Colonisers, 'rebels' & prophets

The first Pākehā established trading posts at Ōhiwa Harbour in the 1830s. Initially relationships between local Māori and Pākehā settlers were mutually beneficial and the economy was going well for everyone. This fundamentally changed during the New Zealand Wars. Most notably in 1865 when missionary Völkner in Ōpōtiki and government agent Fulloon in Whakatāne were slain by outsiders. Tāngata whenua were punished for a crime they did not commit. The government took their land and coastline from Ōhope in the west to Tirohanga in the east, which included all land at Ōhiwa Harbour. 

 

The history of this injustice and the land dispossession is still very much alive for tāngata whenua today. Its consequences remain subject of negotiations between local Māori and the Crown in the New Zealand courts.

 

A number of research reports have been written that describe the history of the harbour in detail. Refer, for example, to Ewan Johnston’s Ōhiwa Harbour. A Report Commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal (March 2003)

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