Te Temepara o te Haahi Ratana (The Ratana temple and Whare Maori)
By Keith Newman
The Ratana Church is the largest Maori religious movement in New Zealand; between 30-40,000 officially, with a strong contingent in Australia. It transcends political, social, tribal and religious persuasions, influencing the lives of many more than those who tick ‘Ratana’ in the census. The church was founded by Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana, who rose from obscurity in 1918 to take on the mantle of prophet, visionary and ‘Maori miracle man’.
Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana circa 1936. William Hall Raine, Uri Whakatupuranga Archive.
The Ratana family farm is at the intersection of major rivers and tribal boundaries where it was prophesied that an important leader would arise with the dual kaupapa (plan or agenda) of honouring the Bible and the Treaty of Waitangi.
In March 1918, T. W. Ratana and his family members witnessed the beaching of two whales at the Whangaehu river mouth at the rear of the Ratana farm. This was taken as a sign of Ratana’s calling as ‘a fisher of men’, a term coined by Jesus when he commissioned his disciples to take his message to the world. The first whale was believed to represent the Bible or the spiritual works (Ture Wairua), with its oil and meat used to light the lanterns and feed the people who were drawn like moths to the miraculous events that began unfolding in the weeks before Christmas 1918. The other whale – which got away – was believed to represent the physical works (Ture Tangata) of Ratana, including the restoring of the Treaty. The bones from the first whale were displayed at the front of the Ratana homestead for many years.
On 8 November 1918, Ratana was enveloped by a cloud on the front porch of the family homestead and received a message from the Holy Spirit to turn Maori from their fears and superstitions, unite them under Ihoa o nga Mano (Jehovah of the Multitudes) and heal them of their physical and other sicknesses. A ramshackle village of huts and tents and makeshift dwellings evolved into more permanent homes, cooking and administration facilities known as Te Pa O Nga Ariki (the sanctuary for the chiefs of all tribes).
The Temple Building
The front of the Ratana Temple 2018. Photo: Keith Newman.
The main stained-glass window directly above the Ratana Temple throne features The Seal of God (Te Hiiri o Ihoa) and a large five-pointed star in a white circle, including the Toko-Toru-Tapu (Holy Trinity) pointing upward, while the two downward purple base points represent angelic messengers ascending and descending, reminiscent of Jacob’s dream (Genesis 28). Photo: Keith Newman.
The Ratana Temple, Te Temepara o te Haahi Ratana, is at the heart of the movement, together rich with symbolism representing the cosmology of the faith. Te Manuao (Te Aaaka or the Ark) is the main administrative, meeting and dining building with representations of the waka (canoes) of the ‘great migration’ alongside the Heemeskerk and Endeavour on the outer fascia, making it clear that while this is largely a movement for Maori, everyone is welcome.
Today Te Temepara Tapu O Ihoa, with its twin bell towers, has a hundred wooden pews capable of seating up to 2000 people. The building represents Ratana’s theology, from the Holy Trinity to the ‘Sun of God’ on the apex of the outer building and the Eye of God (kanohi) just inside the entrance.
The Whare Maori
Te Whare Herehere i ngā Taipo me ngā Atua Māori (the prison for devils and Māori gods) or simply Whare Maori or the ‘boogie house’ which from 1929 housed tapu (sacred or cursed) items and historical artefacts. Uri Whakatupuranga Archives.
Some of the collected items relating to Ratana’s healing and Maori history in Te Whare Maori in the 1960s. Photo: Ans Westra.
Besides the temple itself, the most important collection of Ratana artefacts is in the Whare Maori, or Te Whare Herehere i ngā Taipo me ngā Atua Māori (the prison for devils and Māori gods), which is located around 300 metres from the temple. From 1929 items discarded by those who had been healed, along with tapu and historical artefacts and records, were housed in this carved building donated by Kingi Topia of Ngāti Tūwharetoa.
The interior of Whare Maori circa 1950, and its archived and ‘jailed’ treasures of healing, tapu removal and historical significance. Photo: William Hall Raine. Te Papa, Museum of New Zealand Collection.
This collection included the bones of the beached whale mentioned above, as well as other precious items like Te Kooti’s Ringatu bells. These bells had originally belonged to the Ratana family homestead and had, from 1919, been used to call people together for prayer or to gain their attention. They had been left with Ratana’s aunt Mere Rikiriki and the Ngati Apa people in the late 1880s, by the renegade warrior and later prophet of peace Te Kooti. Mere Rikiriki, an influential healer and prophetess, recognised great things in her nephew and his two sons whom she named Arepa and Omeka (Alpha and Omega). She gifted the bells to Ratana as a sign that he was her successor in the work of healing, uniting and advocating for the spiritual, social and political needs of the Maori people.
The Whare Maori also contained the most visible evidence of Ratana’s ministry – the hundreds of items relinquished because they were tapu (sacred). These included taiaha, patu and traditional weapons, tokotoko (ornate talking sticks used by orators) along with walking sticks, crutches, glasses and wheelchairs from those who had been healed, including the steel body brace of Fanny Lammas, a member of the Baptist Church in Nelson who had been virtually paralysed for 19 years, having to be strapped into a steel frame whenever she got out of bed. After writing to Ratana in 1921 and receiving his reply she was healed over several days. Her recovery stunned doctors and specialists who had given up hope and the case was widely publicised. After this Ratana was besieged with letters from all around the world.
The steel brace given by Fanny Lammas after her 1921 healing when she received a letter from Ratana. Uri Whakatupuranga Archive.
Crutches, walking sticks and other items left by those who were healed by Ratana, circa 1921-22. Uri Whakatupuranga Archives.
Another precious item in the Whare Maori is a fragment of the Maltese cross from Oihi Bay, marking Samuel Marsden’s first sermon on Christmas Day 1814. During his visit there, Ratana had found a section of the cross that had broken off during a storm in 1918; he claimed the mauri (life or spirit) of Marsden’s first prayers and sermons, and took it back to Ratana Pa. The cross is now on the front of the church.
Items continued to be added to the inventory at Whare Maori as Ratana went into other rohe (regions). In August 1934 he returned to the South Island with an entourage of 54 including one of the seven Ratana brass bands. The troupe travelled to many places including Te Hapa o Niu Tireni (The broken promises of New Zealand), a meeting house established by prophet Hipa Te Maiharoa at Arowhenua Marae marking unjust land acquisitions, the basis of Ngai Tahu (South Island) Treaty claims.
On his return to Ratana Pa he placed the many treasures given to him, including the sword and gun, in Te Whare Maori. He also bought greenstone from the Arahura River and gold from the mines in Hokitika. The gold was buried beneath the Ratana Temple and the greenstone inlaid at the front; both were dedicated to Maori regaining spiritual and economic mana.
The Te Ore Ore meeting house
Ratana’s story also gives us insight into other temple collections. One of the places he visited was the Te Ore Ore meeting house to the east of Masterton. This was the work of Paora Potangaroa from Wairarapa, who is often referred to as ‘the Moses of Te Oreore’. In 1878 Potangaroa and other carvers (including Rangitikei prophet and master carver Te Kere Ngataierua) worked on the building’s design. Strange symbols and markings different to other meeting houses were featured, including male and female organs in a sexual act over the doorway which Te Kere said would strip off the tapu (sacredness) of visiting chiefs.
Potangaroa placed prophecies and symbolic and tapu items under the floor. However, he had a falling out with Te Kere who walked away saying the project would take eight years. When it opened on 5 January 1880, only three years later, Potangaroa, as a form of mockery, called the house Nga Tau E Waru (the eight years). Ironically, before his death Te Kere had erected a wooden cross from the branches of the tapu (sacred or set apart) hunakeha tree beside Te Tikanga, a distinctly carved house beside the Rangitikei River. He claimed the person on whom the cross fell would continue his prophetic tradition. That cross fell on Mere Rikiriki who had in turn passed on her prophetic and healing mantle to T.W.Ratana. On 16 March 1881 Potangaroa, now more focussed on expressing Christianity in Maori concepts, called a meeting attended by about 3000 people prophesying a new church would come for Maori within 40-years. He died three months later in June 1881.
The prophecy was initially claimed by the Mormons, Ringatu and the Church of the Seven Rules of Jehovah which had a strong connection to the Anglicans. Taiawhio Te Tau, the first Seven Rules bishop, after studying Potangaroa’s prophecies, joined the Ratana movement. Part of his motivation was to foster a united voice for Maori and ensure Potangaroa’s words were honoured by Ratana.
The rise of the Ratana movement gave many pause for thought, particularly when a number of those using the Te Ore Ore meeting house became ill or died including tohunga and young children. A 500-strong petition from Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairarapa urged T.W Ratana to come and remove the curse. He eventually arrived in April 1928, 47 years after Te Potangaroa’s prophecy with 144 followers. After deep prayer he lifted the floorboards and removed a 100lb slab of greenstone intended as a spiritual gateway between worlds and other items. The greenstone was placed alongside other tapu objects inside the Whare Maori 'jail' for safekeeping.
Archiving the Whare Maori at the Old Post Office
Despite visitor fascination in latter years when thousands of people, including politicians and dignitaries, gathered annually to commemorate Ratana’s birthday on January 24, the Whare Maori gradually fell into disrepair.
From the early 1980s, Puawai and Arahi Hagger and the Uri Whakatupuranga (‘the new generation’) team began transcribing diaries, conducting video interviews with elderly members and collating photographs, film and other records including whakapapa (genealogies) often dating back dozens of generations. From 1999 Uri Whakatupuranga, with the support of knowledgeable insiders including Nakada Taiaroa, leased the old Ratana post office and transformed it into an archive centre.
The Uri Whakatupuranga Ratana Archive group 2015; Puawai Hagger, Kereama Pene, Ruia Aperahama and far right Arahi Hagger (with camera) with historian Keith Newman and Anglican Bishop of Wellington Justin Duckworth in front of the archive building. Photo: Robin Ohia.
The Haggers, trained as librarians and archivists, progressively upgraded the computers’ scanning, storage and networking capability, ultimately creating a massive 50 terabyte database. An inventory taken in 1987 compared with another in 2005 revealed how rapidly the ‘museum’ content had been depleted or damaged. All that remained were 40 taiaha, 50 pairs of spectacles, 74 crutches and 181 tokotoko. Chief archivist Arahi Hagger says today’s content is only “a glimpse” of the “thousands of items” it once contained, including Ratana World Tour (1924-1926) memorabilia, full copies of the Whetu Marama, journals, portraits of old chiefs and other important documents.
In the 1990s and early 2000s trust members methodically catalogued all items with full descriptions, ‘taiaha with black and brown dog hair and carved symbols’ etc...scanning all the documents and photographing and videoing everything.
T.,W Ratana and his wife Te Uramanaao (Te Whaea o Katoa, the mother of all) and their son Te Omeka with the family Bible. Uri Whakatupuranga Archives.
Bound copies of the Ratana movement Whetu Marama o te Kotahitanga newspaper produced since 1924 with other items including the author’s book Ratana the Prophet. Uri Whakatupuranga Archives.
“Ruia, myself and Kereama were the only ones who would go in there. Most everyone else was afraid because of the tapu items still there,” says Arahi. “Two garages full” of taonga (treasures) are now stored safely in off-site locations. Arahi and his wife Puawai claim that their pioneering efforts resulted in the first digital marae in Aotearoa. They’ve helped other marae digitise their history, but Arahi says many Maori are too busy surviving to archive properly. And for ‘cultural reasons’ some prefer to keep their content local and oral rather than digitised and backed up in the Cloud.
Today the Ratana heritage collection is vast, both digital and physical. Much effort has also gone into restoring the original symbols and designs on the various buildings at Ratana Pa and at historic Ratana churches around the country. Without the mostly voluntary efforts of Uri Whakatupuranga, the memories and stories of many generations might have been lost forever or remained scattered like the people often were before Ratana helped restore their hope in the future.
Acrylic on canvas painting by artist Paula Newman depicting much of the rich symbolism that is part of the heritage of T.W. Ratana.
Keith Newman is a journalist and historian who has had seven books published; two relating to the early engagement between Maori and missionaries and the Maori prophetic movements, two on the life and works of Maori prophet and visionary T.W. Ratana and one on the history of telecommunications and the Internet in New Zealand.
