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Overview
The hoeroa (whale bone staff) is an enigmatic taonga made from the lower jaw of the sperm whale. Hoeroa were usually owned by high-ranking men, and represented their personal mana (chiefly authority). They are prestigious heirlooms. Hoeroa are also weapons, but the technical aspects of their use are no longer known. It is thought they may have been both a throwing and hand held weapon.
History
Ngā Puhi leader and politician Hone Mohi Tāwhai, rangatira (tribal leader) of Te Māhurehure, a sub-tribe of Ngā Puhi, presented this hoeroa to the late Wesleyan Reverend William Rowse sometime between 1863 and 1878. The hoeroa was deposited with the Dominion Museum (now Te Papa) about 1944, and subsequently gifted to the museum by the descendants of Reverend William Rowse in 1972.
Hone Mohi Tawhai
Hone Mohi Tāwhai was an astute and prominent Māori leader and politician (1879-84) who advocated for Māori rights and entitlements enshrined in the Treaty of Waitangi. Tawhai was a founding member of the Māori Parliament established at Waitangi in 1892. He later composed a damning satirical genealogy denouncing government bureaucratic processes that were designed to alienate Māori from their freehold lands.
This extract originally appeared in Te Ata o Tū The Shadow of Tūmatauenga: The New Zealand Wars Collections of Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2024) on pages 347-348.
This extract was authored by Matiu Baker.
It is quite right for us to say what we think; it is right for us to speak; let the tongue of everyone be free to speak; but what of it? What will be the end? Our sayings will sink to the bottom like a stone, but your sayings will float light, like the wood of the whau-tree, and always remain to be seen; am I telling lies?
– Mohi Tāwhai addressing Crown representatives before signing the Treaty of Waitangi, Hokianga, 12 February 1840.
Hoeroa, such as this remarkable taonga, were fashioned from the dense lower jawbone of the sperm whale, and remain somewhat enigmatic. They could be used as weapons: either tethered to a long cord and swung above the head before being released as a projectile, or used like a taiaha and other long-handled weapons in close-quarters combat. Hoeroa were also prized for their elegant beauty and became highly valued taonga tuku iho. Their association with tūpuna imbued them with the mana and tapu of their owners, greatly enhancing their cultural significance.
This hoeroa, named Te Rau Harakeke (‘the flax leaf’), was presented by Hōne Mohi Tāwhai (1827/8–1894) to the Wesleyan missionary the Reverend William Rowse (Te Rauhi) in 1878. The hoeroa had belonged to his father, Mohi Tāwhai senior (1806–1875), who had welcomed Rowse into the community in 1863. After 15 years living and ministering among Te Māhurehure at the Waimā mission in the Hokianga, all members of the Rowse family were fluent in te reo Māori.1 Te Māhurehure spent three days in ceremonial tangi mourning the imminent departure of the Rowse family and honouring them with gifts and eloquent speeches before they left.2
Te Rau Harakeke was inherited by William’s son, Arama Karaka Pī Adam Clarke Rowse. Adam was born at the Waimā mission in 1864 and named Arama Karaka Pī after the Te Māhurehure rangatira of the same name, who, with his wife Hariata Rongo (Hongi Hika’s daughter and Hōne Heke’s widow), cared for him during his early years. Te Rau Harakeke was deposited in the Dominion Museum in 1944 by Adam Clarke (Arama Karaka Pī).3 In 1972 William Rowse’s descendants presented the hoeroa to the Dominion Museum. Today, Te Rau Harakeke remains an important taonga tuku iho for the descendants of both William Rowse and Mohi Tāwhai.
1 AD Rowse to the Director of the Dominion Museum, 20 July 1972, MU000002/061/0007, Te Papa Archives.
2 ‘The Maori Race’, Wairarapa Daily Times, 26 October 1888, p. 2.
3 In the museum, when an item was ‘deposited’, ownership was retained by the depositor, but once formally gifted or presented, ownership transferred to the Museum. WBD Mantell, who worked at the Colonial Museum, occasionally acting as Director in Hector’s absence, described the conditions of deposits in a paper titled ‘On the question of deposits in the Colonial Museum’, Te Papa Archives, MU206, box 2, item 10.