The Auckland War Memorial Museum has recently taken formal possession of a historic scale miniature diorama of the defensive pā fortification at Ōhaeawai built by the Ngāpuhi tribe during the Northern War of 1845-46. The model is the companion of that made of the pā at Ruapekapeka held by the Museum, both recorded as having been made or commissioned in 1851 by Colonel Robert Henry Wynard (1802-64), a British army commander and New Zealand colonial administrator based in Auckland. Both dioramas display many of the key design and material attributes of British military models designed for tactical instruction and public edification. This tradition can be traced back to the model of the Waterloo battlefield created between 1830 and 1838 by British army officer William Siborne in the 1830s and other battlefield models displayed in the museum of the Royal United Services Institute, London, during the nineteenth century. Whilst constructed by opposing colonial forces, the dioramas form uniquely objective historical documents of indigenous Māori ingenuity in the design and execution of defensive military engineering. The reunion of the two dioramas provides an opportunity to undertake a comparative material study. 

THE TRADITION OF MINIATURE DIORAMAS IN MILITARY AND MUSEUM PEDAGOGY

Three-dimensional scaled history models of buildings, landscapes, historical events or nature scenes have a long history. Scale models of ancient monuments and sites of the Classical and Ancient World were being produced as early as the mid eighteenth century for Grand Tourists and were displayed for the edification of contemporary artists and architects, the most famous being the Model Room of cork and plaster architectural models preserved at the Sir John Soane Museum, London. ¹

Miniature dioramas are typically smaller and deploy landscaping to recreate historical scenes. An early and exceptionally large example was created between 1830 and 1838 by a British army officer, William Siborne, for public exhibition at the Egyptian Hall on Piccadilly, London, and represents the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon’s final defeat at the hands of two armies under the command of the Duke of Wellington and Field Marshall von Blücher, at about 7:45 pm on 18 June 1815. ²

The British army has a long tradition of employing scale models of battles and fortifications for commemoration, military training and general education purposes. Many of these were preserved in the museum of the Royal United Services Institute, which was established in 1831 by the Duke of Wellington and dedicated to the study of military and naval warfare. Its catalogue of 1914 lists 142 models of various kinds, ranging from the landing of the Romans in Britain under Julius Caesar in 55 BC to conflicts of the late nineteenth century conflicts.³

Having joined the Royal United Services Institute in 1850s and having served on its Council, British army general and pioneering archaeologist Augustus Pitt-Rivers was renowned for commissioning scale models as a way of illustrating sites and excavations. The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford houses 13 painted cork models of various megalithic monuments from England and the Isle of Man, all part of the founding collection of 1884. Before the age of the slide show and PowerPoint, models, like artefacts and lantern slides, were circulated and displayed at learned society meetings to illustrate a lecture. In his museum at Farnham he had over 100 models, including the model of the Wayland’s Smithy Chambered tomb in Oxfordshire made by Alfred Lewis in the 1860s, utilising moss and cork on a wooden board. ⁴

THE NORTHERN WAR BATTLES OF ŌHAEAWAI AND RUAPEKAPEKA PĀ (1845-46)

The Northern War was the first serious challenge to the British Crown in the years following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the Crown and Māori chiefs in 1840.  This complex conflict in the North Island of New Zealand involved fighting between two factions of Ngāpuhi together with British forces. ⁵

In June 1845, the veteran army officer Colonel Henry Despard sailed from Sydney, Australia, with two companies of the 99th Regiment to take command of British forces in New Zealand. Keen to exploit the position following the battle at Te Ahuahu between pro and anti-government Ngāpuhi forces, Despard assembled the largest British force seen in the colony and moved to attack Ngāpuhi leader Te Ruki Kawiti at Ōhaeawai pā. The stronghold belonged to Ngāpuhi leader Pene Taui and Kawiti had come to assist in its defence. Despard had 615 men and five cannon available for the assault on no more than 100 Māori fighters. The pā was bombarded for a week from 24 June 1845 with the aim of demolishing the defences and demoralising the defenders. After a “dangerous and provocative’’ raid by the defenders against the hilltop gun battery, Despard reacted by ordering an assault with 250 men although the defences were still very much intact. Once within 20 meters of the pā, the assault party was met by withering musket fire. In a matter of minutes, 40 British troops lay dead and another 70 were wounded. Despard ordered shelling to recommence on 10 July but when Kawiti withdrew his defenders the next day, the British troops found an empty pā and proclaimed victory. ⁶

Ōhaeawai was the protoype for the stockaded pā stronghold of the Northern War and represented a major advance in the Māori response to Western European musket fire and artillery bombardment. It formed a blueprint for the defensive system that was adopted and developed over the course of the next three decades of Māori resistance to land sales and refusal to acknowledge Crown sovereignty. Firing and communication trenches protected the defenders while enabling rapid movement within the pā. Anti-artillery bunkers (rua) had been dug into the ground and covered with logs, stones and flax. Each bunker could accommodate 15-20 men. The firing trenches and bunkers can be seen in the sketch made by Thomas Bidduph Hutton following the battle in 1845. The outer palisade of vertical posts and flax matting (pekerangi) concealed the pā’s real strength. While it appeared flimsy, the flax easily absorbed musket shot and concealed the more substantial inner fence of heavy logs cut from puriri trees, a hard timber known to British settlers as ‘iron wood’, which did not splinter easily under fire from the smaller. The pekerangi fencing also slowed down the assault party. In terms of strategic function, it has been compared to that of barbed wire in 20th-century warfare. ⁷ The effectiveness of this screening structure can be clearly appreciated in in the watercolour record made by artist Cyprian Bridge during the battle.  

While the Ōhaeawai action was taking place, Kawiti had already started work on a new much larger pā high on the slopes of the Tapuaeharuru Range in the Bay of Islands. In December 1845, thirteen hundred British troops and 400 Māori advanced on Ruapekapeka pā, known as the ‘bat’s nest’ after the roofed underground chambers with narrow entrances like those in the natural habitats of the native bat. Following a full-scale bombardment, the defenders withdrew from the pā and ambushed the British troops who followed them into the bush, at which the troops disengaged. With its massive palisades, trenches, tunnels and bunkers, the pā shared all the military engineering characteristics of Ōhaeawai, resisting major artillery bombardment for several weeks before the assault by infantry forces. In his dispatch following the battle, Colonel Despard admitted to the skill and originality of the Māori in building Ruapekapeka. ⁸

HISTORIES OF THE ŌHAEAWAI AND RUAPEKAPEKA PĀ DIORAMAS

The Auckland War Memorial Museum has recently taken formal possession of a historic scale miniature diorama of the defensive pā fortification at Ōhaeawai built by the Ngāpuhi tribe during the Northern War of 1845-46. The model is the companion of that made of the pā at Ruapekapeka held by the Museum, both recorded as having been made or commissioned in 1851 by Colonel Robert Henry Wynard (1802-64), a British army commander and New Zealand colonial administrator, for display in the newly built Albert Barracks in central Auckland, the main garrison of British military forces. As Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the 58th Regiment, Wynard was posted from Sydney to New Zealand with 200 men to take part in the Northern War actions and was present at the siege of Ruapekapeka on 11 January 1846. From December 1846 to 1858 Wynard commanded British forces in New Zealand and was promoted to the rank of Colonel. Wynard has left several watercolours and drawings from his time in Auckland. These probably derive from the training in topographical drawing and painting given to army officers at the time. An ability to draw or sketch was essential in communicating information on terrain and defensive positions to field commanders. Together with topographical drawings, the Ōhaeawai and Ruapekapeka models share the serious purpose of communicating information about Māori fortifications. Like the Siborne diorama of Waterloo, which must have been seen by or at least known to Wynard, these scale models of the key actions in the Northern War served two primary functions, firstly to record and illustrate historic moments in British military history and secondly to instruct services personnel on Māori defences and military tactics.  

Made in 1851, the Ruapekapeka pā model was presented in the same year to Royal United Services Institution in London where it was held until its transfer to the Auckland Museum in 1937. ⁹ It was accessioned in 1968 following many years being on display at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds in Northland. The Ōhaeawai pā is equally well travelled. The model came into the possession of New Zealand Governor Thomas Gore Browne, who served in office between 1855 and 1861. The model travelled with Brown’s transfer to the governorship of Tasmania in 1861, whereafter Mrs Harriet Brown, the governor’s wife, presented it to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery on her departure in 1868. ¹⁰ It was transferred on loan to the Auckland War Memorial Museum in 1989 and formally accessioned at a transfer of ownership ceremony in August 2022 attended by Tasmanian government officials and representatives of the hapu (clan) Ngāti Rangi, who whakapapa to Pene Taui, the tribal leader of the territory in which the pā was situated, and who today maintain mana whenua status of the Ōhaeawai battlefield. 

FRONT LINES IN MINIATURE

Measuring 2150 by 1500 mm, the Ruapekapeka pā is the larger of the two models. Modelled on six timber boards, the fortification is shown on level ground whereas Ruapekapeka is in fact situated on the north facing slope of a ridge little wider than the pā itself. Nevertheless, care has been taken to reconstruct the polygonal outline of the double-palisaded timber post stockade, with irregular bastion projections. Sand and small gravel painted in earth colours have been used to create a denuded open landscape around the stockade, dotted with tree branches for stripped lone trees and felled tree stumps. Clumps of painted dried grass act as part of this open clearance landscape. Inside the pā, there are large numbers of painted lead Māori defenders, sitting either in groups or firing muskets from the firing trenches, which line the outer perimeter behind the palisades. The multiple sunken anti-artillery bunkers are roofed with painted bark strips imitating pitched heavy timber roofs.

The smaller Ōhaeawai pā diorama is made up of four black-painted timber boards and measures 1105 by 765 mm. The stockade of two intersecting rectangular compounds is constructed of two parallel palisades made from twigs of tree branches fashioned to imitate large timber posts, lashed together horizontally with red cord. Behind the palisades are raised banks protecting firing trenches. There are numerous trenches and deep bunkers, some with pitched timber roofs and some covered by pitched tents. It is to be presumed that most of the wooden covers or tents have been lost over the years. There are 42 lead figures within the stockade, all painted to represent Māori defenders. Some of these figures are kneeling to aim muskets from the shelter of the firing trenches. Others are standing to attention with their muskets in sentry mode. Some of the defenders are shown crouching down in the centre of the model.  The ground surfaces are painted in natural earth colours, with sand and small stones providing additional realism. Small fragments of mirror glass have been placed on the surface of the model to represent areas of standing water. 

There are several anomalies in the models, the most important being the representation of the outer palisade or pekerangi. In the two models it is constructed in the same way as representing the inner heavy timber palisade, whereas, in reality, it was a lighter structure of narrower posts and flax matting (pekerangi) designed to absorb musket fire (see above).

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

While some may regard as ephemeral, the two historic miniature dioramas representing the Māori pā defences at Ōhaeawai and Ruapekapeka during the Northern Wars of 1845-46 are unique contemporaneous records in three dimensions of British military offensive actions in pursuit imposing authority on indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand. In their origins, they belong to a distinct class of British military battlefield model used for tactical instruction and public edification, a tradition that can be traced directly to William Siborne’s 1830s multi-action diorama of the field of Waterloo of 1815 and to other British army models of actions, historical and more recent, displayed in the museum of the Royal United Services Institute in London. This tradition also spread to the three-dimensional recording of key archaeological sites and monuments introduced by Augustus Pitt-Rivers, a former British army general. Bar some anomalies noted above in the miniaturisation of the pā defences, these dioramas correspond accurately in their main physical features to surviving contemporaneous graphic records of these sites and to the actions depicted. 

But perhaps more importantly, whilst constructed by opposing colonial forces, the dioramas form uniquely objective historical documents of Māori ingenuity in the design and execution of defensive engineering. The double-palisaded anti-artillery pā strongholds of the North Island of New Zealand were unlike anything British army commanders had experienced in the global colonial context. No such heavily fortified defences existed in Australia, from where most British army regular troops had been transferred. Anxious to share intelligence about Māori defensive fortifications and tactics, the British army command in Auckland commissioned these models as instructional tools to inform colonial forces engaged in future actions against insurgent Māori. What they reveal today is the sophistication of indigenous military technology and its success in resisting the industrial British war machine. 

The Ōhaeawai and Ruapekapeka pā dioramas of the early 1850s form a central feature of the Auckland War Memorial Museum’s narrative devoted to public understanding of New Zealand’s nineteenth-century wars of colonisation, both onsite and online. Whilst created by the colonial administration, as narrative objects they also provide a unique and critical Māori voice in the exploration of the conflict that does not survive in the official historical record or is difficult to appreciate onsite at the physical remains today. The hapu Ngāti Rangi is currently surfacing cultural narratives of the Ōhaeawai battle site and the model will inform the development of onsite heritage trails and a cultural centre. Together, the dioramas establish an important reference for the historiography and archaeology of European colonialism and indigenous resistance. 

REFERENCES

1] Sir John Soane's Museum London, 'The Model Room' 

2] P. Hofschröer, 2004. Wellington’s Smallest Victory. The Duke, the Model Maker and the Secret of Waterloo, London: Faber and Faber

3] C Evans, 2014. ‘Soldering Archaeology: Pitt Rivers and Militarism’, Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, 24:4, pp.1-20.  https://archaeologybulletin.org/articles/10.5334/bha.244 

4] Dan Hicks. (2013). Wayland's Smithy Chambered Tomb - a scale model from the 1860s. Excavating Pitt-Rivers.  

5] NZHistory. (2019) 'Ruapekapeka'.

6] NZHistory. (2019) 'Ōhaeawai.'

7] Ibid.

8] The New Zealander, 24 January 1846, quoted in Wolfe, R., 2013. New Zealand’s Lost Heritage: The Stories behind our Forgotten Landmarks, Auckland: New Holland Publishers, p. 23. 

9]  'Model of Ruapekapeka Pa' Northern Advocate, 6 October 1937, p. 9

10]  Prickett, N., 1993. Models of the Ohaeawai and Ruapekapeka pa in the Auckland Museum, Volunteers, 18, no.3. (February 1993), pp. 75-81