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INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this study is to explore the role and use of markers of loss to inform and prompt
discussion amongst Ngati Hau about their colonial past, and innumerable losses of land and people
from 1865 to 1920. The oral histories spoken of in the Maori Land Court by Ngati Hau tupuna are
interpreted in the form, shape and physicality of markers of loss which can best be described as
fragmented, damaged, distorted and unfamiliar.
The Minutes of the Maori Land Court and evidences of the “old men and women” of Ngati Hau are a
key component of this project as they provide the only oral transcripts on the tribal history of Ngati
Hau. The Maori Land Court facilitated Ngati Hau losses through its policy of Maori land alienation
(Turton, 1878).
The decline in population and land was a feature of the late 19 th century. The majority of Ngati Hau
whanau became landless, homeless, dead and without named succession. The hapu could be best
described as “noho noa iho”- idle and without occupation. Similarly, there were significant losses of
villages, burial places, food cultivations and waka landings. By 1920, the colonial policy of land
alienation drastically reduced tribal ownership and holdings. The geography and lore of the land, once
customarily passed down orally from generation to generation became no longer relevant to actual
settlement on the land. There was a foreboding sense of prevailing disconnection from the
geographical and cultural narratives of the land as the losses increased (Byrnes, 2001).
A further source of information outside of the Maori Land Court records are the manuscripts on the
„Maori way of life‟ by Edward Shortland (1856), Richard Taylor (1855), John Carne Bidwell (1841),
Frederick Maning (1863) and others, who could only give observations from a Eurocentric viewpoint
and while informative of events of the time, are limited in terms of accuracy.
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