Te Hokinga Mai o Pomaparie:
The Return Home of Bishop Pompallier 13 & 14 April
2002
Only a few weeks after taking up the position
as Manager of the Historic Places Trust property Pompallier at Russell, Bay of
Islands, Kate Martin found herself being quietly quizzed by two unassuming-looking
men who had walked in by the staff entrance. It turned out that both were Catholic
priests, one from the Hokianga, one from Paris. They finally spilled the beans,
what did Kate think of the idea of digging up Bishop Pompallier's remains in France
and bringing them to this place?
Years of museum debate about human
remains had never once involved this kind of scenario. Remember those moko mokai
still on display in the 1980s? Remember removing remains from storerooms for reburial
amongst their own people? Remember those collections still in museums, confused
and unidentified? More recently there's been news of Auckland War Memorial Museum's
bid for the Unknown Soldier.
One purpose of Te Hokinga Mai o Pihopa Pomaparie
to New Zealand was the renewal of faith amongst Catholics, which is not part of
the mission of the Historic Places Trust. However, the Church's other purpose
of spreading knowledge about Pompallier, his work and his place in history, certainly
is. Therefore, the Historic Places Trust welcomed this invitation for one of the
events associated with the return of the Bishop's remains to be a "lying
in state" at the property Pompallier.
Bishop Jean Baptiste Francois
Pompallier was the Frenchman who brought the formal Catholic Church to Western
Oceania. At the Trust property, today also Pompallier, a single building is all
that remains of his mission headquarters in what was then Kororareka and a major
port in the Pacific. Arriving in New Zealand in 1838, he walked straight into
a scene that was fast moving towards Treaty, war and radical change throughout
the country. Controversy continues today as to what were Pompallier's real intentions
and influence in this country.
Now, the Bishop's remains were to follow
his lifetime travels, staying at Catholic places throughout New Zealand. Sold
by the Church in 1856, our venue in Russell was to be the one exception. Here
was the opportunity to use a heritage place for something that was no historic
reconstruction yet somehow far more telling.
It became apparent that this
was an unusual proposal for everyone. Catholics were asking if this was to be
"just a Maori thing", others if it was "just a Catholic thing".
In the end, the cultural traditions of both were used, and altered, to meet these
exceptional circumstances, while the event became inclusive of the much wider
Far North community.
The programme at Pompallier was developed in partnership
with members of the parish, tangata whenua and the Historic Places Trust. Ceremonies
focussed on the historic significance of Pompallier, man and place. On the other
side of the Bay at Waitangi in 1840, this Frenchman had had the audacity to push
for the 'Fourth' Treaty Article, asserting the right to religious tolerance. Our
weekend's theme was celebration and reconciliation, focussing on that Fourth Treaty
Article.
Pompallier @ Pompallier
The Bishop's entourage was first
escorted by waka to the Russell peninsular. In Russell, the call of the putatara
echoed those days when the village was warned that someone important was coming.
The Ratana band Piri Wiri Tua lead the pallbearers, aware that in 1843 French
ship Le Rhin's brass band were one of the earliest to play in this country, for
a Mass Pompallier said here
The procession moved forward through a guard
of honour formed by the waka paddlers, across the site of the mission's own waka
house. The kaihoe gave the missionary Bishop the traditional salute to the dead,
the first they had ever performed.
As the small casket carved with Maori
and Catholic symbols neared the mission gateway, the karanga went out. Bishop
Pompallier's remains were escorted into a marquee erected on the site of his mission
residence, where he once received visitors of differing nationalities and denominations.
This weekend, the Bishop again played host to a multitude.
These included
descendants, Maori and Pakeha, of people he had known in his lifetime. Pompallier
would have also recognised those Maori and Church protocols, and those languages:
Maori, English, Latin and his native French that were spoken throughout the weekend.
But who in the turbulent 1840s could have foreseen that a French Ambassador would
stand here as part of the powhiri?
Or that Pompallier's remains could be
so warmly welcomed by the inheritors of those Protestant missionaries (heresy
to him) who had greeted his first arrival in New Zealand with the publication
of Ko te Anatikaraiti, accusing him of being the Antichrist? Could anyone then
have seen those competing denominations of his time (Anglican and Methodist),
men and women, join Catholic priests, Ratana Apotoro and nuns, Mormon and others
in an Ecumenical service?
Later, guest speakers spoke, from both the Maori
and French perspectives, of the Bay at the time of Treaty-making, the siege of
Kororareka and of Pakeha settlers fleeing to Auckland. And of the 1845-46 northern
war, when Pompallier and his Marist confreres stayed on this mission, under suspicion
as treacherous Frenchmen and traitorous Catholics.
A Marist Brother talked
of how Pompallier established the Church, even at the loss of life. Here, on the
Kororareka mission, where the Bishop's evangelising task to spread the Church
through Western Oceania with a handful of Marist priests and brothers, conflicted
with their Order's desire to work as a community.
In the evening, Bay of
Islands schoolchildren and the choir from Anglican Christ Church, Pompallier's
nearest contemporary rival, led a multilingual candlelit Taize service, modernised
versions of the chants the Catholic Bishop introduced to New Zealand.
Relationships
made
The weekend's programme involved much talk, tears, laughter and music,
and the active organisation, fundraising and participation of many people. The
Kororareka Marae Society hosted and fed around 700 people. Russell Museum put
on a supporting exhibition. The District Council closed the nearby road. The Department
of Conservation donated their car park.
The Historic Places Trust, always
stretched for resources, contributed a lot to the organisational logistics. However,
the Trust's biggest contribution came from staff, normally spread thinly around
the country. Staff from the Northern Region, Auckland and Wellington offices volunteered
their own time to act as guides and security over the entire weekend. Identifying
ourselves by wearing red NZHPT tee shirts, we were soon nicknamed Kahu Whero and
Chemises Rouges.
Inevitably, more history, archival and oral, surfaced.
Pompallier and the Historic Places Trust in the North made real and hopefully
lasting relationships with many groups and individuals, notably tangata whenua,
the churches and schools.
As one of the kaikorero wrote in the visitors'
book, Ka mau ki te ataahua o te wairua aroha o tenei hui.
