The All Blacks’ recent South African tour may have been dubbed “Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry” by sports commentators, but Hauraki historians are more interested in the two countries’ original conflict.
To commemorate the rugby tour, seven year-11 and -12 students from Hauraki Plains College developed an exhibit diving into New Zealand’s involvement with the Boer War of 1899.
The exhibit covers a series of events over the course of around two months, centred around the tiny town of Colesberg. It looks at topics including New Zealand’s local volunteer contingents; Walter Callaway, a Coromandel man who is widely credited as the first Māori to serve in the South African War; Colesberg’s links to New Zealand; and more.
Colesberg could be considered the “cradle” of the Anzac story, historian Mike Dwight said. As well as being the site of New Zealand’s first overseas battlefield, it was also the place where New Zealanders and Australians first fought alongside each other. Of the 214 men sent from New Zealand to fight, 14 were from the Coromandel and Hauraki Plains area.
A hill in Colesberg still bears the name New Zealand Hill in commemoration of a battle fought there in 1900.
“As you start digging into this history, you start realising the connectivity… there’s a shared history, and we’re connected more than you think,” Mike said.
“That’s the thing that’s excited me, as an immigrant.”
Mike said the All Blacks tour, which involved four test matches against the Springboks from August 7 to September 12, was the ideal time to delve into the two countries’ shared history.
“There was no official record written of New Zealand in South Africa until 1948… I’ve seen it called New Zealand’s Forgotten War,” he said.
“It’s probably time that it’s no longer forgotten.”
The students’ original exhibition has been sent to the Colesberg Museum for display, with a replica display placed on show at the Hauraki Plains Library in Ngatea.
“It’s really exciting having something that we made by hand being overseas and seen by a bunch of people,” the students said.
“It was a good experience to get into the field of history and open [our] eyes about what else is hidden in the Hauraki Plains.”
A second, related, exhibit is also on display at Paeroa Library, with contributions from Karangahake School students. This one tells the story of Karangahake miner George Bradford, who fought in the Boer War and subsequently became the first New Zealand prisoner of war and overseas casualty.
