Takapūneke Massacre by Te Rauparaha

Did you know that this place, Takapūneke, connects directly to Te Tiriti o Waitangi? It's a site that's being transformed into a place of healing and learning, with a partnership between Ōnuku Runanga and Christchurch City Council. They're planning sculptural landscape designs that tell the site’s stories, walking trails through regenerated native bush, a cultural center, and space for reflection.

Takapūneke was first occupied around 1820. It was a small fishing village, but it was also known for its role in the thriving harakeke trade. Harakeke was collected from various sites across the peninsula and brought here to be prepared for trade. Someone involved in the co-governance group said that Takapūneke was basically a harakeke processing plant and that ropes made from flax were superior to the hemp ropes Pākeha sailors used.

This was also the trading quarters of Te Maiharanui, the paramount chief of Kāi Tahu in the Canterbury region in the 1820s. In November 1830, the Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha arrived here aboard the brig Elizabeth. He and a party of his warriors were hidden below deck. The captain, Stewart, was supposedly here to trade for flax.

When the Elizabeth anchored, Te Maiharanui was away. There were several days of onshore negotiations, with Ngāti Toa staying hidden to keep up the pretense of a peaceful trading mission. When Te Maiharanui returned, he boarded the boat to trade, as was customary, and he was captured along with his wife and daughter. After that, a massacre followed in the village.

The prisoners were taken to Te Rauparaha’s stronghold on Kāpiti Island. On the journey, Te Maiharanui and his wife decided to kill their daughter. This act was seen as foresight—they knew she would likely be enslaved or forced to marry one of their captors. Te Maiharanui was taken to the mainland opposite Kapiti Island and executed.

This event, known as the Elizabeth Affair, horrified British authorities when they learned of Captain Stewart’s involvement. It contributed directly to Britain’s decision to strengthen its presence in the country, leading to James Busby being appointed the first British resident and setting in motion the events that led to the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840.

After the massacre, Takapūneke became tapu, a site of lost lives and a symbol of betrayal. Those who survived moved further down the harbor to Ōnuku, where the marae stands today. For generations, elders told their children to stay away from Takapūneke. It was a bad place, though many didn’t know exactly why. For many years, the land was farmed by Pākehā families. The first farmer here gathered the kōiwi he found and burned them. In the 1960s, the Banks Peninsula District Council built a wastewater treatment plant directly on the site.