General copyright and disclaimer - ResearchSpace@Auckland ...

honoured guest, as the gift from another branch of the Tainui confederation would seem
redundant in the face of the King’s endowment if it was meant to bestow actual chieftainship on
the explorer; otherwise it would lead to the absurd scenario of his being made a chief no less than
five times in potentially five different tribes. In other words, if he was already viewed as a ‘great
chief’, 206 and this gesture therefore represented a sign of the rank he had achieved in Maori eyes
rather than an elevation in rank, then this presentation would merely act as a token of his standing
and friendship. Thus, the likely interpretation is that Reischek received the honour of being
treated like a chief, but never actually became one. This honour lasted for the duration of his stay
in New Zealand, and was subsequently inflated by his son, following Reischek senior’s death,
with the romanticised vision of actual chieftainship and an unfounded inclusion of hereditary
dimensions, most likely the result of an overactive imagination driven by childhood memories of
his father and a distinct lack of knowledge of Maori customs. 207
The various factors which led to Reischek’s reception and treatment by the King Country
Maori will now be explored in order to expel any exaggerations and myths surrounding his
apparent ‘veneration’. On top of his obvious friendship with the prominent chiefs, Te Whitiora
and Honana, and Wahanui’s ultimate endorsement, King lists the following reasons for their
acceptance of him in their territory:
Reischek was an Austrian and a subject of Emperor Franz-Josef. This was a double advantage.
Negatively stated it meant that he was not English, and much of the anti-Pakeha feeling in
Waikato and the King Country at the time was in a large measure anti-English rather than anti-
European. Stated positively, the older Kingites remembered Hochstetter and the favourable
impression he had created; they remembered the Austrian named Strauss who had married a
relative of Tawhiao’s and lived among Maoris at Whatawhata; and even more graphically, they
remembered the visit to Austria of Wiremu Toetoe Tumohe and Te Hemara Rerehau Paraone, the
206 Honana says to Reischek prior to his alleged honour: “Du bist der erste Mann, den ich getragen habe. Ich tat es
nur aus Liebe zu dir, denn du bist ein großer Häuptling” (184).
207 It is easy to see how a child of nearly eleven years of age at the time of his father’s death could form the mistaken
impression that his father was a Maori chief when all he grew up with were constant stories of Reischek senior’s
adventures in a far-off land on the other side of the world. In his own words: “Zu Hause, in unserem Privatmuseum,
wo in großen Vitrinen Hunderte von Tierbälgen, Skeletten, Waffen, Schnitzereien, Mineralien, Spirituspräparaten
und Herbarpflanzen aufgestapelt lagen, lernte ich bald auch diese fremde Welt der Südseeinseln Neuseelands so
lebendig kennen wie die heimatliche Natur. Mein Vater bediente sich oft der englischen Sprache, wenn er von
Neuseeland erzählte. Am tiefsten erregten meine Phantasie die Geräte der Maori. Da gab es ein geheimnisvolles
Kästchen, reich geschnitzt, darin ein schwarzweißer Federstoß vom heiligen Vogel Huja [sic], das Zeichen der
Häuptlingswürde der Maori, lag. Es war die Insignie, die meinem Vater vom König Tawhiao verliehen worden war,
als er ihn zum erblichen Häuptling machte und in den Stamm aufnahm. Über dem kostbaren Kästchen hing ein
seidenweicher Mantel, aus den gebleichten Fasern des Lilienflachses geflochten, grüner Schmuck aus dem
Halbedelstein Nephrit und eine vielzackige Speerspitze, aus dem Schenkelknochen eines Menschen geschnitzt. –
Und ich fühlte in diesem Reiche der Erinnerungen, daß mein Freund und Vater wirklich ein Häuptling, ein
Märchenfürst sein mußte” (Reischek, Jr., Cäsar, 7; cf. Kolig, Umstrittene Würde, 98-100; Kolig, “Andreas Reischek
in Neuseeland”, 51).
270