moutoa

New Zealand’s first war memorial stands in Moutoa Gardens in Whanganui, a large town on the west coast of the North Island. The weeping woman, a personification of Grief, commemorates 15 kūpapa (Māori fighting on the government side) and one European who were killed at Moutoa Island, 80 km upriver, on 14 May 1864.

The grateful European citizens of Whanganui interpreted the victory at Moutoa as a sign of the absolute loyalty of lower Whanganui River Māori. They dug deep into their pockets and commissioned a statue and flag to honour ‘loyal’ Māori who had stood firm against the Pai Mārire threat. The memorial was erected near the river, at Pākaitore, a sandy beach where Māori canoes traditionally moored for trade and exchange. This site became known as Moutoa Gardens.

A notice on a kitchen tent at Moutoa Gardens, Wanganui, New Zealand, during occupation by members of Whanganui iwi, 14 March 1995.

In February 1995 Te Runanga Pakaitore began a 79-day occupation of Moutoa Gardens. The occupation was an attempt to restore the mana of the Whanganui people over the site. The gardens had been established on the site of an ancient pa, Pakaitore. This had been a traditional place for trade before European settlement. Te Runanga Pakaitore claimed that it had been set aside from the purchase of Wanganui. The city denied these claims.

Moutoa Island, on the Whanganui River.

In the early 1860s upriver Maori adopted the Pai Marire (Hauhau) faith. In May 1864 Matene Te Rangitauira of Taumarunui led an upriver party to attack Wanganui township. The Putiki chiefs Hori Kingi Te Anaua and Hoani Wiremu Hipango refused their upriver cousins passage and inflicted a heavy defeat on them at Moutoa, a small island on the Whanganui River between Hiruharama (Jerusalem) and Ranana.

This shows the return of the Maori Pioneer Battalion to Putiki pa, Wanganui, in 1918. The Moutoa flag is in the centre. This flag was presented in 1865 by the ladies of Wanganui to lower Whanganui iwi to mark their success at Moutoa Island against Pai Marire warriors who threatened the settlement of Wanganui in 1864.

Moutoa war memorial.