Tuturau Memorial

Up a rough paddock edged in ubiquitous gorse is a monument to a battle between Iwi that took place in 1836. This is an unusual deep south location for a musket war, and all thanks to the white man and the muskets that brought these skirmishes over land ambition to life.

Here in 1836, bold and brave chief Te Puoho from Ngati Tama in the North Island launched his sneaky campaign to take Te Waipounamu (the South Island) from Ngai Tahu, South to North. This plan he called ‘skinning the eel from tail to head’. After travelling to Golden Bay with Ngati Toa, Te Puoho travelled the entire West Coast and across Otago with a band of his men, beginning his campaign here at the Ngai Tahu settlement of Tuturau.

When Ngai Tahu warrior chief Tuhawaiki heard of the minor victory, he travelled inland from where he was on the Otago Coast, and in three days his men arrived here at Tuturau and killed Te Puoho on the spot.

The pile of riverstone and concrete was here laid in 1937 in order that the skirmish not be forgotten. A wooden marae built here at the same time did not last long. Te Ara gives a full account of happenings at the time and since.

Tuturau the town, has a school, a slight nod to the Scottish in it’s flavour and folk roll their r’s like good Southlanders. No one has tried to take it over in a long time, except maybe the Chinese and Filipino mega-farm corporates which are transforming Southlands dairying country into international style factory farms.

NZPlaces would love a picture of the Tuturau Memorial.