Boys' School step back in time

‘He iwi tahi tatou’ - ‘We are one people’

The Year 5 students at the Boys’ School stepped back in time this week when they visited the little known Karaka Bay on Glendowie’s waterfront to stage a re-enactment of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. This quiet stretch of beach is reached by a long, winding path and marks the spot where the Ngati Paoa tribe signed the Treaty in the months following the Waitangi signing.

There was much excitement from the boys as they left school dressed in period costume, some taking the role of the British, while others dressed as Maori chiefs. Leading up to the trip, they had written and prepared a short play to perform on the beach. (On the way, Year 5 teacher, Mrs Caroline Williams discovered the hard way that a full crinoline petticoat and a modern suburban bus are not necessarily a good mix!)

Karaka Bay has a small community of ten households on the shoreline that can only be reached by the long, winding path. There is no street access; everything has to be walked in. Resident, Mr Tony Watkins kindly offered his time to talk to the boys on the beach. Mr Watkins is Te Rarawa; his relatives signed the Treaty of Waitangi at Mangungu in the Hokainga and he now lives on the spot at Karaka Bay where the Treaty was signed in Auckland. He talked to the boys about just what a treaty means and how it came to mean different things to different people at the time of the signing.

Once the boys had eaten their lunch in the shade of an enormous pohutukawa, a table was laid out with the red ensign, re-creating the scene on the day of the signing in Waitangi. Teacher, Mr Anton Lorenzon took on the role of Captain William Hobson and those who had been assigned roles - the narrators, the missionary, William Colenso, James Busby and the chiefs, Tareha, Tamati Waka Nene and Hone Heke - came forward and delivered their lines with confidence. After each chief signed, they shook hands with Hobson who said, ‘He iwi tahi tatou’ - ‘We are one people’