhi’s endorsement, put in a joint bid – and won.
Te Pahi’s descendants welcomed his medal back to the Bay of Islands in November 2014. Afterwards, it was handed into the care of Te Papa and Auckland Museum, its new co-owners.
Currently, Te Papa is custodian of the Te Pahi medal – a tribute to a leader of great mana
manaprestigeMāori | noun, and a symbol of friendship between two peoples.
The Te Pahi Medal on Collections Online
Close English textKa whakaritea e te Kāwana o Niu Haute Wēra, e Philip Gidley King, kia hanga he tohutoa hei tohu i te haerenga a Te Pahi ki Poihākena, e toru marama nei te roa. Tērā pea he mea hanga i ngā pouaka wāti e rua nā John Austin, he mauhere kaihanga tohutoa.
Ka hiahia a King kia whiwhi tōna koroni ki ngā rawa i ā Te Pahi, māna hoki ngā kaipatu tohorā, ngā kaihokohoko i Pēwhairangi e tauārai. He tikanga hoki tā Te Pahi ko te whakaū i te mahi tauhokohoko me te whiwhi hangarau hou.
I te wā ka manaakitia a Te Pahi, māuiui kē a King, kua wherū i te noho ture kore o te koroni o Niu Haute Wēra. Ka rua ngā tau ka mate i te tau 1808.
Philip Gidley King, Governor of New South Wales, had the medal made for Te Pahi ‘to give him some proof of the estimation he was held in’.
Philip Gidley King, about 1800. State Library of New South Wales (IE204307)
I te tau 1810, ka pā te kino ki Te Taitokerau. Ka wepua te tamaiti a tētahi rangatira o runga i te Boyd, he waka utanga. Nā, ka rapu utu, parekuratia ana te katoa o ngā tāngata eke. Ka whakapaetia hētia a Te Pahi.
Kia ea tonu te mate – pāhuatia ana te motu a Te Pahi e ngā kaipatu tohorā, ka patua me te mea e 60 Māori. Nō te tārukenga, ka taotūtia kinotia a Te Pahi, ka ngaro te tohutoa.
I ponitaka te whenua o Te Pahi i te rohe o Rangihoua i Pēwhairangi.
Te Pahi’s rohe surrounded Rangihoua Bay in the Bay of Islands. It included Rangihoua Pā, shown in this landscape 11 years after his death.
Augustus Earle, Ranghe Hue, [i.e. Rangihoua] a New Zealand fortified village, the residence of Warri-Pork [i.e. Wharepoaka], 1827. National Library of Australia (Solander Box C18 #T178 NK12/141)
Ka ngaro mārika te tohutoa a Te Pahi mai i ngā tau 1810 ki 2014. Kotahi anō te wā i kōrerotia ai, ki tētahi ōhākī i Ahitereiria i te tau 1899. He mea huna tāna hokinga atu i Pēwhairangi ki Ahitereiria.
I te tau 2014, ka puta ake anō te tohutoa i te whare mākete o Sotheby’s ki Poihākena. Ka kimi tikanga ture a Ngāpuhi kia kaua ai te hoko, tērā kei riro atu anō ki tētahi kaikohi tūmatawhāiti.
I te rā hoko, ka ngeri a Ngāpuhi i waho o te wāhi mākete. I taua wā tonu, tuku ngātahitia ana he tono e Te Papa me Tāmaki Paenga Hira i runga i te reo tautoko a Ngāpuhi – nā, ka toa.
Nō te marama o Whiringa-ā-rangi 2014, i Pēwhairangi, ka whakatauria e ngā uri te tohutoa a Te Pahi. Nō muri, ka hoatu ki ngā ringa o Te Papa me Tāmaki Paenga Hira, hei ngā kaitiaki hou.
I tēnei wā, ko Te Papa te kaitiaki o te tohutoa a Te Pahi – he whakamānawa hoki i tētahi rangatira mana nui, he tohu piringa tata i waenganui i ngā iwi e rua.
Please expand the English text for a slideshow in both te reo Māori and English.
Te Tohutoa a Te Pahi ki Collections Online
Close te reo Māori text