The Warrior Chiefs of 1862

Tu Tangata, Issue 2, 1 October 1981, Page 21

The Warrior Chiefs of 1862

O TUA WHAKARERE/Of Yesteryear

Brian Mackrell throws the spotlight on the first Maori entertainment troupe to tour overseas.

Many will know of Maggie Papakura’s 1910-11 Concert Party which gained acclaim on a tour of Australia and England where they took part in the Coronation festivities of King George V. Not so well known is a similar tour undertaken almost half a century before.

In July 1862 a Maori tour de force burst upon the Sydney entertainment scene. “Dr M’Gauran’s Troupe of Maori Warrior Chiefs, Wives and Children exhibiting the sacred ceremonies, solemnites, festivals, exciting war dances, games and combats ... limited to twelve nights. To enable schools and families to witness this extraordinary exhibition four mid-day performances will be given,” declared the advertisements.

The Sydney public loved the Warrior Chiefs. The intended twelve-day season had to be extended to thirtyseven days before the triumphant troupe could open in Melbourne. The twenty-one “aboriginal Thespians” came from a dozen major North Island tribes and all were billed as men and women of rank and influence. “Great sensation” ... “Extremely exciting” ... “Rapturously received” raved the theatre critics. Australian newspaper editors were just as lavish with their praise. “Excellent in physical development and full of intellectual activity, this noble savage has always commanded universal respect.” “There is no savage race so interesting as the Maori. He proves himself capable of education and civilisation ... The stern discipline and undoubted courage of their fighting men extort the respect of their opponents.” The plays in which the Warrior Chiefs, Wives and Children performed were genuine Victoria melodramas, “written for them by Mr Whitworth, with authentic scenery by Wilson.”

In “The Pakeha Chief” Whakeau, the evil European leader of “a bad tribe”, abducts sweet Miss Alice Mortimer and holds her hostage in a cave behind the appropriately named Falls of Weeping Water. PITCHED BATTLE Alice’s father, boyfriend and a missionary, aided by “a good tribe”, track Whakeau down and in a pitched battle with the final act the enemy are routed, and Alice re-united with her loved ones. While the plot was trite, the European playwright demonstrated considerable ingenuity by including almost every aspect of old-time Maori life and custom as well as sweeping the action from an opening Taranaki scene (painted backdrop of the mountain) 200 kilometres north to “Tu Ka To-Te, Whero Whero’s pa on the Waikato”. The Maori performances were awe-inspiring and Australian audiences called for repeated encores of such items as “launching the war canoe”, “sanguinary battle between hostile tribes” and what was even then billed as “The Famous Haka War Chant and Chorus”.

A newspaper described the latter as: “Composed of a series of intoned solos, delivered as a kind of chant, each of which is followed by an extraordinary chorus, expressed in sten-torous-like expirations, and accompanied with an obligato of outrageous gestures and postures ... their movements were as the parts of a machine acted upon by a single motive power ... they seemed inspired with real fury.” According to Dr M’Gauran, formerly Auckland Provincial Surgeon, the venture was not purely a theatrical speculation but designed to educate the Maori in European culture and vice versa. One Australian newspaper praised his efforts “carried out at great personal expense to himself” and hoped they would “meet the just return so laudable and great an undertaking deserves.” But it was not to be.

DEBTOR’S PRISON

In late 1862 a Wellington paper reported that the Maori troupe had “broken-up” and Dr M’Gauran was “undergoing a white washing process in a debtor’s prison”. But, by mid-1863, the Warrior Chiefs had reformed under the management of a group of Melbourne residents led by a Mr Hegartz. They sailed to England and opened to a packed house at the Alhambra in London’s Leicester Square on 5 July.

In the audience that day was Francis Buckland, zoologist, authority on fishes and connoisseur of the unusual. He invited the Warrior Chiefs to his home and hosted them to a fourteen-pound joint of meat, numerous side dishes, wine, cigars and cigarettes. He records that one of his appreciative guests offered: “Me moko you. Moko you beautiful like Rangatira.”

WEIRD SPECIMENS

Being a zoologist and collector of the curious, Buckland had a house full of weird specimens, both live and preserved. Like other visitors the Warrior Chiefs were fascinated with these objects. Their kind host decided they would be interested in his latest live acquisition Anguis fragilis, a harmless reptile, commonly called a Slow-worm.

Unaware of the Maori fear of reptiles he placed one of these creatures on the floor. With horrified cries his guests hastily departed the house with Mr Hegartz and Buckland in hot pursuit shouting re-assurances!

Two Warrior Chiefs raced for refuge to an open window in a house nearby where, unfortunately, a woman sat at her sewing. “The poor old lady, looking up suddenly, saw a couple of gigantic savages with tattooed faces, screaming and yelling as they charged down on her: the good old thing was frightened out of her senses and upon my word Ido not wonder at it!” records Buckland.

Eventually calm was restored, the old lady revived and the zoologist recemented his friendship with the Warrior Chiefs after much apology, wine and cigars.

He then took them on a tour of London Zoo where they enjoyed an elephant ride and gazed in wonder at the various animals. They declared the zebra was tattooed and that the hippopotamus, the biggest “poaka” they had ever seen, would make a grand feast.

After a successful London season the Warrior Chiefs toured the music halls of the English midlands performing “the wild, half-naked haka” to appreciative audiences as they had done in Australia. CAME TO GRIEF The party came to grief in late 1864 due to a variety of circumstances. These included financial mis-management by Hegartz, illness due to the harsh English winter, and the liking some members acquired for what was then termed “the cheapest, quickest way out of town”! But the main reason the Maori Warrior Chiefs quit the stage was pressure from the Aborigines Protection Society and other philanthropic organisations who believed Hegartz was an unscrupulous exploiter of gullible natives.

These worthies also considered the performances of “heathen chants and dances” as “sinful and degrading” and, in some instances, obscene. Some of the Warrior Chiefs died of illness in English hospitals, others on the voyage home, their fares paid by public donations. But some survived to return to their native soil. Their story is one of triumph and tragedy. Whether they were victims of the fast-buck Pakeha, or the venture was supposed to be a mutually beneficial European-Maori enterprise, is arguable. What is certain is that Australian and English audiences thrilled to the performances of this unique troupe, the very first of a new artistic genre that is now a vibrant, living part of this nation’s multi-cultural heritage.