Te Rōpū Tiaki Manu

A treasure trove of letters and other archives has shed new light on the fledgling Society’s efforts to engage with Māori on shared conservation goals. By Michael Pringle

Nearly a century ago, Forest & Bird’s founder Val Sanderson considered what he called a “campaign among the Māori” to be a vital part of the newly minted Society’s work. In 1923, when the Society was founded, he referred to the indigenous sense of the careful conservation of resources in articles and letters.

“The Maori knew the value of the birds and how to foster them when necessary,” he wrote in the Temuka Leader on 11 December 1923. But Māori methods of conservation, including the “old time laws” and the “strict manner in which they were enforced has never been remotely approached by the white man”.

Sanderson believed Māori had much to teach Pākehā about the natural conservation of birds and forests. By contrast, Pākehā had lost touch with the forests, the land, and all that sustains him, and he had become a “vandal white man”, he wrote in a letter to Te Kūiti journalist Rore Josephs (Ngāti Maniopoto), who was a supporter of the Society’s goals.

We know some of what Sanderson was thinking after discovering a cache of his original letters, written between 1923 and 1928, in Forest & Bird’s paper archives at the Alexander Turnbull Library. Together with Gyle Bascon, a history graduate from Victoria University, we analysed the letters, researched the identities of the writers, and made some interesting discoveries.

They illuminate how the Native Bird Protection Society, later to become Forest & Bird, sought to win the support of Māori for its early “objects” to “advocate and obtain the efficient protection and preservation of our native bird life, unity of control of all wildlife, and a bird day for our schools”.

In the early part of last century, Māori were experiencing the ongoing loss of their traditional lands following colonisation, as forests were felled and burnt, cities expanded, introduced predators killed local wildlife, and roads reached ever deeper into remote corners of New Zealand. The rapid loss of habitat and mahinga kai as Pākeha settlement took hold promoted a demand for conservation from some Māori leaders, according to historian David Young.

Forest & Bird founder Captain Val Sanderson planting trees, Kāpiti Island. Image Rangi Webber, courtesy of the John Barrett Collection.

In the late 1920s and 30s, Sanderson expanded his campaign to raise awareness among Pākehā of what we would call the Māori world view of nature, a deep connection between the land and the species that inhabit it, a natural world that all New Zealanders cherish today.

Sanderson, who led the Society from 1923 until his death in 1945, was the master of publicity, an exceptional communicator, and a prolific letter writer. In the days before television, he wrote newspaper articles, published posters and journals, commissioned films, gave radio broadcasts, and gave lectures illustrated by lantern slides and accompanied by a live orchestra.

Hona Webber feeding ducks on Kāpiti Island, early 1900s. Lantern slide, Forest & Bird archives

He was supported by the Society’s well-connected Presidents and Vice Presidents. These passionate founding members, all of whom supported the Society as volunteers, included former Prime Minister Sir Thomas Mackenzie, the owner of the Otago Daily Times, Sir George Fenwick, well-known bird author and ornithologist Perrine Moncrieff, and leading botanist Dr Leonard Cockayne.

Sanderson viewed posters as an efficient way of reaching the public about the Society’s campaigns. He used donations to pay for the creation of colourful posters featuring conservation messages like “New Zealanders! Protect your native birds. They are unique and wonderful beyond compare.” These were put up in railway stations, post offices, government buildings, and outdoors, for example at the Cape Kidnappers gannet colony and at the entrance to Egmont National Park.

Forest & Bird's 1924 pānuitanga notice was distributed throughout Aotearoa. Image Alexander Turnbull Library

In early 1924, the Society published its pānuitanga or poster in te reo Māori. It was printed on paper for inside use, with 500 on calico for outside display. They were distributed to anyone who wanted one. Members put them up all over the country, including the Hokianga, Kāpiti Coast, Whanganui, Taranaki, and the Bay of Plenty.

Elsdon Best, the famous ethnographer and chronicler of the Tūhoe people, is understood to have translated the text for the pānui. It noted how “descendants of Tāne Mahuta and Tane-i-te-rere have been diminished by accidental killings, deforestation, or by hunting for food”. It went on to emphasise the benefits of birds without which “mankind will die”.

The Native Bird Protection Society was referred to as Te Ropu Tiaki Manu, and the publisher’s address was care of Paaka No 631, Poneke, a post office box number Forest & Bird still uses to this day!

The Weggery family, who farmed in the Waikanae area, wrote to the Society in 1925 asking for posters in English and Māori, which they planned to erect on their land, saying “We are very anxious to protect the native birds.”

Letter from Sanderson to Otene in te reo in 1928. Image Forest & Bird archives

The cache of letters in Forest & Bird’s archives also includes correspondence with one of Forest & Bird’s first Māori members, Nopera Otene, an influential tribal chief from Hokianga, who was worried about the loss of birdlife in the great kauri forests of the Far North.

Assisted by James Murray, a Pākehā schoolmaster at Mangamuka, Otene, who spoke little English, joined the Society in 1923 and campaigned among his people for the setting aside of areas of native forest as sanctuaries for flora and fauna.

Sanderson met Otene on a visit to the area in June 1924. He later wrote to Otene, noting his conservation efforts on behalf of native birds and advising him that the Society was having notices printed in te reo and that he would send a supply.

“The Māori before the advent of the white man knew how to conserve his birds and forests and it is to be feared Pakeha past ignorance in these matters has been much at fault,” Sanderson said to Otene. He went on to say he had hope for the future and would keep in touch with progress.

Later the same year, in an article in the New Zealand Herald, Sanderson wrote that Otene had “worked hard among his followers, with the result that some hundreds of acres of forests are to be set aside as bird sanctuaries. The report of the sportsmen’s guns has been stilled and the pigeons can be seen serenely preening themselves within a few hundred yards of Rangihua township.”

In June 1928, after receiving Otene’s annual membership subscription, Sanderson wrote thanking him for his work promoting the cause of bird protection. This time, he called on the services of Kīngi Tāhiwi, an interpreter at the Native Department in Wellington to translate his letter into te reo.

Tāhiwi was a well-known interpreter of the times, who went on to translate for Michael Joseph Savage, New Zealand’s first Labour Prime Minister, and visiting members of the royal family. Tāhiwi added phrases that, as he put it, created “the real Māori atmosphere”.

Sanderson also wrote in te reo to other Māori members, including PH Takarangi, who lived at Pūtiki Pā, on the Whanganui River. We believe WT Hooper, a Methodist minister, translated the letter on Sanderson’s behalf.

Articles about te ao Māori and conservation appeared in Forest & Bird's magazine in the 1920s and 30s. This 1934 cover features a korimako bellbird painted by Lily Daff. Image Forest & Bird archives

The new Society soon captured the attention of Te Akarana Māori Association, an educational organisation based in Auckland with a focus on fostering Māori knowledge. Its founder, George Graham, offered to supply Sanderson with the names of many Māori to write to about his new Society.

Te Akarana Māori Association joined the Society in 1927, and its secretary Patrick Smyth (Ngāpuhi), a teacher at St Stephen’s Native Boys’ School in Parnell, enclosed a five shilling note with his letter by way of a donation.

In the same year, Smyth wrote to Sanderson expressing hope the Native Bird Protection Society would also campaign for the protection of the forests, as they were the natural food supply of the native birds, as well as their most suitable habitat.

He also told him that some people were thinking of importing nightingales. “It seems to us that it would be far better to make a determined effort to preserve the native birds than to countenance any suggested importation which may be invidious,” he added.

In 1929, Graham suggested Sanderson send posters in te reo and English to Te Kirihaehae Te Puea Hērangi, a leading figure in the Kīngitanga (Māori King movement) to put up at her new wharenui meeting house at Turangawaewae, Ngaruawahia. It would “make known your work to a big assembly”, he told Sanderson.

Te Akarana Māori Association Secretary Patrick Smyth in 1930. Image Alexander Turnbull Library

Over the 1920s and 30s, Sanderson educated his members about what today we would call te ao Māori through the Society’s popular bulletin Birds, the forerunner to Forest & Bird magazine. He recruited Rore Josephs, who had written to Sanderson in 1924 expressing interest in the Society, as an advocate to bridge the gap between Māori and Pākehā perceptions of nature protection.

In 1927, Harold Hamilton, an ethnographer at the Dominion Museum, wrote an article for the Society’s journal called “The Maori as a Conservationist”, asking “could we not adopt that beautiful conception that the trees and birds are our living relatives?”

That year, the total print run of the bulletin was 5000 copies, and it was distributed to 133 Ngā Kura Māori Native Schools.

In 1931, George Graham wrote an article called “Native Bird Life in Ancient Maoriland”, in which he explained to the Society’s readership how Māori had a “a recognised set of game and forestry laws”, including rāhui, to protect trees and birds from “indiscriminate slaughter”.

The deep knowledge Māori had of “nature lore” was the outcome of close observation over generations, he said. Then the new ideas of Pakehadom arrived, and “All the old respect for the rahui and tapu restrictions was set aside, nor did effective European laws take their place.”

Edward Henry (Ted) Nepia, a teacher and Māori war historian, contributed a supplement to Graham’s article that explained the prominence given to birds in Māori proverbs and symbolic references.

Te Puea Herangi was asked to display the Society’s posters at the opening of her new wharenui meeting house, at Ngaruawahia, in 1929. Image Alexander Turnbull Library

In 1938, Elsdon Best supplied the Society with a list of Māori names for native birds, including different tribal names for the same species. It was so long it had to be published over three successive issues of the bulletin from August 1938 to February 1939.

We believe Sanderson was using these articles to increase his predominantly Pākehā membership’s understanding of the indigenous people’s ancient connections to the land and its wildlife. He wanted to promote a sense that native birds should be protected because they were found nowhere else in the world and had such an intimate, timeless relationship to tangata whenua.

In 1934, the indomitable Cecilia O’Rorke, a Life Member of the Society and an influential leader in the Girl Guiding movement in New Zealand, wrote to the Executive pointing out a major omission – that there wasn’t one Māori name among the Society’s Vice Presidents. “I feel this is a great mistake and I would be glad if you bring up the point at your next meeting,” she said.

Sanderson asked Kīngi Tāhiwi for suggestions for someone who could represent Māori on the Society. Kīngi suggested his cousin Utauta Webber, the wife of Hona Webber, who lived on Kāpiti Island. The couple were friends with Sanderson and supporters of the Society’s work. He also suggested Te Tāite Te Tomo, MP for Western Māori, and New Zealand’s first Bishop of Aotearoa, Frederick Bennett. The Society wrote to all three.

The first Bishop of Aotearoa Frederick Bennett represented Māori on the Society from 1934. Image Alexander Turnbull Library

In 1935, Frederick Bennett (Ngāti Whakaue) accepted and became Forest & Bird’s first “Representative of the Maori Race”. By 1936, he was also listed as a Patron of the Society, alongside the Governor-General Viscount Galway, on the Society’s official letterhead and in its journal.

The establishment of the role, while largely ceremonial, suggests the Society was anxious to reach out to Māori and demonstrate it understood and valued tangata whenua perspectives and knowledge of the natural world.

In 1950, Bennett made a radio broadcast in te reo appealing for the protection of native birds, which was heard throughout Aotearoa. After his death, in 1951, the second Bishop of Aotearoa, Wiremu Pānapa (Ngāti Ruanui and Te Rarawa), became the Society’s second Māori Representative in 1952. He was also asked to honour the Society as its Patron, serving alongside the Governor-General of the day until 1968.

The minutes of 13 November 1951 show that Pānapa protested the cutting of miro trees for timber all over the country, saying their fruits were needed for kererū. The matter was taken up by the then President and renowned mountaineer Arthur Harper, who wrote to the Minister of Forests Ernest Corbett expressing Bishop Pānapa’s “great concern” for the miro and kererū.

In 1968, Manuhuia Bennett, Frederick Bennett’s son, took over as Bishop of Aotearoa and served as Forest & Bird’s third Māori representative and Patron until at least 1977, when the magazine stopped listing the Society’s Patrons and Governors-General. Bishop Manuhuia retired in 1981, but no mention can be found in the magazine or Executive minutes of a new Bishop taking over.

Kīngi Tāhiwi. Image Alexander Turnbull Library

Our research has revealed that, at the beginning of Forest & Bird’s history, its founder Val Sanderson believed indigenous knowledge, expressed through kaitiakitanga guardianship and protection, could lead to better management, balance, and a more hopeful future for the country’s wildlife.

Today, modern conservation is shifting to embrace mātauranga and te ao Māori to better protect nature. As Forest & Bird embarks on this journey with the rest of Aotearoa, it’s been fascinating to look back and discover these new stories about the early Society’s efforts to engage with Māori.

In 1928, the Māori journalist Rore Josephs wrote: “Every boy and girl in this fair land of Aotearoa can do a little towards helping to bind the cords of protection round the unique bird treasures of our country.”

These beautiful words resound today as clearly as they did 100 years ago.

Captain Ernest Val Sanderson. Image Forest & Bird archives.

Michael Pringle is an archivist and researcher working for Forest & Bird’s Te Aumangea o te Ao Tūroa Force of Nature history project. 

Thank you to the Stout Trust for its generous grants that helped document and digitise Forest & Bird’s archives, including the Māori letters and pānui, at Alexander Turnbull Library.