Signposts - a blog about Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Queen Elizabeth II opens New Zealand's 1974 session of Parliament

Today Te Ara commemorates the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, the queen of New Zealand and the nation’s head of state, with two new entries, one on the Royal family and a second on Governors and governors general. Our sister site NZHistory also joins the party with an essay specifically focused on Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee.

For those of us under the gold card age of 65, which of course includes a large majority of New Zealanders, Elizabeth II is the only sovereign we have known. She came to the throne in 1952 as a young married woman of 25, with two pre-schoolers. The following year she was crowned in a ceremony which many New Zealanders listened to on their crackling radios. And at the end of 1953 she stepped onto New Zealand soil, the first reigning monarch to do so. As the NZHistory feature on that tour shows, 1953 marked the highpoint of popular adoration for the royal family in New Zealand. About three quarters of the nation stood on apple boxes beside the road to see her and the duke of Edinburgh drive past. As a six year old, I confess to seeing her no fewer than 10 times, and if you look very closely at the clip of her rail journey through Hawke’s Bay you might even see a young boy on the Waipukurau station waving a Union Jack. I remember thinking that she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

As our entry explains, sentiments about New Zealand’s relations with the royal family have undergone rockier fortunes since then. Royal tours do not quite attract the enthusiasm of 1953–54; and the royal family has had some knocks to its role as the ideal family. Two of our prime ministers have even declared themselves republicans; and as the entry on governors and governors general explains, we have repatriated that office. The governor general remains the queen’s representative, but those occupying the office are now locals, who are also representative of the New Zealand community with all its ethnic and social diversity.

Yet, just as in the last years of the 19th century Queen Victoria’s stock rose remarkably as she came to commemorate her diamond jubilee (statues of her began to appear around the empire), a similar upsurge seems to be happening to Queen Elizabeth II. Her calm dignity has won huge admiration and another spectacularly successful royal wedding has garnered another generation of adoring fans for the royals.

It is one of the strange accidents of history that Queen Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne came on Waitangi Day, 6 February 1952. This has a remarkable pertinence because the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by Lieutenant Governor Hobson on behalf of Queen Victoria, and there has always been a powerful relationship between the monarch and the Māori community. When Māori believed that the local Pākehā community was not honoring the treaty, they sent petitions or attempted to visit the sovereign. The film in the Te Ara entry of the young queen’s visit to Turangawaewae in 1953 is a testament to how important that relationship was.

So we hope that the entries launched today on both our sites help encourage reflection on a range of important issues – our relationship with the monarch, the role of the governor general, and the continuing meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi. Look and enjoy.

Plaque unveiled at the opening of Te Araroa

A couple of weeks ago I attended the official opening of Te Araroa – The Long Pathway – a 3,000–kilometre walking trail along the length of New Zealand, from Cape Rēinga to Bluff. After the speeches at Island Bay, close to the mid-point of the trail, Governor General Sir Jerry Mataparae declared it open and led a short walk to the viewing point above Island Bay.

Like all the speakers, Sir Jerry acknowledged the vision and dedication of Geoff Chapple, who has spent the last two decades turning a bold idea into reality.

Geoff Chapple and Sir Jerry Mataparae on the viewpoint above Island Bay

The idea of a track along the length of New Zealand is not new. In the 1950s Sir Alfred Reed walked the length (and breadth) of New Zealand, and it was one of the aims of the short-lived Walkways Commission in the 1970s. But nothing happened until Geoff Chapple wrote an article in the Sunday Star-Times newspaper in 1994 outlining his vision for a national walking trail. To get things moving, Geoff and others formed the Te Araroa Trust, and developed this into a network of regional committees who were able to recruit volunteers who gave time and effort to developing sections of the trail.

Only part of the work was physical. A huge amount of effort went into negotiating access, sorting out legal problems over land ownership, and obtaining agreements to link existing tracks controlled by local authorities and the Department of Conservation. New Zealand walking tracks have been developed piecemeal, and it required a complete change of approach to start linking them together.

In 1998 Geoff walked the whole route to test it, and posted a progress account of his travels on the internet – one of New Zealand’s earliest blogs. Gradually a crazy idea was becoming accepted, and funding followed from a variety of sources. There was never enough money, but there is now a complete, signposted route. Walking the whole trail takes three to four months, but a trickle of walkers (many from overseas) have started tackling the whole route, and numbers are growing all the time.

Te Araroa now has its own website, which includes route maps, and Geoff has compiled a handbook, A walking guide to New Zealand’s long trail, Te Araroa.

Cover of Geoff Chapple’s guidebook

Some parts of the trail are less than ideal. Property negotiation can take years, and is ongoing. In order to get the trail open, the trust board has used temporary road bypasses that connect to the next trailhead. The long-term aim, however, is to have a track that is entirely off-road. So over the next decade it is planned to continually upgrade and improve sections of the route.

Opening the Te Araroa Trail is a huge achievement. We salute Geoff Chapple and everyone who has been involved in its development.

The route of Te Araroa, the long trail

Carmen with former MP Georgina Beyer at Parliament in 2006

At Te Ara we were saddened to hear of the passing of Carmen Rupe in Sydney. The irrepressible, flamboyant Carmen (Ngāti Maniapoto) was a ground-breaker in so many ways. In the resolutely conservative Wellington of the 1960s and 1970s she was openly and proudly transsexual – and incredibly glamorous to boot. As an entrepreneur she provided the city with a series of glittering businesses, many of them involving commercial sex. Her unswerving insistence on being exactly who she was has been an inspiration to many – especially in New Zealand’s then-fledgling transgender community.

Carmen was a loved and respected kuia of the Australian and New Zealand queer communities, spending the last 32 years in Sydney, where in recent years she was the caretaker of a community centre attached to a block of flats in Surry Hills. However, she had been ill on and off for a number of months after a fall and hip surgery, and died from kidney failure on the morning of 15 December, aged 75.

Carmen was born Trevor Rupe, one of a family of 13 from Taumarunui. After a stint in the army (where, with characteristic confidence, she lip-synched in drag at a farewell concert), she moved to Sydney, working in the sex industry and as a drag performer – including performances with a live snake. Returning to Wellington in 1967, she rented a former clothing factory in Vivian Street and opened Carmen’s International Coffee Lounge, fancifully decorated and staffed by glamorous transgender hostesses who served tea, coffee, toasted sandwiches and pastries – as well as various sexual services, which customers requested through an ingenious system of positioning their cups and saucers. ‘All my girls were boys, or had been boys at some time,’ Carmen wrote in her 1988 memoir Carmen: my life. ‘They had to be beautiful … Dress in high fashion was de rigueur.’

Her other business ventures included striptease club The Balcony, an Egyptian tearoom in Cuba Street (’I had the walls sprayed with golden sand which sparkled … a large wooden elephant from Egypt stood by the doorway’), a curio shop, a massage parlour, and a brothel in a big old house in Hataitai. Her unsuccessful 1977 bid for the Wellington mayoralty – backed by businessman Bob Jones, under the slogan ‘Get in behind’ – saw her shoot to national prominence. In 1979 Carmen returned to Sydney, where she spent the rest of her life. Last year the Sydney Morning Herald featured her in this affectionate photographic tribute and interview, where she discusses the need for facilities for the transgendered elderly.

Carmen will be much missed by her many friends and admirers. The hundreds of tributes that have appeared online in the last day describe her as a ‘transgender goddess’, a ‘legend’, ‘the showgirl of all showgirls’ and a ‘GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender] icon’. One thing is for sure: she was a pioneer and a role model for many. Moe mai ra e te kahurangi, moe mai ra.

Ōhura's main street, 2011

Te Ara’s new entry on the King Country is the last of the major regional entries to be published – only Stewart Island and the off-shore islands remain. Te Ara’s encyclopedic map of the North and South islands is now complete.

It seems fitting that the King Country should be the last: it’s off the well-beaten track of State Highway 1, has no cities and no official regional identity, being part of the Waikato and Manawatū-Whanganui regional councils. It’s also popularly associated with Taranaki in the west. However, as the entry attempts to assert, the King Country musters a good argument for regional independence and a cultural and historical identity distinct from these places.

Te Rohe Pōtae (King country) boundaries, 1880s

The English name ‘King Country’ refers to the period in which the Māori King Tāwhiao lived in Ngāti Maniapoto territory after the Waikato wars and land confiscations. He lived in various places within region from 1864 until not long before his death in 1894. Māori referred to the area as Te Rohe Pōtae – the area of the hat. The story goes that King Tāwhiao threw his hat onto a map of the North Island to mark independent Māori territory. Because of this, you could make the argument that Waikato is the true ‘King Country’.

Te Rohe Pōtae hat monument

When I told someone I was writing about the King Country and relayed the story behind its name, they told me they’d always believed it referred to the British king. I don’t know how common this belief is, but I hope Te Ara’s King Country entry will help to reinstate King Tāwhiao in the minds of those who hold this mistaken belief! You can read more about this topic here.

I think the King Country’s 19th century history is what makes the region so fascinating and distinct, but the entry is about more than Māori-European relations in that period. It covers the natural environment – landforms, plants and animals – major elements of the regional economy and its arts, culture and heritage, among other things. The section on the places of the King Country takes readers on a virtual tour of the region, from the beautiful west coast right down to National Park in the volcanic zone, including the region’s three major towns, Ōtorohanga, Te Kūiti and Taumarunui. As I discovered, the mining township of Benneydale is sadly neglected in the published and on-line literature, so it has been great to add a little information about this place.

If you haven’t before, I suggest you take a left or right off State Highway 1 next time you’re driving up the North Island and travel through the King Country instead – hopefully having read the entry first!

Te Taiao

Last night Te Ara won a prize at Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards, which are organised by Te Pūtahi-a-Toi at Massey University. Te Ara (part of Manatū Taonga – Ministry for Culture and Heritage) won the non-fiction category for our book Te taiao – Māori and the natural world, published by David Bateman last year.

The book itself was the product of a number of entries written for various themes. The book is structured around Māori conceptions of the natural world – for example Ranginui for the sky and Papatūānuku for the earth. An assortment of writers, editors, resource researchers and copyright staff, along with the publishers, all worked to put the book together.

This team effort is encapsulated in the proverb:

Mā tini mā mano ka rapa te whai.

By the multitudes the work will be accomplished.

Basil speaks on behalf of Te Ara at Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards

Myself and Jock Phillips, Te Ara’s senior editor, spoke at the awards. Jock made the point that in many ways the ceremony was a homecoming for Te Ara. He noted that Professor Sir Mason Durie had organised at hui at Te Pūtahi-a-Toi in 2001 to give advice on how to formulate Māori content for Te Ara. One of the results was Te Ara Wānanga, Te Ara’s Māori Advisory Committee. Professor Durie was one of the founding members of the committee.

Also pleasing was the award for biography, which went to Joseph Pere for his work on his grandfather, Wiremu Pere: Wiremu Pere: the life and times of a Maori Leader, 1837–1915. Joseph Pere is a former recipient of the Māori History Fellowship at Manatū Taonga.

Other recipients were Robert Jahnke for Tirohanga o mua: looking back, Tina Makereti for Once upon a time in Aotearoa, Chris Winitana for Tōku reo, tōku ohooho, and a special award to Derek Fox for Mana magazine.

Nā reira he mihi nui tēnei ki ngā kaiwhakawhiwhi, i riro i a koutou tēnei honore. He mihi hoki ki Te Pūtahi-a-Toi, heoi anō ki Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa mō tēnei kaupapa nunui.