Join Richard Willis, Victoria University Senior Associate, School of Geography, Environment, and Earth Sciences, as he gives us fascinating insight into the rich and varied history of Inaha Road, in South Taranaki.
Beginning with the original settler iwi descended from the Aotea Waka, Ngati Ruanui and Ruahine, and the Twin Pas – Waimate and Orangi Tuapeka – remnants of the cliff top battle pa sites where the next two events took place: the invasion from the Waikato and the final tribal battle, and The Harriet Affair – the first conflict between British troops and Maori in NZ. Richard will then discuss the Methodist mission station founded by Skevington and later Woon, where Titokowaru was discipled, and early Pakeha settlement, post Parihaka, with the sacking of Parihaka opening up the Waimate Plains, some of the richest farmland in NZ.
We’ll hear about the village of Manaia – the ‘Watch Tower of the Plains’ – and its economic and cultural boom, rich in meaning-loaded street names like Riemensneider, and Tauranga a Ika, and Yarrows Bakery; the historical sociology and economics of settlement especially in the post war baby boom: small farms, many small dairy factories, large families, huge school rolls, and Maori as a proletariat. Richard will then discuss the post neo-liberal configuration: depopulation, farm enlargement, dairy factory closures, cultural centralisation, Maori beneficiaries of Treaty Settlements, and the coming of oil and gas.
This talk is an introduction to the historical geography of Taranaki that will be visited in the coming Friends November tour: Tour of Taranaki and Tongariro – Friends of Te Papa
Richard Willis has lectured in human and European geography at Victoria University Te Herenga Waka and led the annual ‘Geographies of New Zealand’ field trip for over 50 years. He grew up in Taranaki, which was also the site of the first conflict between British troops and Maori, and this is where he takes his University class. Richard has run a small business Richard Willis Academic Tours, for about 10 years and is now semi-retired, but still teaches a summer paper at VUW.
Image Credit: Lt. T Moore, 1 October 1834. Puke Ariki, New Plymouth. A65.889.