No ordinary piece of wood

MEDIA RELEASE

19 February 2010

One of 16 historic flagstaff pieces on display at the Russell Museum during this year’s Treaty of Waitangi commemorations is on loan from the Taupo Museum.

The other fragments were sourced from the collections of Auckland Museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, Coromandel Museum and the Waitangi National Trust. Last year, the Russell Museum’s Russell Centennial Trust purchased a 14 centimetre long block of Baltic Pine, for an undisclosed amount at auction, and this is also on display. There are also several other pieces on loan from whanau and hapu collections.

The pieces on display at Russell are believed to be from flagstaffs chopped down to express Maori dissatisfaction with British rule by Nga Puhi warrior Hone Heke and his followers in the mid 1840s. At the time, the Union Jack, a symbol of British authority, represented a tantalising target flying on a prominent hill in the settlement of Kororareka (now Russell) in the Bay of Islands.

In the space of six months Heke and his men cut down four flagstaffs, on four separate occasions, to show they meant business. After the fourth incident in March 1845, the town of Kororareka was sacked and burned and the townspeople evacuated to Auckland. Heke’s deeds earned him a great deal of notoriety and threw the district into a state of alarm, with many settlers believing he would attack Auckland next. War followed in and around the Bay of Islands and not surprisingly this period is sometimes called the Flagstaff War.

This fascinating relic was donated by Taupo resident Mr L Bussau when the museum was set up in 1979. Taupo Museum manager Karen Williams says the collection records do not show how Mr Bussau came by this historic souvenir. “It is simply marked with an old label that reads: ‘A piece of the flagstaff cut down by Heke in 1840’.”  

“When ‘Pou Taharua : The Flagstaff Exhibition’ closes at the Russell Museum in mid March, ‘our’ Baltic Pine flagstaff fragment will be returned to Taupo where it will go on display for locals and visitors alike,” said Ms Williams.

Contact:
Karen Williams
Museum Manager
Taupo Museum
Ph 07 376 0415