St Mary’s Church in Tikitiki is commemorating 100 years as a place of worship, a memorial to soldiers, and a cultural repository of traditional Māori arts and crafts.
Initiated by Sir Apirana Ngata, the heritage building was opened on February 16, 1926, and built in honour of Ngāti Porou men who served in World War I. It now also stands as a general commemoration for the military service by the people of the region.
Matanuku Mahuika, chairman of the St Mary’s Church and Cemetery Trust, said initially they planned to hold a celebration event to mark the centenary.
“When the church was opened it was a really significant event so there were something like 2000 people in attendance. The then-prime minister and governor-general were there, quite a number of Māori dignitaries were there as well so we thought that in order to properly commemorate a hundred years we needed to have an event of some sort as opposed to having a service amongst ourselves. That was the intention.”
Unfortunately, the recent storms and flooding in the region caused road closures which forced the postponement of the event. A new date has yet to be decided.
Mahuika said they planned to host dignitaries and a number of iwi that contributed to the building of the church, the likes of Waikato who donated the carved altar rails and Te Arawa who donated the carved pulpit.
But they didn’t want to impose on people while it was difficult to travel within the region, he said, especially for people in neighbouring Te Araroa and Hick’s Bay.
"We didn’t want to have a situation where people were being excluded [due to road closures], and actually, it was just a general feeling that with our whānau to the north still suffering as a result of the floods, we didn’t feel like it was appropriate for us to be having a celebration at the same time."
Instead, they will mark the day with a service and hākari (feast).
"We haven’t gone out of our way to broadcast it; it’s just word of mouth. It’ll be largely our own people that’ll be there but it’s still the day of the centenary and felt we needed to mark it somehow."
On the outside, St Mary’s is a simple, ecclesiastical style church with European Christian architectural traditions, but its interior is more akin to a wharenui featuring stunning ornate Māori carvings and designs.
Mahuika said a key focus for Ngata in adorning the church with whakairo (carvings), kōwhaiwhai (Māori pattern work) and tukutuku (woven panels) was to retain Māori arts and crafts.
"This was a way of keeping those things alive and current within the community, perhaps at a time when they weren’t being practised to the same extent. So it was very much a motivation which was not just about carving a church for the sake of it but was about maintaining those traditional arts."
The church tells the journey and melding of Christian and Māori beliefs, said Mahuika, and it commemorates the contribution that the people of those generations made to try and improve the standing of Māori in years to come.
"I’m not talking about fighting against the Germans and fighting against tyranny and that sort of thing. I am talking about the sort of message that Ngata gave which was about proving the value of the Māori people through military service so that the position of generations to follow would be better that they found themselves in in that time," he said.
“Those are all very significant things that are associated, not just with this church, but this church is an example of that. And I think that’s an important thing that the church represents."
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