Media Release
For Immediate Release
23 June 2013

Date of Hone Heke’s reburial announced

The Ngapuhi leader David Rankin – a descendent of the nineteenth century warrior chief Hone Heke – has announced that the reburial of Heke’s remains will take place in a dawn ceremony on Saturday 31 August in a location close to Kaikohe. 

“The date has been settled,” says Rankin, “and we can confirm that our ancestor’s bones will be buried at a little-known but very sacred site for Ngapuhi.”

Two years ago, Rankin removed Heke’s bones from a cave near Pakaraka, where they had lain since 1850, when the great Ngapuhi chief died.  He says that the time is now right for the remains to be buried in the new and final resting place.

“We removed the bones two years ago from a site that was under risk of development,” Rankin explains.  “Now, we have nominated the new site as the location where they can be placed permanently.  We will be announcing the place of their interment closer to the time.”

Meanwhile, Heke’s biographer, historian Professor Paul Moon, has described the forthcoming interment as significant: “very few chiefs have their bones re-buried in modern times, and none of Heke’s status. This will be a unique event in our modern history,” he says.

It is expected that hundreds of people will assemble for the dawn ceremony on 31 August, when Heke’s bones will be brought to their final resting place.  An announcement on the precise location of the burial will be made a week beforehand.

ENDS

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