The last war in Mangaia

On Wednesday night at the Mangaian Hostel, Prof Michael Reilly said Mangaian people describe those from other places having vaevae keke (different feet) and being manuiri (strangers) and can visit or come to help but they will never be of the tangata enua. This applied even to the London Missionary Society (LMS) missionaries sent to Mangaia in 1823 who found they were not treated well and were evacuated because it was getting rather dangerous.
After they left an epidemic came upon the land and people died at the rate of 20 per day including their King and in a later estimate by Rev Gill, eventually one in 12 people in Mangaia died. The people interpreted this to mean that the Christian God must be very powerful and they decided that if the LMS ever came back, they would treat them much better.
The missionaries returned in 1824 and were feted by the High Chiefs and adopted as their Tama Ua and Tamariki Akaperepere (adopted child and cherished child) and were taken under their protection.
Prof Reilly gave the background leading up to the last war in Mangaia in 1828 with the power struggles amongst the Chiefs between those who wanted to accept Christianity and those who did not. Another version was the competition between the Chiefs within the Christian faction with one being an Orometua and the other being a Deacon and both vying for the hand in marriage of a lady of very high ranking.
The Oire of Oneroa became the first to accept the Gospel and all the converts of the island were required to attend the church there. After a while, there were complaints from the villagers of Tamarua about having such a long way to come to church and then back home to tend their taro patches and gardens.
Meanwhile, there were still quite a number of heathen Chiefs who refused to become Christian and were plotting against the Christian converts.
There was the added complexity that the old dynasty of High Chiefs which were so powerful for a long time were falling apart from family feuds with too many Teina sons from too many wives of the same chief vying with each other to be the dominant man.
The machinations went on for a few years and whatever the reason, it all turned ugly and led to the Last Battle in 1828 where 20 heathens were hacked to pieces and three of the Christian fighters were injured.
The victory was interpreted as showing the spiritual superiority of Jehovah over the old gods of Rongo and Motoro and most then converted to Christianity.
However, LMS head of Mangaia, Rev Gill and his missionaries were aghast and explained to their supporters that killing people was not a Christian way of settling matters. They also went into damage control and had to make amends with the High Chiefs who complained their relatives were killed in the battle.
After relative peace had come upon the land, the LMS supported the proclamation of Numangatini Ariki as the High Chief of Mangaia.
Prof Reilly said the story is drawn from old chants, stories recorded by Rev Gill, original manuscripts in the Mangaian language, oral history and folklore handed down over the generations. He cautioned that just because it is in book form, does not necessarily make it more authoritative than any other source.
Kavana Harry Mataora was the MC and introduced the good professor to the appreciative audience of about 30 people. Prof Reilly’s books are ‘War and Succession in Mangaia” and ‘Ancestral Voices from Mangaia: a History of the ancient gods and chiefs” which are available on the island of Mangaia or from the USP Centre Rarotonga who sponsored the lecture.

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