Wiremu ratana biography of martin

The annual celebrations at Rātana, a small pā near Whanganui, are considered the unofficial start to the political year.

The Rātana Church was founded around 100 years ago by Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana and members gather every year to mark his birthday, January 25, although the celebrations usually take place over several days.

Today marks the start of a series of pōwhiri to welcome locals, other hāhi and religious groups, iwi, community groups, politicians and dignitaries in the lead up to the official day.

Who was Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana?

Born in 1873, Rātana first became widely known for his spiritual work before he turned his attention to politics.

He was famed for his work as a healer, which brought many people to his farm. That farm would become known as Rātana Pā.

Rātana eventually established his own church in 1925.

Influencing Parliament

By the 1930s, Rātana had shifted his focus to politics.

Parliament got its first Rātana-affiliated MP in 1932, with Rātana members holding all of the Māori electorates by 1943.

Rātana members would go on to hold those Māori seats for decades.

Rātana himself famously met with New Zealand’s first Labour Prime Minister, Michael Joseph Savage, in 1936. That meeting would be seen as the beginning of a powerful political pact between the Rātana movement and the Labour Party.

Honouring the Treaty

A key aim of the Rātana movement was recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Rātana’s founder attempted to meet with King George V in London in 1924 and present him with a petition that thousands had signed wanting redress for Treaty beaches and land confiscations. The New Zealand government of the time prevented the meeting.

Nearly 50 years later, Rātana-affiliated Labour MP Matiu Rata became Minister of Māori Affairs and Minister of Lands.

In that role, Rata pushed through the Treaty of Waitangi Act in 1975, which established the Waitangi Tribunal.

Politicians almost always start the year by heading to Rātana Pa near Whanganui to pay their respects to the Rātana Church's prophet - Tahupotiki Wiremu Rātana.

But why do they make the trip?

The political history of Rātana goes back to the late 1920s, when T W Rātana announced that members of the church would stand in the then-four Māori seats.

They won one seat in 1932, and a second in 1935.

In 1936, T W Rātana went to Wellington and met with new Labour Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage and they announced a formal alliance between Labour and the church.

At the next election, the alliance won all of the Māori Seats, which Labour held until New Zealand First made a clean sweep of the seats in 1996.

T W Rātana was a very political man and asked his MPs to focus on the Treaty of Waitangi and the problems Māori faced as a result of treaty breaches.

According to the church's website, the prophet felt that his task was to deal with the Treaty of Waitangi and that God had placed the taonga in his hands.

Under the alliance, the Labour Party has made the pilgrimage to the Rātana celebrations for many decades.

It's not clear when other political parties started to also make the trip, but it has become firmly etched in the political calendar.

In recent years, the church has tried to reduce the amount of time politicians spend on the marae.

The church leadership feels that the politics and the media flurry on the day has started to detract from what the event is really about: the annual celebration of T W Rātana's birth on 25 January.

Date:[ca 1918-1970s]

From:Henderson, James McLeod, 1925-2013 : Photographs relating to the Ratana movement

By:Auckland weekly news (Newspaper); Dominion (Newspaper); Godber, Albert Percy, 1875-1949; Raine, William Hall, 1892-1955; Tesla Studios; Westra, Ans, 1936-2023; Whites Aviation Ltd

Reference:PA1-q-1157

Description:Album relating to the history of the Ratana Church, most likely compiled by James Henderson, 1918-1974. Contains scenes from the Ratana movement, some with accompanying notes. Buildings shown in photographs include the Ratana home and two halls at Ratana Pa (Piki te Kaha and Whare Marama) in 1922, a later image of the halls combined with three others as Te Manuao circa 1937, the interior of the Whare Maori museum (with faith healing articles), Te Temepara O Te Haahi Ratana (exterior and interior images), the Ratana Church at Te Hapua, an aerial image of Ratana Pa in 1846, a montage of images from Ratana circa 1939, and stacks of mail requesting healing waiting for response. Events featured are the opening of Te Omeka Pa, Matamata, in 1937, the opening of Te Manuao in 1938, and the funeral of T W Ratana in 1939. Also contains an image of a 1921 faith healing camp in Wanganui. Contains portraits of Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana, photographed at a number of times from age 44 onwards, and Ratana family members Maata [Te Reo Hura], Matiu, Te Omeka, Te Urumanao (Te Whaea), Piki Huia, Rawinia (Winnie) and Te Arepa. Other identified figures include Maori Affairs Minister Frank Langstone, Mete Keepa, Patu Pere, Tangi te Pere [Makere?], Maori Affairs Minister Koro Wetere, Japanese visitor Daisy Nakada, Ralph and Flora Love, Tapihana Dobby Paikea and Maudi Rakatairi. Portraits of Maori politicians are also included, with Nga Koata E Wha (The Four Quarter) group photographs showing Paraire Paikea, Tiaki Omana (Jack Ormond), Haami Tokouru Ratana, Eruera Tirikatene, Tini Whetu Marama Tirikatene-Sullivan, Matiu Rata, Paraone Rewi

Ratana, the Prophet Ma te wa: the sign of the broken watch First published in Mana Maori + Christianity, Huia, 2012 © By Keith Newman [Keith Newman is author of Ratana Revisited; An Unfinished Legacy (Reed 2006), Ratana – The Prophet (Penguin 2009) and Bible & Treaty; Missionaries Among the Maori – a New Perspective (Penguin 2010.)] Image: Ratana the Prophet, acrylic on canvas by Paula Novak, 2005 © Ma te wa. Is it simply ‘see you later’ as the TV presenter says when she signs off? Maybe ‘we'll wait and see’ is a more appropriate rendering, or better still ‘there is a right time and space for everything’. It’s a term Maori prophet, healer and political visionary Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana used a lot. It was like he had a peculiar relationship with time. His uncanny perceptiveness earned him national and international respect. Often when people were fussing and debating over critical issues he would remain quietly in the background, waiting for the right moment to settle the matter…like a good musician, his timing was impeccable. Perhaps Ecclesiastes 3 nails it: ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven’. Another scriptural intangible might be the often flippantly quipped: ‘And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.’1 Both challenge our perceptions of time. My foray into writing the story of Ratana was a reluctant one; at first it felt like I was poking my nose into other people’s business and there was no shortage of people telling me so. As a writer however my curiosity was piqued and I sensed an important part of New Zealand’s colourful history was being neglected. The Ratana legacy is still strongly guarded today; many know snippets but are short on fact and or detail and those who do know are often reluctant to share. There is however an attractive drawing power when curiosity is h