The annual gathering of Oceania's Anglican Church Primates and General Secretaries known as the 'Fono' was held in the context of Te Whare Hononga and Te Manu Hononga, two centres for reconciliation and restoration between Māori and Pākehā based at the Taranaki Cathedral of St Mary in Ngā Motu | New Plymouth.

Held between 7 - 10 March 2025, the Primates' Fono began with a full day of pilgrimage to key sites of conflict in the north Taranaki land wars, followed by an introduction to the journey of reconciliation and restoration now underway between the Anglican Diocese of Waikato-Taranaki and Ngāti Te Whiti, on whose ancestral land the Taranaki Cathedral stands. 

Anglican leaders began their journey with a welcome from Te Ātiawa educationalist Damon Ritai, who led them on a haerenga (pilgrimage) around key sites north of Ngā Motu (New Plymouth), with support from Taranaki history researcher Rob Green.

The Fono pilgrimage stopped in the town of Waitara, where on 17 March 1860 the first shots in the New Zealand land wars were fired by British militia. Leaders noted that street after street was named for British fighters, displacing the names of peaceful villages that had once stood there. 

Damon Ritai introduced his Te Ātiawa iwi, detailing the ancestral sites of significance to the seven hapū (subtribes), whose most famous Anglican sons were the late Archbishop Sir Paul Reeves and the late Archdeacon Tikitūterangi Raumati, both of whose legacies were honoured in kōrero during the day. 

Pilgrimage stories pointed to the traumatising impact of the New Zealand Government's seizure of millions of acres of Māori land by military force or legislation across Taranaki. Anglican leaders joined in prayer at sites where warfare was waged against Te Ātiawa people, by both tribal adversaries and the British colonial militia, including the Pukerangiora and Te Ārei Pā sites. 

Australian General Secretary Anne Hywood reflected that driving through countryside filled with such harsh history for indigenous people was shocking, but especially as it looked not so different to rural areas in Australia. 

"I realised that there are probably very similar stories back home, but I don't know them. We're a long way behind in Australia, where there were massacres people don't want to acknowledge it ever happened." 

Anne also reflected on the backlash against indigenous people by some Australians, including right-wing election candidates that swear they will end indigenous "welcome to country" at public events, and others who electioneer on taking Torres Strait Island and Aboriginal flags out of public life.

"It's a big contrast to come here and see this reconciliation happening." 

Fono guest Anglican Communion Office Secretary General, Bishop Anthony Poggo reflected on what the stories might mean for Māori today in a country which hasn't experienced the kind of decolonisation many countries in Africa have seen.

"Coming from Africa we have similar stories of land that was taken by the colonialists, including land given by the Government to missionaries. When the Church has been the beneficiary of such land it's important to ask the question: How do we right the wrong?"

Atop the hill at Manukōrihi north of New Plymouth, Anglican Fono members overlooked Waitara township and the "Pekapeka Block", a crescent of highly-valued fertile land alongside the Waitara river that was the subject of the conflicts that set off the New Zealand land wars. 

Fono heard how the river touching onto the Pekapeka block had been an important source of plentiful kai (food) for the people who had lived in Waitara for hundreds of years. Its tuna(eels), fish, whitebait and fatty winter lampreys were sources of sustenance to local people, which are now adversely affected by land loss and pollution. 

Archbishop Sione Ului'lakepa reflected on the need for both church and people to actively listen to the voice of Creation: to weather patterns and the health of trees, land and rivers. 

"We need to listen to the land in terms of sustenance and food security. We heard in the stories of the fish coming up the river, that when we listen to nature we know when food will arrive. This pilgrimage has drawn us to be with one another, with Creation and with God. When we listen and restore those relationships we become ambassadors for a new way of being with each other and the land. We remember that the land provides for the people when times are hard." 

Fono guest from Lambeth Palace staff, Rev Canon Dr Sammy Wainaina (former Dean of Nairobi, Kenya) found himself identifying with the people who had suffered in Taranaki.

"Listening to those stories I was feeling crushed. My heart went out to the Māori people. And I wondered what our people had lost in those times that maybe we don't remember. I thought, you or I might remember up to five generations, but they remember ten or more." 

Rev Sammy delighted in the pride that Te Ātiawa speakers Damon Ritai and Dean of Taranaki Cathedral Very Rev Jay Ruka shared in their stories, and marvelled that they didn't speak as people weighed down by their history. 

"You take away people's land, their means of survival, their livelihoods, you kill them. What does it mean? Where is fairness in reconciliation? The Pākehā needs to know that there can never be peace without restorative justice."

Australian Primate Geoff Smith learnt a lot in both the pilgrimage and Dean Jay Ruka's story of reconciliation between the church and iwi. Especially in the growing relationships between Mere Tapu (St Mary's) whose buildings once stored militia gunpowder within its walls, and Ngāti Te Whiti, the hapū once suppressed and killed by those militia. Both now share in Te Whare Hononga, a new place to stand on that land. 

Archbishop Geoff Smith thanked Ngāti Te Whiti and Archbishop Emeritus Philip Richardson for the insights he had gained from their journey of reconciliation so far.

"In Australia after the failure of The Voice referendum, we are probably in the worst situation of attitudes to indigenous rights that we have seen in forty to fifty years."

"Indigenous people in the church have asked us to move beyond words to action, so in some dioceses, like the Diocese of Melbourne, a decision was made that whenever a piece of diocesan land was sold, 15% would go toward indigenous ministry.

But instead of just a dispassionate transfer of funds, your example here makes me wonder if something else might be explored. Thank you for the education, the exposure."

Reflecting at the end of the pilgrimage day, Archbishop of Melanesia Leonard Dawea recalled the experience of visiting Pukerangiora, where people jumped to their deaths from its 100-metre high cliffs to avoid being killed or enslaved.

Mother's Union leader at St Barnabas Cathedral, Honiara, Mercy Hauriasi was on pilgrimage alongside her husband Abraham Hauriasi and she too was taken aback by Pukerangiora.

"What impacted me most was the cliff where men, women and children jumped to their death, rather than being captured by enemy tribes. It was an escape ... but it was the choice of murder or suicidal death."

To Mercy Hauriasi, it seems like the war in Taranaki isn't over yet.

"The difference between here in Melanesia is that we did not have the non-indigenous people taking over our lands. They came to explore and left."

"But the traders did steal some men to work and these were never returned. These people have been lost to their Melanesian relatives for generations."   

Despite the shocking stories, by the end of the day Archbishop Leonard Dawea was uplifted by the messages that came through. 

"What struck me was the resilience and hope and faith that accompanied the stories today. " 

"It was a frightening experience to imagine those women and children jumping to their deaths over the cliff, but for them that land is associated with blood. The people were saying when they chose to die: 'This is our land, our blood will stay in this land.'" 

Archbishop Leonard was struck too by the pride he heard in Dean Jay Ruka's voice as a member of Te Ātiawa iwi.

"Today when he told the story of his people he said, 'We have taken back the mountain' and I could see the joy on his face at having what is his returned to him." 

"For us today it is different."

"I come from a very small island, an atoll, and there is an enemy taking our land that will never give our land back – and that enemy is the sea.

The smile that our brother had will never come to us, our land will never come back, that's the difference for us."

For more information about the Fono read the communiqué here.