title: Te whakatipu torekaihuruhuru hai ika-ā-Whiro

authors: Temara, Pou

subjects: Mana tūpuna

abstract: Kai roto i te mōteatea a Hone Tūwhare e mau ana ngā whakaaro me ngā kareāroto o tōku whakatipuranga o Tūhoe i te turakitanga a Mate i te tipua nei i a Te Rangihau i te tau 1987.  Mōwai ana te whenua, takarerewa ana te tangata. He atua te rite o Te Rangihau ki a Tūhoe. Ka kitea ia i ngā marae o Tūhoe, ka hikina te ngoi o te iwi, ka ora. Kua mate nei, tārū ana te iwi; kua hinga te rākau taumatua o ngā manu, kua hinga i te tao o te mate.

Kāore hoki i roa i muri mai o tōna wehenga atu ka whai muri ko tōna rēanga me tōna momo. Mā wai e ārahi te iwi? Mā wai e whakatika te waka ka tikoki, te iwi ka hē? Mā wai o tō mātau whakatipuranga e whakakīkī ngā whāruarua kua mahue mai nei i te ngaronga atu o tērā whakatipuranga taioreore? Koinei ngā mōhio o Tūhoe, he mana te kupu, he tapu te kōrero! Ahakoa i noho rātau ki te ako i a mātau mō te wā e ngaro ai tō rātau momo, tāupetia ana mātau e te mokemoke, he manu mahue i te kātua te rite. Ae, i reira anō ngā torekaihuruhuru e whakatore ana, engari kīhai i a rātau te mana tohunga o te rēanga ka ngaro.

text: Te whakatipu torekaihuruhuru hai ika-ā-Whiro Kai roto i te mōteatea a Hone Tūwhare e mau ana ngā whakaaro me ngā kareāroto o tōku whakatipuranga o Tūhoe i te turakitanga a Mate i te tipua nei i a Te Rangihau i te tau 1987.  Mōwai ana te whenua, takarerewa ana te tangata. He atua te rite o Te Rangihau ki a Tūhoe. Ka kitea ia i ngā marae o Tūhoe, ka hikina te ngoi o te iwi, ka ora. Kua mate nei, tārū ana te iwi; kua hinga te rākau taumatua o ngā manu, kua hinga i te tao o te mate.

Kāore hoki i roa i muri mai o tōna wehenga atu ka whai muri ko tōna rēanga me tōna momo. Mā wai e ārahi te iwi? Mā wai e whakatika te waka ka tikoki, te iwi ka hē? Mā wai o tō mātau whakatipuranga e whakakīkī ngā whāruarua kua mahue mai nei i te ngaronga atu o tērā whakatipuranga taioreore? Koinei ngā mōhio o Tūhoe, he mana te kupu, he tapu te kōrero! Ahakoa i noho rātau ki te ako i a mātau mō te wā e ngaro ai tō rātau momo, tāupetia ana mātau e te mokemoke, he manu mahue i te kātua te rite. Ae, i reira anō ngā torekaihuruhuru e whakatore ana, engari kīhai i a rātau te mana tohunga o te rēanga ka ngaro.

year: 2016

title: Tribal guns, tribal gunners : A study of acculturation by Maori of European military technology during the New Zealand inter-tribal musket wars

authors: Bentley, Trevor William

abstract: The Musket Wars were New Zealand’s longest and most costly war. Some 20,000 Maori perished in the raids, battles and sieges that convulsed the tribal societies during the 1820’s and 1830’s. The rise of powerful musket armies set in train forty major hekes or tribal migrations that emptied vast reaches of country by 1840, paving the way for European settlement that proceeded largely unopposed until the 1860’s.

There is little known about the nature of Maori warfare in this period for the Musket Wars have yet to receive the same kind of intense study currently being given by New Zealand historians to the Northern and New Zealand Wars. While other nations have conducted exhaustive research into the military history of their indigenous people, the Musket Wars remain New Zealand’s least known war.

The paucity of information on inter-tribal; warfare in this period is sourced in the fact that native warfare was actively discouraged by the missionaries, judged barbaric by most early visitors and regarded as an inferior form of warfare by settlers and English military men. Later nineteenth century writers perpetuated a distorted view of the Musket Wars as chaotic inter-tribal conflicts in which Maori fought and destroyed Maori. This distorted view has its origins in the two widely divergent systems of values that operated in nineteenth century New Zealand and in the dominance of Victorian ideas about race and colonialism.

This thesis is revisionist only in its attempt to demolish the entrenched colonial view of Maori musket warfare as disordered and exclusively Maori. It endeavours to fill specific gaps that exist in the research on this period by examining the role and purpose of the European gun trading enterprise in New Zealand and the extent of European involvement in Maori warfare. The thesis explores the deployment and effectiveness of European guns during the three phases of Maori warfare that characterise the period; predatory raiding, the great rakau-musket battles and the musket to musket conflicts of the 1830’s. The thesis also develops the theme that while the Musket Wars were shaped by non-Maori influences they were distinctly Maori in style.
While the bulk of evidence is provided by contemporary European observers and nineteenth century historians, every attempt has been made to provide a more balanced picture of Maori warfare by reporting Maori experiences wherever possible. The thesis consequently draws on current Maori oral testimony, the evidence of contemporary Maori eyewitness and the substantial and well developed body of written tribal history currently available.

The Musket Wars represent a fascinating but largely forgotten military age in New Zealand where Maori armies of unprecedented size employed powerful armaments of flintlock guns and ships cannon on long distance campaigns against remote enemies. This period has provided a unique opportunity to research the ways an indigenous warrior society acculturated European firearms technology in established tribal rituals and in warfare, independent of European military influences and in a purely Maori context. Most importantly the Musket Wars have provided the opportunity to examine Maori tactical developments through the critical stage between classical Maori warfare and the clashes with British and Colonial forces during the Northern war of 1845 and New Zealand wars of the 1860’s.

text: Tribal guns, tribal gunners : A study of acculturation by Maori of European military technology during the New Zealand inter-tribal musket wars The Musket Wars were New Zealand’s longest and most costly war. Some 20,000 Maori perished in the raids, battles and sieges that convulsed the tribal societies during the 1820’s and 1830’s. The rise of powerful musket armies set in train forty major hekes or tribal migrations that emptied vast reaches of country by 1840, paving the way for European settlement that proceeded largely unopposed until the 1860’s.

There is little known about the nature of Maori warfare in this period for the Musket Wars have yet to receive the same kind of intense study currently being given by New Zealand historians to the Northern and New Zealand Wars. While other nations have conducted exhaustive research into the military history of their indigenous people, the Musket Wars remain New Zealand’s least known war.

The paucity of information on inter-tribal; warfare in this period is sourced in the fact that native warfare was actively discouraged by the missionaries, judged barbaric by most early visitors and regarded as an inferior form of warfare by settlers and English military men. Later nineteenth century writers perpetuated a distorted view of the Musket Wars as chaotic inter-tribal conflicts in which Maori fought and destroyed Maori. This distorted view has its origins in the two widely divergent systems of values that operated in nineteenth century New Zealand and in the dominance of Victorian ideas about race and colonialism.

This thesis is revisionist only in its attempt to demolish the entrenched colonial view of Maori musket warfare as disordered and exclusively Maori. It endeavours to fill specific gaps that exist in the research on this period by examining the role and purpose of the European gun trading enterprise in New Zealand and the extent of European involvement in Maori warfare. The thesis explores the deployment and effectiveness of European guns during the three phases of Maori warfare that characterise the period; predatory raiding, the great rakau-musket battles and the musket to musket conflicts of the 1830’s. The thesis also develops the theme that while the Musket Wars were shaped by non-Maori influences they were distinctly Maori in style.
While the bulk of evidence is provided by contemporary European observers and nineteenth century historians, every attempt has been made to provide a more balanced picture of Maori warfare by reporting Maori experiences wherever possible. The thesis consequently draws on current Maori oral testimony, the evidence of contemporary Maori eyewitness and the substantial and well developed body of written tribal history currently available.

The Musket Wars represent a fascinating but largely forgotten military age in New Zealand where Maori armies of unprecedented size employed powerful armaments of flintlock guns and ships cannon on long distance campaigns against remote enemies. This period has provided a unique opportunity to research the ways an indigenous warrior society acculturated European firearms technology in established tribal rituals and in warfare, independent of European military influences and in a purely Maori context. Most importantly the Musket Wars have provided the opportunity to examine Maori tactical developments through the critical stage between classical Maori warfare and the clashes with British and Colonial forces during the Northern war of 1845 and New Zealand wars of the 1860’s.

year: 1997

title: Denitrification response to nutrient enrichment in New Zealand estuaries

authors: Douglas, Emily Jane

subjects: Eutrophication

abstract: As coastal catchment land use intensifies, estuaries receive increased nutrient and sediment loads, resulting in habitats dominated by muddy organic-rich sediments. Nutrient processing and denitrification in estuarine sediments represent important ecosystem functions regenerating nutrients for primary producers, and regulating the ability to remove excess terrestrially derived nitrogen.  Denitrification therefore offers resilience to estuaries through mitigating eutrophication.  Biodiversity loss and increased mud content are important indicators of estuarine ecosystem degradation, and have been associated with negative effects on soft-sediment ecosystem functioning. However, the impact of these stressors on ecosystem response to nutrient enrichment is unclear.  This thesis investigates the response of denitrification to nutrient enrichment with emphasis on the impact of sedimentation stress and biodiversity loss for resilience to eutrophication.  


To experimentally test soft sediment ecosystem response to enrichment, an effective in situ enrichment method was required. A review of current literature was conducted highlighting a methodological gap, and lack of consistency among published studies. I developed and tested a technique for enriching estuarine sediments using slow release fertiliser. Enrichment effects (pore water ammonium concentrations) scaled with application rate, and greater elevations were observed in deeper (5-7 cm) than surface (0-2 cm) sediments. Enrichment levels were similar to eutrophic estuaries, were maintained for at least seven weeks, and enrichment levels could be partially explained by the sedimentary environment and macrofaunal community. 


To test the effect of sedimentary environment on denitrification enzyme activity (DEA) response to nutrient perturbation, an in situ enrichment experiment was conducted across an intertidal sedimentary gradient. Findings show that the level of an existing stressor (sediment mud content) can influence ecosystem function response to a second stressor (nutrient enrichment). DEA was supressed by nutrient enrichment, but the effect was greater with more mud content. This study demonstrates that increasing sediment mud content may restrict nutrient processing, facilitating ecosystem shifts toward eutrophication.   


A field experiment was conducted across a heterogeneous sandflat at selected sites with a gradient in biodiversity to test the effect of macrofaunal community composition on denitrification in response to two levels of nutrient enrichment. Nutrient enrichment caused reductions in DEA as well as functional changes in the macrofaunal community. The degree of suppression of DEA following enrichment was dependent on enrichment level, and was alleviated by a key bioturbating species (medium enrichment), or the abundance and diversity of nutrient processing species (high enrichment). This study provides a prime example of the context dependent role of biodiversity in maintaining ecosystem functioning, underlining that different elements of biodiversity can become important as stress levels increase.  


To investigate the controls on denitrification at a regional scale (i.e. among estuaries), DEA data and environmental co-variables from five studies across four estuaries was combined and analysed. Mud content accounted for most of the variability in DEA, but other sedimentary and macrofaunal variables were also important. DEA increased with increasing sediment mud content up to a threshold of 30% mud, above which, DEA values were variable but no longer increased. This is significant because mud content is increasing in many estuaries globally, and shows that denitrification can reach a threshold with increasing estuary degradation. 


The findings of this thesis show that management of nutrients in estuarine ecosystems requires real-world understanding of the context dependent responses of denitrification, and that biodiversity loss and increasing sedimentation may reduce ecological resilience to eutrophication.

text: Denitrification response to nutrient enrichment in New Zealand estuaries As coastal catchment land use intensifies, estuaries receive increased nutrient and sediment loads, resulting in habitats dominated by muddy organic-rich sediments. Nutrient processing and denitrification in estuarine sediments represent important ecosystem functions regenerating nutrients for primary producers, and regulating the ability to remove excess terrestrially derived nitrogen.  Denitrification therefore offers resilience to estuaries through mitigating eutrophication.  Biodiversity loss and increased mud content are important indicators of estuarine ecosystem degradation, and have been associated with negative effects on soft-sediment ecosystem functioning. However, the impact of these stressors on ecosystem response to nutrient enrichment is unclear.  This thesis investigates the response of denitrification to nutrient enrichment with emphasis on the impact of sedimentation stress and biodiversity loss for resilience to eutrophication.  


To experimentally test soft sediment ecosystem response to enrichment, an effective in situ enrichment method was required. A review of current literature was conducted highlighting a methodological gap, and lack of consistency among published studies. I developed and tested a technique for enriching estuarine sediments using slow release fertiliser. Enrichment effects (pore water ammonium concentrations) scaled with application rate, and greater elevations were observed in deeper (5-7 cm) than surface (0-2 cm) sediments. Enrichment levels were similar to eutrophic estuaries, were maintained for at least seven weeks, and enrichment levels could be partially explained by the sedimentary environment and macrofaunal community. 


To test the effect of sedimentary environment on denitrification enzyme activity (DEA) response to nutrient perturbation, an in situ enrichment experiment was conducted across an intertidal sedimentary gradient. Findings show that the level of an existing stressor (sediment mud content) can influence ecosystem function response to a second stressor (nutrient enrichment). DEA was supressed by nutrient enrichment, but the effect was greater with more mud content. This study demonstrates that increasing sediment mud content may restrict nutrient processing, facilitating ecosystem shifts toward eutrophication.   


A field experiment was conducted across a heterogeneous sandflat at selected sites with a gradient in biodiversity to test the effect of macrofaunal community composition on denitrification in response to two levels of nutrient enrichment. Nutrient enrichment caused reductions in DEA as well as functional changes in the macrofaunal community. The degree of suppression of DEA following enrichment was dependent on enrichment level, and was alleviated by a key bioturbating species (medium enrichment), or the abundance and diversity of nutrient processing species (high enrichment). This study provides a prime example of the context dependent role of biodiversity in maintaining ecosystem functioning, underlining that different elements of biodiversity can become important as stress levels increase.  


To investigate the controls on denitrification at a regional scale (i.e. among estuaries), DEA data and environmental co-variables from five studies across four estuaries was combined and analysed. Mud content accounted for most of the variability in DEA, but other sedimentary and macrofaunal variables were also important. DEA increased with increasing sediment mud content up to a threshold of 30% mud, above which, DEA values were variable but no longer increased. This is significant because mud content is increasing in many estuaries globally, and shows that denitrification can reach a threshold with increasing estuary degradation. 


The findings of this thesis show that management of nutrients in estuarine ecosystems requires real-world understanding of the context dependent responses of denitrification, and that biodiversity loss and increasing sedimentation may reduce ecological resilience to eutrophication.

year: 2018