Angela Middleton provides a detailed chronological history of New Zealand's first permanent European missionary settlements in the Bay of Islands (Māori name: Pēwhairangi), an area located on the west coast of the most northern tip of the North Island, 200 km north of Auckland. Her account looks at major players and important places, but really concentrates on the changing interaction between Māori and Anglican missionaries over nearly four decades, from the arrival of the first settlers in 1814 to the so-called ‘Northern War’ of the 1840s. Methodologically, Middleton's account primarily combines two types of sources: archaeological excavations—in particular of the sites of Hohi in 2012/2013 and of Te Puna in 2002—and archival research, mainly in the Alexander Turnbull Library and the Archives of the London Church Missionary Society (CMS).
The book is divided into three topical chapters explaining general developments and some short concluding remarks, on the one hand, and a detailed chronological presentation of the fate of five missionary stations, represented by one chapter each, on the other hand. The mission chapters include the full history of each station, from first settlement to decline and closure, presenting events, geography, archaeological findings, and people involved. The stations in question are Hohi (founded in 1814), Kerikeri (1819), Paihia (1823), Te Waimate (1830), and Te Puna (1832). From a reader's point of view, this division of background or topical chapters, and mission chapters, sometimes leads to repetition or confusing time changes as the narrative goes back and forth between events. However, the separation also allows one to only read a single chapter if one is particularly interested in the history of just one site.
The first topical chapter ‘Into the Māori World’ describes both the Māori world before the arrival of the European settlers and their early interactions and exchanges. It also explains how Samuel Marsden, chaplain of the New South Wales convict settlement and local agent of the London CMS in Australia, came to develop the idea of a missionary settlement in New Zealand influenced by his close relationship with Māori chiefs. Additionally it quickly juxtaposes the belief systems of Māori and British missionaries, and gives a preliminary overview of the entire settlement processes. The second one, ‘Māori Gardens and European Arms’, provides background information on the overall strategies of the missions, but also shows how the soon developing arms trade between settlers and Māori led to the Musket Wars of the 1820s. The last one, ‘Escalation to War, 1845’, explains how the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, came into being, what role missions/missionaries played in the British annexation and the development of a permanent British settlement in New Zealand, and how all of this relates to the warfare of the 1840s.
In the mission chapters, Middleton concentrates on the changing interactions between Māori and missionaries, showing how both cultures ‘changed and reformed during the decades between 1815 and 1845, demonstrated in the use and exchange of everyday material objects, as well as cultural practices and ideas’ (p. 85). Particularly interesting is the problem of different sets of norms running through the account: should Māori be punished for European offences—and Europeans for breaches of Māori customs or protocols? Missionaries generally dreaded the return of war parties and often tried to free the prisoners. However, they did so by paying compensation, following local customs. Only after the Treaty of Waitangi, did these negotiation processes disappear, and disagreements were increasingly settled to the advantage of European rules and morals. ‘In the process, there were many instances of European disrespect and disregard for tikanga and no support for Māori concern that these breaches went unrecognised and unpunished’ (p. 235).
By contrast, in the early days, missionaries entirely depended on Māori. When they arrived, they could not choose where the missions would be located. They had to speak Māori, were eating Māori foods, and were fully incorporated into the Māori world, meaning they were not only drawn into local politics, but controlled by them. As they were considered to belong to the respective local chief, any form of warfare or revenge against the chief also threatened the missionaries: war parties could destroy Māori villages or fields, but also missionary settlements. On the other hand, having their own European/missionary settlement significantly added to the prestige of local chiefs who were therefore often interested in not only establishing their own missionary site (as a source of European trade goods) but also in its protection. Success or failure of the mission therefore highly depended on the political fortunes of those Māori groups the missionaries were associated with.
However, divisions and inner frictions also existed within the missions. Social classes and differences in education were imported from the British homeland, and ideas about the right way to practise conversion differed between old settlers and newcomers, ordained clergy and lay catechists, but also between missionaries and Marsden or the London society. Marsden believed civilization should come before Christianisation, and the main tasks for missionaries were to provide good examples and to actively teach ‘civilized crafts’ like shoemaking, carpentry, or reading and writing. Of the first missionaries in Hohi, none was an ordained minister. Later attempts aimed directly at Christianisation and assumed civilization was of secondary importance. Additionally, there were quarrels about leadership, food supplies, private trade (especially using muskets), rations, salaries, and differences in personality.
Missionaries were expected to instruct Māori about Christianity and live exemplary Christian lives, which also included self-sufficiency (as part of their ‘civilized superiority’). However, missionaries encountered challenging conditions: in addition to the aforementioned difficulties, they were poorly resourced, and the land they received was unsuitable for British ideas of agriculture. Wheat crops failed and missionaries soon depended on the good will of local Māori for their sustentation. Often, missions were on the point of failure, or were actually given up (as in the case of Hohi, which was abandoned with its missionaries moving to Te Puna).
All in all, European life cannot have looked very attractive to Māori, and correspondingly few converted (for the most part this happened much later). Māori were, however, interested in certain technologies and objects, such as iron tools and muskets. From the beginning they dictated the terms, leading to the trade of weapons not supported by the CMS. In particular, Thomas Kendall at Hohi was accused of trading weapons to Māori, and even of ‘going native’ (although not in these terms), and thus finally had to leave the mission.
Especially in the later years, missionaries often found themselves between sides, sometimes as mediators (acting as translators of both language and cultural concepts), but sometimes also trying to reconcile contradictory notions, when they were trying to protect Māori land rights but were also part of the alienating process. In particular, Henry Williams is inextricably connected to the Treaty of Waitangi as he translated the English version into Māori (certain differences between the versions leading to the on-going debate on its exact contents).
While the book is written in English, Middleton also makes extensive use of Māori language, in particular to explain relationship concepts and world views. A small glossary is provided at the end of the book. However, it does not seem to include all words used (i.e. kete, used in the preface and referring to a type of basket). Readers not familiar with the New Zealand context might find the amount of unfamiliar words irritating and sometimes frustrating (no pronunciation guide is provided). However, from a post-colonial perspective there are good reasons to support this decision: understanding New Zealand as a bicultural country with a shared Māori/Pākehā history, and fully engaging with Māori cultural concepts and traditions, naturally requires the use of both languages.
Sadly, there is only one set of interleaved maps showing an overview of sites and their locations, and all of them fit on half a page. As these are very helpful not only to understand stories and developments but also the movements of people, it would have been nice to dedicate more space to them and maybe highlight the names of all missionary sites for an easy overview. Additionally, as a lot of the early interactions were intricately linked to inner frictions and competition between several Māori ancestry groups, it could have been interesting to indicate the areas they controlled in relation to the missionary sites.
However, these little shortcomings are more than redressed by the incredible number of reproductions of paintings, drawings, and maps mostly created in the time of the settlements, and the object images, landscape photographs, and archaeological site drawings from the present day, combined with an astonishing detail in the chronological and historical account, all adding to a very vivid description of the places and thus enabling colourful imaginations of settlement life. Middleton (Reference Middleton2014) said the book had been more than ten years in the making, and this is certainly reflected by the amount of detail. Personally, I sometimes encountered difficulties in emotionally relating to the people described, but this might be different for a New Zealand audience familiar with the characters and narratives. I would often go back to the appendix, which provides lists/tables with the names of the inhabitants of the respective missionary sites, including arrival and departure dates, and their function within the settlement. While these are very helpful as they are, a visual sketch, for example grouping family members or households, could have aided to the quick understanding of the sites’ layout and social networks.
As already stated, this book combines results from archaeological excavations and archival research. However, there is no methodological section outlining in more detail what sources the author used, how she decided on their inclusion or exclusion, how she rated their credibility, or how she dealt with conflicting evidence. Critical source analysis is one of the major starting points for any historical analysis. In this case it appears particularly relevant because missionary reports, diaries, and letters might be biased in certain ways, and likewise oral history and other iwi sources, available via the reports of the Waitangi Tribunal proceedings, have certain intentions, perspectives, and viewpoints. Much of that appears within the body of the text, in reference to specific sources such as letters or diary notes, but from an academic standpoint it might have been better to elaborate on this in a systematic paragraph before the actual account was presented. Similarly, there is no detailed description of the archaeological excavations, although information on them appears sprinkled through the text. From an anthropological perspective, one could also ask why various perspectives on these events have to be limited to those already appearing in archives as opposed to being specifically gathered for this study. Maybe oral history and iwi records would have presented additional perspectives? Could descendants of the missionaries have been interviewed? The acknowledgements include several hints that both parties were actually consulted, and the same notion appears in an interview with Middleton (Reference Middleton2014). However, how and to what result is not explained fully.
In summary, this results in an account which clearly puts emphasis on the historical proceedings as such, not on the scientific process of reaching these conclusions. This almost necessarily raises the question of the intended audience: scholars of the relevant fields, a general New Zealand audience, or an interested international clientele? For anthropologists or archaeologists, I think it lacks theoretical foundations or contributions, and there is no real connection to scientific debates in the respective disciplines. Instead, the book offers an invaluable description of the little mundane details of missionary work, and of the complicated relationship at the beginning of European settlement. As it fails in drawing larger connections (e.g. to global history at the time, parallel missionary developments in other Pacific locations, or even other missionary attempts in New Zealand), this can sometimes feel a bit repetitive, and might not necessarily attract international readers.
From my perspective, this book is particularly relevant for New Zealanders (both Māori and Pākehā) curious about their country's past, and for those specifically interested in missionary history. Middleton herself gives an indication for this reading when she claims: ‘I hope I will add to the understanding of the foundations of our nation’ (p. 10). For her, the lives of long term missionaries exemplify the ‘process by which Europeans became Pākehā, as they became familiar with a new land and developed new ways of living, far from a distant homeland’ (p. 85). She thus considers these families to be the first true European New Zealanders, and it is no coincidence that the book was published just in time for the two-hundredth anniversary of the events it describes. In New Zealand it was also accompanied by an exhibition called ‘Whakapono: Faith and Foundations’ at the Hocken Library of the University of Otago in Dunedin (November 2014–February 2015), showing many of the excavated objects from the sites, and the development of the Marsden Online Archive.
