Wairau tumult
The Wairau tumult in New Zealand on June 17, 1843 took place 10 km north of present-day Blenheim and 60 km southeast of Nelson in the valley of the Wairau River and was the first documented armed conflict between Māori and the Pākehā , the white European settlers, in the Framework of the New Zealand Wars .
background
On August 29, 1838, the second New Zealand Company was founded in Great Britain with the aim of promoting the colonization of New Zealand and establishing economically viable settlements. After the founding of Wellington (1840), Wanganui (1840) and New Plymouth (1841) followed in 1842 Nelson. The promises to provide the settlers with sufficient and high quality land could very often not be kept. Land purchases were often made in sufficient quantities on site after the settlers were already in New Zealand. This process created tension and conflict and pressure to persuade Māori tribes to sell land.
confrontation
Settler discontent and pressure to obtain usable land were abundant when Nelson settled. Arthur Wakefield and Frederick Tuckett disagreed on the project management from the start. Tuckett was dissatisfied with his people's work and judged large parts of the country to be unusable. Wakefield urgently needed more land and had some success with the New Zealand Company, in whatever way. Since the area around Nelson did not yield enough land, the decision was made to embark on an expedition to the southeast, to the Wairau plain. There one met Te Rauparaha , the leader of the Ngāti Toa .
When a highly respected Maori woman was brutally murdered by a white settler in the spring of 1843, Te Rauparaha and other Maori in vain expected the killer to be brought to justice. This created widespread tension. When Wakefield was about to enter the Wairau Plain for surveying and surveying, Te Rauparaha expressly warned him not to conduct surveys and land surveys, as this was his land. Wakefield, however, mistakenly believed he had rights to the land and ignored Te Rauparaha's warnings. He sent his people to investigate on the Wairau Plain. Te Rauparaha then had all the surveyors' accommodations burned and sent them back to Nelson. For his part, Wakefield took this incident as an opportunity to arrest Te Rauparaha for arson.
Led by Arthur Wakefield, 50 European settlers reached the Wairau Plain on June 17, 1843. They wanted to arrest Māori leader Te Rauparaha and continue the land surveys. Te Rauparaha resisted, and fighting broke out when a settler accidentally fired a gunshot, believed to be. In the first exchange of fire, 3 Maori warriors and 11 settlers died, whereupon the settlers began to retreat in a disorderly manner and some, including Arthur Wakefield, surrendered to the Maori. However, the Maori found that one of their tribal women, the wife of Te Rangihaeata and also the daughter of Te Rauparahas, had been fatally hit by a bullet. Te Rangihaeata demanded retribution, which was granted to him by Te Rauparaha, and executed the prisoners. A total of four Maori and 22 settlers died, including Arthur Wakefield.
This armed conflict, often referred to as the Wairau tumult or the Wairau massacre , would go down in history as the first New Zealand war .