Colonialism and the architecture project.

COLUMBUS 1492
517 years ago today
Columbus landed in
the Bahamas
COLONIALISM AND
THE
ARCHITECTURE
PROJECT
© Tony Ward
2009
For extended versions of this document visit:
http://www.TonyWardedu.com

Please note that parts of this presentation are highly critical of
some past and present policies and actions of the Catholic
Church. This is not an anti-Church analysis. I was myself raised
as a devout Catholic until I was in my late teens, and for a while
studied with a view to the priesthood. I hold in deepest respect
those members of the Church who work at great personal
sacrifice and often die for the poor and oppressed. I dedicate this
piece to them.
This critical analysis of the roles of the Church and the State in
the development of Capitalism and in systems of oppression and
genocide is for me a necessary part of my coming to understand
my own white privilege and the histories of the peoples upon
whose bodies it is built.
What follows is a history of the relationship of Architecture to the
process of colonisation from the point of view of its victims. I
make no apologies for voicing these suppressed views.

Who controls the past controls the future.
Who controls the present controls the past.
George Orwell, 1984.
HISTORY

ST. MICHAEL BURROWBRIDGE
ST. MICHAEL GLASTONBURY
MT. ST. MICHAEL, CORNWALL
All of these early Christian
churches, dedicated to St.
Michael, the Archangel are
located on very ancient pre-
Christian (Celtic) sacred sites.
COLONISING ARCHITECTURE?

MT. ST. MICHELE AD.708ST. MICHEL LE PUY
Such ancient places of
pilgrimage have for
over a thousand years
been surmounted by a
fortress-like churches,
c l a i m i n g t h e i r
dominance of the
s u r r o u n d i n g
community. Such sites
were important in the
process of hegemony.
Throughout Europe,
the same process
occurred.
Here, the famous Benedictine monastery of Mt St, Michele, built
in 708. (above) stands on an island-rock that was sacred to pre-
Christian peoples. And (left) the chapel of St-Michel d'Aiguilhe
dominates the surrounding landscape.

ST. MICHAELWhat each of these sites has in
common, is a dedication to St.
Michael, who slew a dragon. The
dragon (horned, winged and breathing
fire) was not only characterised as
Satan in early Christian iconography,
but also of the Earth Spirit - the source
of the pre-Christian spirituality, of the
Mother Goddess cult. The symbolic
skewering (By a piece of Christian
Architecture) of the Earth Goddess
represented the imposition of Christian
patriarchy over gynocentric Europe.
The Freudian symbolism is not too
obscure! The Goddess was replaced,
by a male deity. But she lives on even
today in the re-branded guise of the
Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus.

DOME OF THE ROCK (685-691)
5 years after the death of the
Islamic Prophet Muhammad
in 632, in a war of liberation
from the Byzantine Empire
(the remnant Eastern Roman
Imperium that had merged
with the Roman Church),
Jerusalem was conquered by
the Islamic army. The Dome
of the Rock was erected as a
statement of reclamation by
t h e i n d i g e n o u s p e o p l e
between 685 and 691 CE.
The loss of pilgrimage
revenues from Jerusalem was
a serious blow to Church
finances as well as affront to
Christian hegemony and
power.

This act of reclamation was quite conscious, and sought to compete with and
overwhelm the Christian buildings that has been built on the site during the
Byzantine occupation. Historians contend that the Caliph wished to create a
structure which would compete with the existing buildings of other religions in
the city. al-Maqdisi writes that he
”sought to build for the Muslims a masjid that should be unique and a wonder
to the world. And in like manner, is it not evident that Caliph Abd al-Malik,
seeing the greatness of the martyrium of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
and its magnificence was moved lest it should dazzle the minds of Muslims
and hence erected above the Rock the dome which is now seen there.”

THE CRUSADES
1095-1291
EUROPEAN
COLONIALISM
Church and State
F r o m t h e 1 1 t h - 1 3 t h
Centuries, successive
P o p e s a n d m o n a r c h s
formed alliances to wrest the
Holy Land from Islam. The
Crusades failed in their
purpose to “retake” the Holy
L a n d f o r C h r i s t , b u t
established an imperialist
pattern that would prevail for
centuries (down to none
other than George Bush?)
The Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of
Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The
specific Crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of
nearly 200 years, between 1095 and 1291. Other campaigns in Spain and Eastern Europe
continued into the 15th century. The Crusades were fought mainly against Muslims,
although campaigns were also waged against pagan Slavs, Jews, Russian and Greek
Orthodox Christians, Mongols, Cathars, Hussites, Waldensians, Old Prussians, and political
enemies of the popes.
There were 9 crusades in all - most of them failures.

If the mountain won’t come to
Mohammed.., (If the pilgrims can’t
come to the Holy Land, then the Holy
Land must come to the pilgrims).
St. Chapelle, Paris (1248) was built by
Louis IX to house the Crown of Thorns -
no doubt retrieved during The Crusades
but purchased by him from the Latin
Emperor at Constantinople, Baldwin II, as
an investment in his move to become
rightful King. He paid 135,000 livres for
the relics and 40,000 livres to build the
chapel. His endorsement by the Pope of
the ownership of the relics was a powerful
aid to his ambitions. Despite the fact that
it was Louis’ private Chapel, the presence
of the relics in Paris (and Louis’ own
increased prestige) would no doubt have
been a big draw-card to the pilgrims of the
day, and an economic boost for the
economy of the city and the added
prestige of the King.

Michelle Obama's Chicago
Olympics pep rally
The Obama’s attempt to gain the Olympics for Chicago in 2016 is just the
latest example of a very old economic strategy: capital investment for regular
expected returns from Tourism.

COLUMBUS 1492The processes of colonisation
that had been established in
the crusades was carried to a
fine art in the 15th-16th
Centuries by the Spanish,
with the blessing and twisted
legal logic of Alexander VI,
the Spanish (Borgia) Pope.
After the discovery of the New
World, the Pope’s papal bull
Inter Cetera Divini (1493)
divided the world into
franchises, and established a
r i g h t t o c o l o n i s e a n d
appropriate resources based
u p o n t h e l e g i t i m a t i n g
argument of “saving souls”.

OVIEDO 1328-1528
What is interesting about
this picture?
It’s possible to see here the
shift that happened to
Spanish Church Architecture
after 1492. The plain, simple,
yet elegant architecture of
the Gothic remains. But the
Sanctuary has become an
extravaganza of imagery and
iconic motifs, dripping with
gold.

CONQUISTADORS
The “discovery” of America, was very profitable to the European colonisers
(primarily the Spanish). The amounts of gold and silver taken from the new
World by Columbus and those who followed him were staggering. In the
mid-Seventeenth Century silver constituted more than 99 percent of
mineral exports from Spanish America, and between 1503 and 1660,
185,000 kilograms of gold and 16,000,000 of silver arrived at the Spanish
port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Silver shipped to Spain in little more than a
century and a half exceeded more than three times the total European
reserves - and probably much more since these official figures are not
complete.

TOLEDO ALTAR
Once simple churches such
as those in Oviedo and
Toledo suddenly soared to
new heights, expanded, and
had new windows installed to
let the sun pour down on the
vast collection of gold and
jewels from the New World.
The cathedral of Toledo
boasts a five-hundred pound
monstrance made from the
Indian booty brought back by
Columbus himself.

In the Chapter House (right) this 500-pound, 10-foot high, 15th-century gilded
monstrance by Juan del Arfe, a silversmith. Made of solid silver, it was gilded
70 years later, allegedly with gold brought back by Columbus. It is still carried
through the streets of Toledo (left) during the feast of Corpus Christi. Cordoba,
Avila and every other city in the south boast similar artifacts. Gold became so
common in European palaces and churches that architects developed a
novel style of decoration emphasising entering light that could illuminate
the gold and make it dazzle the observer.

MALAGA & VALENCIA
As Jack Weather-ford notes:
“I first saw this wealth of silver and gold in a Holy Week procession in
Cōrdoba…Dressed in their long robes of purple and white topped by tall
conical hats from which hung veils covering their faces they looked like
marchers in a Ku Klux Klan rally The first one carried a six foot high cross of
silver. Twelve young boys…followed him, each of them carried a gold trumpet
four feet long and a foot wide at the mouth. From each trumpet hung a banner
of the Hapsburg eagle… Following…marched more boys with tall silver
crosses and more men with covered faces. In Andalusia over 300 such
processions marched during Holy Week.”

Florentine Banking Cardinals
(alone):
• Medici (2 Popes)
• Strozzi
• Salviati
• Ridolfi
• Gaddi (2 cardinals)
Medici Villa Madama, Rome 1518
THE CHURCH AND THE BANKS
The banking families lent the Church
money for projects (which their sibling-
cardinals and popes initiated) then
collected the interest from the booty.

The riches sought by Ferdinand and Isabella eventually found their way, to
the banking system and the Church throughout the dominions of the
Netherlands, Sardinia, Sicily, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Germany.
Many of the great banking families of Italy were deeply connected to the
Church hierarchy. Election to the Papacy was invariably accompanied by
simony and bribery, because of the great power that the position wielded.
These banking families lent the Church money for projects (which their
sibling-cardinals and popes initiated), and then claiming their interest on the
spoils of colonial conquest which the Pope had sanctioned.
The Spanish Crown was almost completely mortgaged, owing nearly all of the
silver shipments before they arrived to German, Genoese, Flemish and
Spanish bankers. In 1543, sixty-five percent of all Royal revenues went to
paying annuities on debts. Latin American silver benefited the Spanish
economy only indirectly. It ended in the hands of the Fuggers, (German
bankers who had advanced to the Pope the funds needed to finish St.
Peter’s), and of the Welsers, the Shetzes, and the Grimaldi, the other major
bankers in the Italian and Spanish economies. It is worth noting that the
ongoing expropriation of gold and silver was also partly occasioned because
of the loss of Church revenues occasioned by the expanding Reformation
and Henry VIII’s dissolution of the Monasteries and appropriation of their
assets and revenues (1536-41).

THE CHURCH AND STATE:
Phillip II (1556-1598) moved the capital from Toledo to Madrid in 1559.
Reacting to the Protestant Reformation sweeping through Europe during the
sixteenth century, he devoted much of his reign and most of his New World
gold to stemming the Protestant tide through a new kind of Church architecture.

THE COUNTER-REFORMATION
Bernini:The Coronaro
(1646)
To counter the potential loss of revenue
that the Reform movement threatened,
the Church threw all of its economic
and political might behind the Counter-
Reformation project. Much of the wealth
acquired by Phillip and the Church was
used to combat the austerity of the
Protestant architecture. The Church
adopted a specific design policy of ehat
we might call Enrapturement- intended
to induce perceptual ambiguity and to
overwhelm the senses through a
sensual and voluptuous experience that
would swamp the auditory, visual,
olefactory and haptic representational
systems, inducing a trance-like (and
transcendental) experience. Borromini,
Bernini (right) at The Coronaro (1646)
and Cosmos Damien and Egid Quirin
Asam, Assumption (Rohr, 1720) (next
slide) were masters of the art.
.

The process worked! Whereas in 1600 Europe was all but lost
to the Reformists, by 1650, more than two-thirds of the
continent was once again under the sway of orthodox
Catholicism
ZIMMERMAN WIESKIRCHE
1746
ASSAM: ASSUMPTION(1720)

THE COST? WHO PAID?!
• In the Potosi mines of Bolivia alone, six thousand African
slaves all died of altitude sickness.
• Four out of five of the local Indians forced into slave labour
for the Spanish died in their first year in the mines.
• By 1600 over three million native people were murdered or
died from the results of their enslavement in South America
• In the fourteen years after of Columbus’ arrival more than a
quarter of a million Haitians were murdered by the Spanish
• Historian David Stannard argues that the destruction of the
aboriginal peoples of the Americas, in a "string of genocide
campaigns" by Europeans and their descendants, was the
most massive act of genocide in the history of the world

CULPABLE CHURCH
So while the late Pope John Paul may have
sought to defend the activities of the
Church in the process of colonisation and
the genocide of indigenous communities on
spiritual grounds (right), there is no denying
that the Church’s greed for gold (both to
pay off growing debt and to stem reform)
was also one of its motivations.
The Church continues today to support
despotic dictators in El Salvador,
Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, Colombia,
Peru, the Phillipines and elsewhere in the
interests of maintaining its power and
hegemony.

ZAPATISTAS
Indigenous Mexicans still suffer from the privations caused by the original
genocide. Here, in 1989, the Zapatista Mayans cluster around the entrance to
the Cathedral in Mexico City’s Zoccalo in a land protest against State and
Church policies toward the Mayan people, especially in Chiapas, the
southernmost and poorest (and most indigenous) province. Their plight has
been highlighted by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

TERRORIST COLUMBUS
In European culture, Christopher Columbus is portrayed as a hero-explorer
who brought “progress” and Christianity to native peoples. To many of these
same native peoples, Columbus is seen as a terrorist who brought death,
slavery, starvation and centuries of subjugation. This poster (below right) is
taken from indigenous demonstrations such as the one in Columbia during
the 500th Anniversary of Columbus’ voyage in 1992. Demonstrations such as
this took place all across the all Americas to mark the start of their subjugation
and exploitation.

Marx put it succinctly: “...(the) discovery of
gold and silver in America, the extirpation,
enslavement and entombment in mines of
the aboriginal population, the beginning of
the conquest and looting of the East
Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren
for the commercial hunting of black skins,
signaled the rosy dawn of the era of
capitalist production”..
Karl Marx
COLONISATION & CAPITALISM

1898
COLONIAL EXPANSION
The activity of the Church and the Spanish monarchy was just the
beginning of a process of colonial expansion that in the next 400
years would cover the planet. So much wealth poured into Europe
from South America that it fuelled a massive investment
programme. Each of the European nations joined in the
subjugation of indigenous peoples to increase its economic power.

BRITISH IMPERIALISM AT HOME:
THE ENCLOSURES

Throughout the 17th, 18th and part of the 19th Centuries, British society and
the British landscape were transformed by a series of Parliamentary Acts -
the Enclosure Acts. These Acts allowed rich and powerful politicians, and
landowners (you had to be a land-owner to vote) to force millions of peasants
off what had been until then, common land over which they had living,
grazing, hunting and growing rights. These displaced folk were herded into
the burgeoning towns where they formed an immense pool of cheap labour,
ready to be exploited in the factories - owned, of course, by the same land-
owning class interests that had displaced them in the first place. Those
caught “poaching” to feed their families were transported to the penal
colonies in America and Australia.
As one example, in North Wales, Llandudno's 1843 Enclosure Act was
progressed through Parliament by Edward Mostyn Lloyd Mostyn M.P. whose
family consequently acquired freehold rights over much of the old village of
Llandudno. Smallholders were then evicted, their fields paved over and an
ancient agricultural settlement transformed into a fashionable bathing resort.
A century and a half later Mostyn Estates still own and control most of our
town. The town of Mostyn, to the East, was, until recently, home to a giant
smelting firm owned, naturally, by the family.

LEGAL THEFT
'The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common;
But lets the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose.'
18th Century poem
Graffiti, Auckland, NZ 1987

Salford factory town by LS Lowry 1887-1976 - the world I was born into.

STOURHEAD 1741-80
The profits from these dispossessions and exploitations was poured into
the large mansion houses that now (dis) grace the English countryside.

BLENHEIM PALACE 1705-24
Blenheim Palace, “gift of a grateful nation” to the Duke and Duchess of
Marlborough in return for military triumph against the French and Bavarians.
The birthplace and burial place of Sir Winston Churchill. “Set in 2100 acres of
beautiful parkland landscaped by ‘Capability’ Brown, the exquisite Baroque
Palace is surrounded by sweeping lawns, formal gardens and the magnificent
Lake.” The architect was Sir John Vanbrugh.

“Some of them had been there for centuries, visible triumphs over the ruin and
labour of others. But the extraordinary phase of extension, rebuilding and
enlarging which occurred in the 18th century, represents a spectacular increase in
the rate of exploitation, a good deal of it, of course, the profit of trade and of
colonial exploitation; much of it, however, the higher surplus value of a new and
more efficient mode of production. It is fashionable to admire these extraordinarily
numerous houses: the extended manors, the neo-classical mansions, that lie so
close to rural Britain. People still pass from village to village, guidebook in hand, to
see the next and yet the next example, to look at the stones and the furniture. But
stand at any point and look at that land. Look at what those fields, those streams,
those woods even today produce. Think it through as labour and see how long
and systematic the exploitation and seizure must have been, to rear that many
houses on that scale... What these ‘great’ houses do is to break the scale, by an
act of will corresponding to their real and systematic exploitation of others. For
look at the sites, the facades, the defining avenues and walls, the great iron gates
and the guardian lodges. These were chosen for more than their effect from
the inside out... they were chosen, also, you now see, for the other effect,
from the outside looking in: a visible stamping of power, of displayed wealth
and command: a social disproportion which was meant to impress and
overawe. Much of the real profit of a more modern agriculture went not into
productive investment, but into that explicit social declaration: a mutually
competitive but still uniform exposition, at every turn, of an established and
commanding class power.”
Williams, R., The Country and The City, Hogarth Press, London, 1985, pp.
105-106.

MR & MRS ANDREWS
Painted by Gainsborough, the landscape evokes Robert Andrews' estate, to
which his marriage added property. The gun, intended to indicate a recreational
interest in hunting, no doubt had a more sinister purpose. Key to these estates
was the availability of cheap labour - vast pools of unemployed, hungry
peasants and convicted transportees who hover beyond the edge of vision.

PETERLOO MASSACRE
The lie was given to this supposed pastoral harmony in August,
1819, when 60,000-80,000 Northern demonstrators peacefully
seeking representation were charged by sabre-wielding cavalry.
15 people were killed and 400–700 were injured.

TRANSPORTATION
The prisons were overflowing
and convicted felons were
usually transported to a penal
colony - either to the
Americas, from the 1610s
t h r o u g h t h e A m e r i c a n
Revolution in the 1770s, and
then to Australia between
1788 and 1868.
During the late 18th and 19th centuries, large numbers of convicts were
transported to the various Australian penal colonies by the British
government, many for petty crimes they were driven to commit because of
the poverty they were forced to live in. Over the 80 years more than 165,000
convicts were transported to Australia.

RECENT TRANSPORTEES
Bizarre as it sounds, the practice of forced migration continued after WW2 - albeit in
different form - up into the 1960s. British colonial policy encouraged working class
single mothers or wives of disabled servicemen were intimidated to place their children
(more than 500,000) into foster care and orphanages, which then contracted with the
Church and the Government to transport them to Australia where they were subjected
to economic exploitation and emotional, physical and often sexual abuse in Christian
Brothers institutions. In November 2009, the Australian Government at last issued a
formal apology to these “Forgotten Australians”. See:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/6578427/
Australian-apology-to-British-child-migrants-speech-in-full.html

Such practices only serve to highlight the crucial role played by forced
deportation in even the recent history of colonial development. In the early
colonial years the number of transportees and immigrant workers to the new
American colony was not enough to keep up with the demands of economic
growth. The gap was filled by slaves. The trade in slaves was the ground
upon which the economies of both Britain and United States was built.
In the Americas:
• Not enough workers
• Not enough Transportees
• Slavery was the answer
• 15 million Africans shipped
• Up to 600 slaves per ship
• Chained together hand & foot
• Half became effective workers
• 7.5M died or were crippled
• Cost price: £25
• Sale Price: £150 (500% profit)
British were the biggest traders
• Profits financed Empire building
• Development of America
THE SLAVE TRADE

SLAVERY
Additionally, much of the British
economy was built upon the slave
trade through the Ports of Liverpool
and London. Britain had outlawed the
slave trade with the Slave Trade Act
in 1807, with penalties of £100 per
slave levied on British captains found
importing slaves. But trading
continued - captains throwing their
slaves overboard rather than being
caught and fined. In 1823 the first
Anti-Slavery Society was formed in
Britain, They prevailed ten years
later with the Slavery Abolition Act
1833. Internal trading continued in
the United States until slavery was
ended at the conclusion of the Civil
War in 1865. The entire United
States Economy is built on the
bodies of African slaves

MONTICELLO
As the country moved from an agrarian to an industrial economy, the
disposition of the slave population became a source of dispute. Approximately
one Southern family in four held slaves prior to war. In 1860, about 385,000
individuals (i.e. 1.4% of White Americans in the country, or 4.8% of southern
whites) owned one or more slaves. 95% of blacks lived in the South,
comprising one third of the population there. With the coming of the Industrial
Revolution, these slaves represented a potential source of cheap labour to
Northern industrialists.
M o n t i c e l l o i n
Charlottesville, Virginia,
was the estate of Thomas
Jefferson, the principal
author of the United
States Declaration of
Independence, third
President of the United
States, and founder of the
University of Virginia. His
power was built on
slavery
and he fathered children with Sally Hemings his daughter’s childhood friend and one of his
slaves.

AMERICAN PROGRESS 1830 - 1880
The American colonisation of the West, and the dispossession of its
indigenous peoples was carried out under the ideology of Manifest Destiny.
Europeans believed that they had a superior culture, and that it was their God-
given destiny to occupy the land and to extinguish the culture of its original
inhabitants. In this illustration, we see Progress leading the settlers across the
prairie, Bible in hand, stringing telegraph wires with the other, while the
“savages” flee ahead
American Progress - John Gast, 1872
.

PAHA SAPA
The Black Hills are sacred to the Sioux Indians. In the
1868 Fort Laramie treaty and, the United States
recognized the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux
Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux
people. However, after the discovery of gold in 1874,
the United States confiscated the land in 1877.
Thomas Jefferson wrote of the Indians in America that the government was obliged
"now to pursue them to extermination, or drive them to new seats beyond our reach."
Theodor Roosevelt once said, "I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians
are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too
closely into the case of the tenth".
George Washington instructed Major General John Sullivan to attack Iroquois people
and "lay waste all the settlements around...that the country may not be merely
overrun, but destroyed", and to “not listen to any overture of peace before the total
ruin of their settlements is effected".
Abraham Lincoln ordered the execution, by hanging, of 38 Dakota Sioux prisoners in
Mankato, Minnesota. Most of those executed were holy men or political leaders of
their camps. None of them were responsible for committing the crimes they were
accused of.
Mt. Rushmore is carved into the images of four presidents who
were all white supremacists.

AMERICAN GENOCIDE
It is clear that the US had no intention of honouring the Ft.
Laramie Treaty. Gold was not “discovered” by accident in
1874. Six years after the signing, George Armstrong Custer
was in fact authorised to take his exploration team into the
Black Hills specifically to look for gold.
"They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they
never kept but one; they promised to take our land and they took it."
Historian David Stannard estimates that almost 100 million
died in what he calls the American Holocaust. What
distinguished the genocide of Latin America from that of the
United States was that in the former case the outcome was
not the intent but rather the effect of a policy of enslavement
and economic production. In the case of the United States,,
the eradication, removal and assimilation of native American
American culture was a stated policy. It was itself a form of
production.

For a description of the spiritual significance of Bear Butte visit:
http://www.tonywardedu.com/content/view/369/123/
MATO PAHA
Mato Paha - Bear Butte is the most sacred of all sacred mountains to the Plains
Indians. For untold centuries they have gone their to pray and to carry out their
sacred ceremonies. It lies about 6 miles from Sturgis, S.D., where, every August,
tens of thousands of bikers congregate for the annual Harley Davidson Rally. The
local authorities have consistently refused to grant the Dakota (or the mountain)
any special status that might protect them from the visual and noise intrusion and
the drunken behavior that attends the rally. The map (left) indicates (in red) the
bars and concert venues that have been allowed to develop around the mountain.
Were it the Vatican, offensive development would be banned.
In a simple, present
day context, we might
cite the example of
Mato Paha - bear
Butte, in South
Dakota where the
spiritual traditions and
space of indigenous
people are annually
violated.

LIBERTY
(WHAT PRICE) LIBERTY 1865-86?
What price Liberty? A gift from one supposedly libertarian colonial regime to another at a
time when Native Americans were being dispossessed and eradicated, the year after the
Navajo Long Walk..

COLONIALISM & DESIGN
Since the 14th Century, Architecture
has been complicit in the oppression
and genocide of indigenous
communities. Even with the advent of
Modernism’s theories of the Social
Good, this process not ceased. In the
1950s, Brasilia (right) required the
removal of thousands of Indigenous
people. It is listed as a World
Heritage Site.
Architecture is whore of capitalism
a n d t h e h a n d m a i d e n o f
oppression. Brasilia 1956
The question is, How can we turn architecture into an
antiracist, anticolonial project? How can we change the role of
the designer to serve, rather than oppress, the people?

COLONIALISM AND EDUCATION
“The most odious form of colonisation, and that which has
brought with it the greatest pain for the colonised (is) the
colonisation of the mind”
Franz Fanon
"The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling
ideas; ie., the class, which is the ruling material force of
society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The
class which has the means of material production at its
disposal, has control at the same time over the means of
mental production...”
Karl Marx
The field of Education is one of the major arenas of mind
colonisation in which capitalism conducts and effects its
global project. If we can transform Education, we can
change the world.

CONCEPTS MYTHOLOGISED
BY CAPITALISM
Our education must proceed through the critical demystification
of, every idea, every concept, every theory that has been shaped
and mythologised by the ruling class. Some key concepts:
• Knowledge
• Education
• Beauty
• Liberty
• History
• Democracy
• Individualism
• Competition
• Human Nature
• Responsibility
• Intelligence
• Development
• Sustainability
• Space
• Time
• Rationality
Decolonising ourselves requires that we demystify and decolonise
these and other concepts. For critical analyses of these
see:

BERKELEY 1970: FREEDOM OF SPEECH
My own re-education began as a young Assistant Professor at the
University of California, Berkeley, in 1970 around the freedom to speak
out against the Vietnam War. I had a Draft Card, a Green Card and 3
children. With the Draft Lottery, I was eligible for shipment to the war.
Some of my students had already been, others would go. We were all
already involved.

The Campus police were deployed at strategic points and patrolled the
Campus in separate roving platoons, all armed in the usual manner, with side-
arms, but also carrying teargas and riot sticks. Checkpoints were established
at all Campus entrances to make sure that everyone on campus had either
staff or student identification. This was to ensure that “outside subversive
elements” were not “infiltrating” the student population to sew the seeds of
violence (as widely reported in the news media)
.

I took these photographs during one of the many anti-war
demonstrations that occurred that Spring.

By this time life on Campus had become a parody of academic activity. Students were
coming to class with gas-masks in their packs, alongside their books and calculators. Anti-
war demonstrations were by now beginning to become widespread in all Universities
across America.

TURNING POINT
May 4th 1970
The shooting was the single factor causing the only nationwide student strike in U.S.
history—over 4 million students protested and over 900 American colleges and
universities closed during the student strikes. It was a turning point in the Vietnam War
Not long after noon on Monday, the 4th May 1970,
28 Ohio National Guardsmen fired 61 rounds of live
ammunition over a thirteen second period into an
unarmed demonstration of anti-war protesters on the
Kent State University campus, killing four and
wounding nine. The shootings led to a mass outrage
across American campuses.

CURRICULUM CHANGE
One of the most significant changes brought about by the
strike was a change to the curriculum. We created
An experimental 12 credit whole-semester programme that
allowed students to combine subjects in one major project
that promoted:
• self initiation
• self-time management
• holistic projects
• self-direction
• self-evaluation.
• experimental pedagogies
• group work and co-operative learning
• community engagement
The first intake of students, in the Spring of 1972, included a
group of 8 Chicano students.

CHICANO STUDENT PROFILES
• Two years in College
• No Hispanic buildings shown
• No Hispanic designers noted
• No Hispanic college lecturers
• No role models cited
• Low enrolment rates (<7%)
• Low completion rates (<20%)
• Low pass rates
IDENTITY AND DESIGN
Issue of cultural identity

RESULTS:
The students elected to work collectively to explore the
issue of Chicano Architecture in the context of a live
project (a Marcato) in the largely Hispanic community of
Richmond, California. The result?
• All completed the course with high grades (100%)
• All completed their degrees (100%)
• 5 went on to complete Masters (62%)
• 3 later taught Architecture at University level. (37%)
Clearly something astonishing was going on! It was my
first inkling of the powerful relationship between
language, culture, identity and learning that would serve
me well in my later work in New Zealand

The indigenous
Maori people.
Arrived approx.
800 years ago
from Oceania
MAORI

TREATY OF WAITANGI 1840
Representatives of the British Crown signed a Treaty with Maori
chiefs at Waitangi on 6th February 1940. There were two
versions of the Treaty, One in English and one in Maori. They
were not the same. In the Maori version, they ceded
Governorship (Kawanatanga). In the English version they ceded
sovereignty (Rangatiratanga). They would not have signed if
they had known.
The Treaty was written by Samuel
Marsden - a Missionary who spoke
Maori. From the get-go the Crown
intended to deceive Maori into
signing away self-government in
return for British citizenship.
The Treaty promised that the Crown would guarantee and
protect Maori land, culture, language and resources.

LAND OCCUPATION
Maori land ownership patterns
1860 1908 1960
From Cook’s “discovery” of NZ in 1769 Maori were dispossessed of 95% of
their land through government legislation and fraud.

CONFISCATIONS
One of the primary means of land
dispossession was “legal” confiscation.
Under the New Zealand Settlement Act of
1863, tribes that were deemed “rebellious”
had their land confiscated by the
government. The definition of “rebellious”
bore striking (slippery) similarities to
American Indian “Hostiles” and today’s
“terrorists” - convenient labels for
demonising those we oppress
When provocative Government raids of
native lands were resisted by Maori tribes,
they were labeled “Rebellious”, their leaders
imprisoned and hung and their lands were
taken.
The struggle continues today as Maori
attempt to gain redress and resist
globalisation

THE WHAKATANE STUDY
©2009
Tony Ward
To download a more extensive version visit:

WHAKATANE
NORTH ISLAND
SOUTH ISLAND
Bay of Plenty
LOCATION: Bay of Plenty
North Island
POPULATION: 15,000
MAORI POP.: 30% (Town)
52% (Region)
15% (Nationally)
UNEMPLOYMENT: 8%
MAORI UNEMPLOYMENT: 30%
ANNUAL FAMILY INCOME: $15,000
AVE. NATIONAL INCOME: $54,000
MAIN INDUSTRY: Farming, Tourism,
To design a commercial
development for the
Whakatane D. C.
Project:

MAORI HISTORY
Site of one of the first Maori
settlements in New Zealand -
deeply historical and of great
spiritual significance.
Landing place of the Mataatua
Waka (canoe) party - the origin of
seven separate tribes.
”Me whakatāne au i ahau nei!”
About two hundred years
before the Santa Maria
arrived in Haiti the Mataatua
canoe landed in what is now
called Whakatane.
Whakatane is a small town (35,000) located at the mouth of the Whakatane River in New Zealand’s Eastern Bay of Plenty, and is squeezed between the river and a large
escarpment to the South. Development has therefore been constrained since the 1870s when Europeans first settled the area. Before that, the area was settled by Maori
for almost a thousand years. Whakatane is believed to have been the destination of a large number of the ocean-going migratory canoes or waka that came from
Polynesia, and most specifically, the landing-place of the Mataatua waka which brought the ancestors of the present day Mataatua confederation of tribes, Ngati Awa,
Tuhoe, Whanau a Apanui, Ngai te Rangi, Whakatohea, and so on.
Wairaka is the largely Maori settlement at the river head, named after Wairaka, the daughter of the waka captain, Toroa. It is the site of the original landing-place. It is
said that then the waka landed, the men went ashore top explore, leaving only the women to guard the waka. As the tide came in the waka started to drift away. Since
waka-work was tapu, only men were allowed to wield a paddle. Wairaka, using her initiative, voiced a kaiaria (prayer):”Me whakatāne au i ahau nei!”(I must act like a
man - hence the name of the town). The population of the town is approximately 30% Maori - about twice the national average, while that of the surrounding district is
almost 50%. The history of the township and its surroundings have been the source of bitter disputes between the two cultures since 1866, Under the New Zealand
Settlement Act of 1863, the Crown wrongfully confiscated all Ngati Awa land for the alleged murder of the Lutheran Missionary Volkner in Opotiki. The Crown has
since admitted its fault, made a cash settlement and and posthumously pardoned the Ngati Awa leaders who were imprisoned and executed

WAIRAKA
“Me whakatāne au i ahau nei!”
“Make Me like a Man”

Traditional home of Ngati Awa whose entire
lands were confiscated in 1866 on the false
charge of murdering a missionary. The
leaders were hanged. They were later
(1988) pardoned and the Govt apologised
but the land was gone!
LANDLESS

TOWN DEVELOPMENT
Successive Local Governments then began to “reclaim” the harbour, and
develope a European township along the river.
At the time of European settlement, the riverbank used to wash the base of the Escarpment, and the rock, Pohaturoa, which now stands in the centre of the business
district, was an island (top right). Over the last 150 years, successive reclamations have filled in parts of the river to form a berth for trading and fishing vessels (bottom
right). In the 1950s, further reclamation isolated Pohaturoa from the river, and the development of the present commercial strip, The Strand was initiated (below left).
This development has continued since the 1950s and the town has now become something of a tourist destination with the riverfront and rivermouth forming a key
element of its identity

MODERN TOWNSHIP
Proposed Development Site
• The modern (1988) town centre occupies the narrow space between the
Escarpment and the river.
• Residential Development is mainly to the North and West
• Council wanted to develop the triangle of “reclaimed” land between the
Strand and the river
Residential development Wairaka (Maori Settlement Area) is to the East
The modern (1988) township occupies the space between the Escarpment (from which this photo is taken) and the river. Pohaturoa can be seen, surrounded by roads in
the centre of the town. It was in this context that in 1988, the Community Design Studio at the School of Architecture at the University of Auckland was approached by
a Development Management Resources (DMR) - a project management company - to participate with them in an exploratory study for the addition of further retailing
space in the triangular area behind The Strand and between it and the river. They had contracted with the District Council to conduct a retailing survey and they wanted
the Community Design Studio to develop the design concepts. We undertook to assist DMR, but with the understanding that our responsibility would be to engage with
the people of Whakatane and discover what their dreams and expectations for the town might be.

THE COUNCIL
The Council had almost no
Maori representation (one
t o k e n m e m b e r f r o m
distant Rotorua), - this
despite the fact that more
than 50% of the Region’s
population were Maori.
The Council seemed
reluctant for us to meet
Maori representatives,
saying they would “just
obstruct the process”
In our initial meetings with Council, it soon became clear that significant tensions and enmity existed between the Council and the Maori community. At a meeting with
the Mayor and Council, we raised the point that the 50% Maori population represented a significant constituency that needed to have a voice in the planning decisions.
We were reluctantly directed by Council officers to meet with the Ngati Awa Trust Board, but were told that they “did not have anything of significance to offer”. The
Council itself had only one Maori representative - a resident of Rotorua, over an hour‘s drive away. In general, we were both surprised and disappointed at the lack of
dialogue between the Council and the Maori community.
Accordingly, a meeting was set up with the Trust Board in the upper chambers of the Whakatane Hotel.

NGATI AWA
What we learned changed all of our attitudes and lives.
Stories were told of:
• land confiscation,
• dispossession,
• displacement,
• racism,
• political, spiritual and economic oppression,
• persecution
• execution of leaders
• the destruction of almost all sacred sites
• deep mistrust and anger
Nevertheless we arranged a separate
meeting with Ngati Awa.
A f t e r i n i t i a l s u s p i c i o n a n d o u r
assurances of commitment they told a
heart-rending tale of colonial oppression,
pointing to specific locations and
landmarks on our model of the town.
The first response of the Trust Board (later to become Te Runanga o Ngati Awa)to our project was not encouraging: “If you are working for the Council we are not
having anything to do with you - they have stabbed us in the back too many times already!!!” We assured them that we were working independently of the Council and
that we were seriously interested in what they had to say. Discussions took place around a scale model of the town (as currently existing) that we had made for the
purpose. Using the model as a reference point, the members of the Board began to pour out their long-standing frustrations and stories of cultural abuse and insensitivity,
pointing to specific sacred sites that had been violated over generations by successive Council plans and developments. It would be an understatement to say that we
were appalled by what we heard. For many of the students, this was the first time that they had ever been directly confronted with first-hand evidence of colonial
oppression. Most were shocked by what they heard, since New Zealand history at that time had been “cleansed” of any culpability.
Conceptions of neutrality became impossible to sustain. Students who had always believed that their knowledge was neutral and therefore innocent were quickly
divested of this illusion. The class became, in effect, a laboratory in conscientisation. This process was helped by the presence of a Maori student in the class who
consistently brought the discussions back to a cultural/political reference point, and there is little doubt that his impact upon the group and upon the process was
significant. This raises significant issues from a pedagogical point of view and confirms value of participatory or collaborative research as a basis for design and
planning projects. It also raises important questions about the composition of design teams in bicultural or multicultural settings.

Muriwai’s
Cave
Irakewa
The Heads Wairere Stream/
Falls
Munuka
Tuatahi
Piripai
Numerous Pa Sites
SACRED LANDSCAPE
Marae
Toroa’s
Wananga
PA SITE

WAHI TAPU
Irakewa Rock (dynamited)Muriwai’s Cave (Isolated, filled in)
Wairere Stream and Falls (polluted)
For more than 150 years sacred sites had been
systematically violated and desecrated by Councils,
despite the pleas of the tribe. These included the three
that had been cited as location markers by Irakewa to
his son Toroa, 700 years ago, as the site of a possible
settlement. Toroa was the captain of the Mataatua
Canoe which founded Whakatane
Te Toka o Irakewa (Irakewa Rock) is one of three landmarks that Toroa was told to look for by his father Irakewa when he set off in the Mataatua waka. Irakewa had
visited the site earlier. The other two sites that he told his people to look for were a cave “for Muriwai” (below left) and a waterfall (above right). Using these references,
Toroa was able to rediscover Kakahoroa (the original name for the area) and to settle it. Over the years, these landmarks have been violated. Wairere stream has been
polluted by the town dump above its source, Muriwai’s cave has been isolated from the river and largely filled in, and in 1925, the then Harbour Board dynamited much
of Irakewa Rock to improve the harbour entrance ( seen below right as only ripples on the water). This despite vigorous protest from Maori. These and other examples
made it very clear to the design team that no positive development of the town was possible until these (to Maori sacrilegious) acts of vandalism were acknowledged
and atoned.

PIRIPAI
Ancient Urupa (burial site)
One of the Council’s plans was to open up Piripai (the Sand-spit) for
residential and commercial development, despite the fact that is the site of
numerous ancient burial sites
Piripai is the name of the sandspit which separates the Whakatane River from the Bay of Plenty and the Pacific Ocean. Apart from its outstanding beauty, it is also
reputed by Maori to be an urupa - the site of numerous burials from both ancient battles and more recently from the influenza epidemic that claimed many lives in 1918.
Over the years, many proposals have been raised to develop Piripai for residential development by linking it to the township with another bridge. Fortunately, the
development costs have, until now, prevented this from happening. One of the issues raised by Ngati Awa was that Piripai must be made sacrosanct and immune to
development because of its highly tapu nature.

POHATUROA - ULTIMATE INSULT
POHATUROA
Pohaturoa - the Rock - was the centre of ceremonial life. Here, mothers buried
the whenua (afterbirth) and pito (umbilicus) of their newborn. In Maori, the
word whenua has a double meaning. One the one hand it means afterbirth. It
also means land - signifying that the spiritual connection between the person
and the place is more than metaphorical. The Council built a public toilet over
the spot!
Toilet
The most saddening of all of the stories poured out by the members of the Ngati Awa Trust Board concerned the desecration of their sacred rock - Pohaturoa in the
centre of the town. This rock, (bottom right in this photograph) had for centuries been a place where Ngati Awa mothers had buried the whenua (placenta and umbilicus)
of their babies. The Council had constructed a public toilet over this most sacred of places (the white building up against the side of the rock). In Maori, the word
whenua has a double meaning. One the one hand it means afterbirth. It also means land - signifying that the spiritual connection between the person and the place is
more than metaphorical. Those who have a right to occupy a place are said to have mana whenua, and they themselves are termed tangata whenua - literally, “people of
the land”. The construction of the toilet was therefore seen not only as an insult to Ngati Awa parents and children, but as a direct affront to the mana whenua of Ngati
Awa as a whole, -the ultimate insult.

DESIGN DILEMMA
We faced a stark choice:
• Conform to Council philosophies and ignore
the pain of Ngati Awa and the cultural history
of all previous developments
• Confront Council and risk the project
We collectively decided on a third alternative:
• Using design as a lever, broker a reconciliation
between the two communities

RECONCILIATION
We supported Ngati Awa claims and opted to
intervene to act as intermediaries, with the
townspeople.
Clearly:
• Reconciliation was necessary.
• Before reconciliation could take
place, a dialogue needed to be
established.
• Before a dialogue could take place,
trust needed to be established.
• Neither party trusted the other
enough to initiate the process of
trust-building (a vicious circle).

TRUST-BUILDING
Creating an environment of mutual trust required
that:
• We establish the trust of both parties.
• We operate a process of inclusivity
• We develop a common language
• We make no attempt to dictate the dialogue
• We continually reflect-back community concerns and issues
• We interpret, explain and mediate
• We stress common goals rather than differences
• We facilitate open dialogue and community decision-making
WE LISTEN!

LINKING ISSUES
We developed 67 Patterns to guide Town Development.
They addressed not only:
• economic and material concerns
• employment creation
• investment
• tourism etc.
but also:
• Reinstatement of Wahi Tapu,
• A truthful recounting of history
• Acknowledgment of past wrongs
• Constitutional representation on Local Bodies
Our task became to demonstrate the linkages between
these issues (for instance by portraying Maori culture
and history as an essential ingredient for economic
growth).

DIFFERENCES
The Council’s Perceptions were:
• materialistic
• economic
• progressive.
They were interested in:
• Town Growth
• Attracting Investment.
• Sustainable Development
• COUNCIL WERE LOOKING TO
THE FUTURE
• N G A T I A W A W E R E
UNWILLING TO LEAVE THE
PAINFUL PAST
Ngati Awa were not anti-growth, but
the council failed to recognise the link
between the past and the future. Our
task was to make that link explicit.

DETAILS
Four design proposals were fleshed
out with sketches, plans and a scale
model designed to illustrate the
proposal for the non-professional
general public.

COUNCIL DISPLAY
The model, the four design proposals and all of the supporting arguments and
Patterns were displayed in the foyer of the District Council offices for a week
in preparation for a Town Forum that was advertised in the local press and on
talkback radio.
The model, the four design proposals and all of the supporting arguments and Patterns were displayed in the foyer of the District Council offices for a week. This
display, as well as the time and venue of the upcoming Town Forum were advertised in the local press and discussed on radio-talkback (where the Design Studio had
been allocated air-time). In addition, students were encouraged to circulate throughout the town showing their work and discussing their ideas. Public interest was very
strong and a large number of citizens visited the display.

THE TOWN FORUM
170 people attended on a stormy night. All Councilors, Ngati Awa Trust Board
members, many retailers and large numbers of Maori and pakeha members of
the public came. The meeting was facilitated by the students.
The Town Forum took place at the War memorial Hall on a very wet and stormy Thursday night. Surprisingly, 170 people attended - an extraordinary number given the
conditions. The Forum was opened by Mayor Byrne and facilitated by the staff and students of the Community Design Studio. All the material was on display for people
to view. The Forum began with an overview of the process and a description of the role of the University. The general parameters and criteria of the design were
described as were the characteristics of each of the four design proposals. Participants included almost the entire Council, several Council officers, members of the Ngati
awa trust Board, local retailers and numerous members of the general public both Maori and pakeha.

DISCUSSION
Following a general description
and explanation, break-out
sessions, facilitated by students
were asked to suggest:
• Five points of agreement
• Five points of disagreement
• Five points overlooked
Plenary Session
Breakout Session
Student Facilitation
Following the initial description, participants were encouraged to view the material and discuss its content with team members for purposes of clarification ( top right).
When everyone felt that they thoroughly understood the proposals, the participants were asked to break down into focus groups at tables (with pens and papers, copies
of the report and copies of the designs) facilitated by design students (below right). They were asked to list:
• Five points of agreement with the designs
• Five points of disagreement with the designs
• Five desirable points overlooked in the designs
• Five undesirable points overlooked in the designs
This information was then included in an exhaustive meta-list for discussion in plenary session (below)

CONSENSUS DESIGN
Based on this feedback and internal review a final design was
proposed that seemed to contain the best elements of all of the
preliminaries. A supermarket was included, with strenuous
recommendations that it be omitted and strong safeguards for the flax-
dyeing area.

THE REPORT
The Mayor concluded the meeting by
saying:
“We have all witnessed and participated in
a truly historic moment in the history of
Whakatane in which for the first time,
people with long-standing differences
have come together to find common
ground in the interests of the whole
community.”
SINCE THEN....
In the ensuing years, many of the recommendations in the Report were incorporated into
the District Scheme and have had a major impact upon the quality of life in Whakatane.

HERITAGE TRAIL
The proposed Cultural Heritage Trail
has been completed. All sites have been
included. Signs with Maori versions of
historical events, critical of past Council,
are prominently displayed
Irekawa
Muriwai’s Cave
Wairere Falls

PIRIPAI
Recommendations on the need to
preserve the un-built nature of
Piripai have so far been successful,
but the pressure for development
remains. The struggle continues
Recommendations on the need to preserve the unbuilt nature of Piripai have so far been successful, but the pressure for development remains. The Council owns the
land and has a plan to develop 100 acres of residential development. Ngati Awa themselves have plans to rebuild their “lost” meeting house Mataatua on Piripai, as part
of a Conference Centre development. In 2005, proposals from the 1950s were reawakened to cut a harbour channel through Piripai to ease the exit to the Bay from the
river - thus leaving the Heads as a kind of stagnant backwater lagoon for moorings. All of these proposals have been aired over the last few years, and great vigilance
must be exercised to prevent one or all of them being realised. The undisturbed tranquility of Piripai is a taonga that must be retained at all cost. Development could
eventually see it becoming like Waihi Beach or Pukahina - a very real loss.

THE TOILETS
.
The offensive public toilets (right) have been
removed and the area landscaped.
While the Waiewe stream has not been reinstated, and while the road between Pohaturoa and the Escarpment remains in place, a great deal of comfort is taken from the
fact that the offensive public toilets have been removed and the area landscaped. The memorial shelter to those killed in World Wars also remains. More could
undoubtedly be done to celebrate this most sacred of all wahi tapu and to acknowledge its importance in Ngati Awa history

REPRESENTATION
Whakatane District Council is now considered one of the most culturally
sensitive Councils in New Zealand. A Maori Liaison Committee has been
appointed. This Committee comprises 12 members:
• The Mayor
• 11 Tribal representatives from different Iwi and Hapu in the region
• 2 Councillors
The Committee has only an advisory capacity, but its voice is increasingly
heard by the Council as a whole.

© Tony Ward
2000
A more detailed version of this presentation is available at”
TE WHARE KURA O HOANI WAITITI
In 1982, concerned about their disappearing language and culture, leaders in the Maori community got
together to develop a program of language reclamation. They proposed a system of Kohanga Reo -
“Language Nests” in which fluent speakers of the language - grandparents, aunts and uncles would
establish Maori-language kindergartens. At first they did so without government funding, but the
system was so successful that eventually the government “bought in”. Three years later there emerged
from these Kohanga a large group of Maori-fluent children, and the Maori community pressured the
government to initiate a parallel system of kura kaupapa Primary Schools. The first was at Hoani Waititi
Marae in West Auckland. Seven years later, in 1993, a phalanx of culturally strong adolescents
emerged from these schools and once again, the Maori community demanded a culturally-specific
post-primary school system for their children. This is the story of that first kura kaupapa Maori High
School - again at Hoani Waititi Marae.

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE MAORI
• The Maori population of NZ is about 15%
• Number of Maori students in the SOA (1990) - app.15 (5%)
• Maori student completion rates (1990) <30%
There was a real need to do something to support the Maori students.
THUS
Formation of Whaihanga - Maori student support group in January 1993 by
Tony Ward, Rau Hoskins and Saul Roberts, two Maori Graduate students.
We determined to initiate support with a joint project, including Maori students
from all years.
We would design NZs first Kaupapa Maori High School.

Dr. Pita Sharples - now Minister of Education
(right) with Elder Frank Paul and Senior
Lecturers Tony Ward, Mike Barnes with
Tutors Rau Hoskins and Saul Roberts with
the students of Whaihanga design team - the
Maori Architecture, Engineering and Planning
Support group
Appointed by the Board of
Trustees, and working directly
with the Ministry of Education,
twelve Maori and one Maori-
speaking Pakeha undergraduate
students (all members of the
recently formed Whaihanga
Maori student support group)
undertook and completed this
historic project on time and
within budget.
THE TEAM

CONCEPTUAL BEGINNINGS
The concept was gradually developed (left to right) taking in the different
elements of existing infrastructure and buildings. The idea of linked but
separate centres became increasingly clear, with each of these subsidiary
centres (linked to the different stages of growth and development of the
individual as an individual and as a social being with a life centred around
whanau and Marae.
The concept was gradually developed (left to right) taking in the different elements of existing infrastructure and buildings. The idea of linked but separate
centres became increasingly clear, with each of these subsidiary centres (linked to the different stages of growth and development of the individual as an
individual and as a social being with a life centred around whanau and Marae. Hence, there is a centre for the infants (Kohanga reo) for the tamariki
(Kura Kaupapa Primary), for the adolescent (Whare Kura) and for the elderly (Kaumatua Housing). It was envisaged that, (as with the ponga) the system
was open-ended, allowing for the eventual addition of a Whare Wananga (Tertiary Institute)

Gradually, a site development plan emerged (right) from the conceptual diagram
(left). In the plan, the small creek along the Eastern boundary of the access
road became the linking element, the spine, of the proposed design. Off this
spine, different centres evolve with their own identity
Conceptual Diagram Transformation Initial proposal
TRANSFORMATIONS
Gradually, a site development plan emerged (right) from the conceptual diagram (left). In the plan,
the small creek which ran along the Eastern boundary of the access road became the linking element,
the spine, of the proposed design. Off this spine, different centres evolve with their own identity, but
always relating back to the main centre of the Marae Atea and the whare nui or whare tupuna.

This initial proposal the went through a process of several further
transformations, in detailed consultation with the Hoani Waititi Board of
Trustees and the Ministry of Education. From the rough conceptual diagram,
a more definite site plan emerged (left) locating the proposed Whare Kura as
one of these centres,to the east of the creek, but overhanging it and
integrating it into the building design.
Overall Site Plan Whare Kura Site Development Building Locations
DEVELOPED DESIGN

All of these building designs were modeled on the
base model that had been constructed earlier and
discussed with the Hoani Waititi community as well as
with the Ministry of Education. Detailed cost estimates
were developed for each building proposal as well as
for the development of the site as a whole.
Library
Whare Tapere
Admin.
Whare Hui
Specialist
Classrooms
Atea
Classrooms
Marae
Whare Kura
Kaumatua Housing
Kura and Kohanga
Marae
Creek
Whare Kura
Marae
MODELING

View across the Atea from Whare Nui
Specialist Classrooms on left, Whare Tapere distant right
TE WHARE KURA O HOANI
WAITITI

Working drawings, specifications and
tenders were completed, and several
students were employed in the
process. Two years later, the school
w a s f i n i s h e d i n c l u d i n g t h e
Administration Building (below).
Administration Building Plan
Administration Building
REALISATION

The Whare Matauranga was altered substantially
from the original design. However, its relationship
to the creek, was retained and its bush outlook -
the main design intention in the original. The
interior, has the same lofty feeling of the original.
WHARE MATAURANGA

The specialist rooms (Art, Science and Engineering) are grouped together and
clustered around the small creek. Native vegetation - Ponga, cabbage trees and
harakeke (flax) were retained, providing summer shade pleasant outdoor
learning spaces adjacent to decks.
SPECIALIST CLASSROOMS

Total cost: $3M+
No. of students: 14
Students who graduated: 12 (86%)
No. completing Masters: 2
No. teaching at University level: 3
No. at Practice Director levels: 4
No. at other senior levels: 6
Maori speakers at start: 3
Maori speakers at end: 7
CODA

THE PARIHAKA PROJECT
© Tony Ward 2009
A downloadable and extended version of this presentation is available at:
Another Whaihanga Project

In the 1860s and 1870s, the European
invasion of the Waikato and the
crossing of the Waitara River in 1860 in
violation of agreements with Maori led
to stiff resistance. The New Zealand
Settlement Act of 1863 paved the way
for the illegal confiscation in 1865 of
1.5 million acres of Taranaki land (the
area coloured blue in the map below
right.) For a long time after the passing
of the Act nothing happened - because
of the geographical remoteness of the
region.
CONFISCATIONS
Taranaki Maori naturally assumed that the Act had been a matter of little consequence and went back
to their daily lives with assurances from the Government that peaceful existence would ensure their
continued occupation. To further allay the fears of Maori, and prevent further resistance the
Government promised that ample Reserves would be set aside for Maori occupation. This never
happened.

TE WHITI AND TOHU
Two Taranaki chiefs, Te Whiti-o-
Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi
e s t a b l i s h e d a p e a c e f u l
community at Parihaka. They
and their followers were devoted
to the principles of non-violence
and passive resistance later
made famous by Mahatma
Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther
K i n g . T h e c o m m u n i t y a t
Parihaka Pa, became a centre of
resistance as members of other
dispossessed tribes migrated to
Parihaka where peace still
existed.
Te Whiti o Rongomai
Tohu Kakahi

PARIHAKA 1870-80
By 1870, a prosperous settlement
• 1500 inhabitants.
• its own vegetable gardens
• wheat fields
• three flour mills
• piped water
• electric street lights.
Europeans were always welcome. The
community was peaceful, hard working
and orderly.
Parihaka in 1981

Gradually, roads were built
by the armed constabulary
and were approaching the
Parihaka community (top
right). Surveyors arrived in
1879 to survey the area
for European occupation.
Te Whiti and Tohu directed
them to leave until the
promised Reserves had
been established. They
left but returned. On May
25th 1879, Te Whiti sent
his ploughmen to plough
symbolic furrows into the
land taken from them at
Oakura. (below right).
THE SURVEYS
The Ploughmen
Armed road-builders

THE ARRESTS
Te Whiti’s ploughmen were arrested. Within a week, more than a hundred
were in custody, many were sentenced to hard labour in the Dunedin gaol.
None of them were ever tried. The Government passed new laws
• The Maori Prisoners Trial Act - suspending habeas corpus and
allowing Maori to be imprisoned without trial.
• The Maori Prisoners Act prevented any lawmaker from bailing or
releasing untried prisoners.
• The Maori Prisoners Detention Act ensured that Maori from Parihaka
who fenced across roads were to be held under the same laws as the
ploughmen.
• The West Coast Settlement Act allowed that Maori could be arrested
for on suspicion of gathering to engage in acts of civil disobedience,
On 26th June, ploughmen who had caused 5 shillings worth of damage to
were sentenced to 2 months hard labour in Dunedin gaol, with sureties of
£600 to keep the peace for one year, or to serve 12 months hard labour in
Dunedin. All of this without trial.
(Sound a bit like the Homeland Security Act & Guantanamo?)

THE INVASION
It was into this context that
early in November, Parihaka
Pa was invaded by a force of
945 volunteers and 644
armed constabulary all armed
to the teeth and supported by
m u n i t i o n s - l a d e n p a c k
animals. Inside the pa there
were very few weapons -
mostly old and inoperative.
The people were under clear
instructions not to engage in
acts of aggression but to
remain always polite and
welcoming
Invasion Day, Nov. 6th 1881.
The invaders, November 5th 1881

6th November,
• Village was invaded and pillaged.
• They were met on the path into the
village by two lines of children - one of
boys, singing, the other of girls, kneeling
and doing the poi.
• The women of the Pa had baked 500
loaves of bread for the advancing
soldiers.
• The pa was searched and only a small
handful of old and minor weapons were
found.
• A six-pound artillery piece was installed
overlooking the village.
• 2000 people sat quietly awaiting their
arrest.
• They made way for the troops who
moved in and arrested Te Whiti and Tohu.
THE INVASION
Te Whiti being taken from Parihaka

• Following the invasion of the Pa,
• continued resistance and imprisonments through to the end of the
century.
• Occupation remained in place for two years.
• Women were raped, gardens, crops and houses destroyed,
• hundreds of livestock were slaughtered,
• precious artifacts were stolen and looted and public meetings were
forbidden.
THE OCCUPATION

THE RECONSTRUCTION
In March 1883, Te Whiti and Tohu were finally
released and arrived back at Parihaka. They were
still unable to hold meetings for another 17 months,
but quickly set about rebuilding the pa.
• New houses were built around the Marae.
• Roads were built and improved,
• A bakery and butchery were built.
• A good water supply was installed,
• as was electric lighting - before even
Wellington could boast the same.
It was not until 1897-8 that the majority of the
prisoners returned from Dunedin. Many had died
there. The return of the prisoners was greeted with
celebrations, singing (below). But:
• the promised reserves of 25,000 acres were
reduced to 5,000 acres “as punishment”.
• Even these reserves were not returned, but
were instead vested in a Public Trustee and
leased to Europeans at peppercorn rents in
perpetuity.
The continued poverty of Parihaka was thus
guaranteed.

THE LEGACY
In 1995 the Community Design Studio was invited to help
the people of Parihaka develop planning guidelines to
revitalise their economy, and develop designs for Te
Whiti’s ageing Council House, Te Tae Pae. This involved
the surveying of the village - a task that their ancestors
and been imprisoned and died for resisting some
hundred years earlier. It was a task we undertook with
great humility.

THE SURVEY
During the Winter of 1995, staff and
students regularly traveled the 6
hour drive to Taranaki to survey the
Pa (often in freezing conditions) and
to begin construction of a scale
model. Readings were taken from
the top of the hill where the 6 pound
artillery piece had been situated
during the invasion of 1881.
In a great irony, we discovered that
b e c a u s e p a r t o f t h e c i v i l
disobedience in Te Whiti’s time had
included the removal of survey pegs
none could be found to which the
new survey readings could be
related. This meant that it was
impossible to locate any of the
readings of buildings or topography
relative to known geographies.
Consequently the electronic data
could not be plotted to produce the
contour map needed to make the
model.
Aerial View of the 49 acre Pa 1994

BUILDING THE MODEL
Once the survey was complete we were able to draw accurate
topographical maps of the pa site and from these to construct an
accurate 3 dimensional model. The children from the community
assisted us in constructing the model, placing the houses and
integrating the vegetation. The elders, too, were always available to
tell their stories and to help us to locate these with accuracy. The
model became an indispensable aid to our knowledge and
understanding

In addition to the survey,
model and development
plan, we were also asked to
develop designs for the
rehabilitation - Te Whiti’s old
Council building. Though
much loved, it was quite
dilapidated and too small for
the increasingly large groups
that gathered there for the
18ths.
Nga Puna Waihanga Hui 1994 (Gil Hanly)
TE PAE PAE
Te Pae Pae 1994

PRELIMINARY PLANS
Preliminary Ground Floor Plan Preliminary First Floor Plan
The need to significantly increase the space available in Te Pae Pae, coupled with
site restrictions imposed by the Atea to the West and the stream to the East
suggested a need to add a second storey. Since the sleeping capacity of the
existing whare was only marginally adequate, it made sense to make this new
space available for sleeping. This raised serious issues of tikanga, since it would
locate sleeping areas above food areas. There was extended debate among Maori
student participants about the efficacy of this (based upon their own iwi-tikanga
understandings). In the end, it was clear that Parihaka operated on the basis of its
own kawa and tikanga, and the students came to accept this as a viable solution.

CULTURAL LANDCAPE
The new spatial organisation of Te Pae Pae was
configured around specific directions and points of
reference in the historical and cultural landscape of the
Pa. In this way, the building itself, through its
orientations and outlooks provides a constant reminder
to resident and visitor of the significant aspects of the
Parihaka story.
Whare Puni roof and Taranaki Entrance points to Te Whiti’s Tomb.Tohu’s Grave site

Te Niho
Te Raukura Te Pae Pae
Mahi Kuare
Toroanui
Rangi Kapuia
Te Whiti’s Tomb
Tohu’s Grave
Taranaki
Te Whiti’s Tomb
Te Pae Pae
Toroanui
Te Raukura
Te Niho
POINTS OF REFERENCE
The heart of the Parihaka Pa remains
intact. The whenua is the reference for
the history and heroism of the people.
There, lie all of the major features that
weve together the story of Parihaka.
And the story is told, for us, in the
organisation of the building, which
points to and acknowledges this
sacred history.

MEDIA COVERAGE
The story of the Parihaka Project became
nation-wide news in mid-1996, as TVNZ film
crews arrived to film the final stages of the
process. The final stages of the model-
building were filmed (below and right), the
residents and students were interviewed and
the programme went to air on Marae on 25th
June.

THE DESIGN
And so the project came to an end. The models and all documentation were given
to the Trustees to use as they wished. Later, they would form the centrepiece of
the Exhibition Parihaka: The Art of Passive Resistance which opened at Te Puke
Ariki, the New Plymouth Art Gallery and Museum, after exhibiting in Wellington
and Auckland.

DESIGN MODEL IMAGES
Below are a number of general images of the design model in its final form.

THE DREAM
On the last day of the project, I was taken aside by an elder. As we climbed up the
steps of the ruin of Te Raukura, he told me of a dream he had had as a young child.
He was in his late 80s now, and not quite old enough to have known Te Whiti.
When he was five, he had dreamed that he was standing on the edge of a very large
crowd, surrounding Te Whiti who was sitting on the verandah of Te Raukura. Slowly
he wriggled his way to the front of the crowd. As he got closer to the front, between
the legs of the adults, they tried to hold him back. But Te Whiti had seen the child
and told those present to let him through. He climbed the steps to stand in front of
the old man. Quietly, he told me that Te Whiti said to him, “Child, I will soon die, and
Parihaka will decline. But one day it will return to its former glory. You will not see the
day of its full greatness, but you will see the dawn of that day - the beginning of that
rebirth!”
On the spot where Te Whiti had sat, the old man turned to me with tears in his eyes
and said, “ I believe that this is the day that Te Whiti told me about.”

INDIGENOUS PEDAGOGIES
The world is in a mess. Part of the reason for the mess is capitalism
and its colonising project. The world of Education has contributed to
that mess and assists in the ongoing colonisation process. To bring
about real change (and to save the world) it will be necessary to
radically transform education.
Precolonial, pre-capitalist indigenous pedagogies offer some important
pointers to how we might make Education an instrument for social
change.
What follows are a series of guidelines culled from 30
years of working in the Maori community in Aotearoa-
New Zealand. Many are shared with other Indigenous
cultures.

ASPECTS OF MAORI PEDAGOGY
• Maori tend towards a holistic approach to education with subject connections,
rather than divisions, stressed
• Learning in groups is favoured over individual learning
• Knowledge belongs to the group and is to be used in service to the group rather
than individual ambition.
• Individual achievement is less important than learning to be an acceptable group
member
• Where possible, learners are integrated into existing groups comprising a range of
expertise
• Much important knowledge is gained in the peer group where information is
pooled.
• There is emphasis on the learner LOOKING, LISTENING and IMITATING with a
minimum of instructional words
• Maori adults tend not to prepare learners for problems beforehand and do not
warn them about possible mistakes
• Much significant learning takes place ad hoc and when needed, often after a crisis
situation, when emotions are high.

• Learners are encouraged to learn by DOING tasks in the proper setting
• There is emphasis on the learner LOOKING, LISTENING and IMITATING with a
minimum of instructional words
• Maori adults tend not to prepare learners for problems beforehand and do not
warn them about possible mistakes
• Much significant learning takes place ad hoc and when needed, often after a crisis
situation, when emotions are high.
• Learners are encouraged to learn by DOING tasks in the proper setting
• Maori teachers avoid singling out individuals for praise or blame in public.
• Memorisation and rote learning have an important role in transmitting culture and
values
• Storytelling is an important learning-teaching medium
• The relationship between “learner” and “teacher” is very important.
• Education involves the heart as well as the head.
• Learning in the context of community needs is critical

• Accretive learning in a collective situation is the preferred mode
• Talking circles are conducive to better communication
• Teachers model behaviours for students
• Learning takes place within a cultural framework (tikanga)
• The spiritual has an important place in learning
• Mutual dependency between students increases learning depth
• Supportive communication enhances learning
• Good decisions are recognised by their consensus value
• Taking the time to arrive at consensus is more productive and sustainable
• The process is more important than the outcome
• Ritualised learning processes are very powerful
• Learning is deeper when it integrates mental and physical activity
• Acknowledgement is a crucial aspect of communication
Not all of these are unique to Indigenous cultures but I have
found in my experience that collectively, they are able to
produce transformative educational outcomes.

Colonialism and the architecture project.

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Colonialism and the architecture project.

Similar to Colonialism and the architecture project. (15)

More from Tony Ward

More from Tony Ward (18)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Colonialism and the architecture project.