Auckland Heritage Festival 2020 – The Feast or Hakari at Remuera in 1844

Friday, 2 October 2020
6:30pm
Remuera Library

RSVP to: Remuera Library 09 5202532 or sue.jackson@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

In May 1844, Remuera was the scene of a most visually spectacular, dramatic and colourful event – the Feast or Hakari at Remuera. This was a week long festivity attracting some 4000 Maori from tribes from Hokianga and the Bay of Island in the north to Waikato, Thames and Kawhia in the south.  A much smaller group from fledging Auckland colonial settlements also attended. This event was captured in a grand scale watercolour by painter, surveyor and interpreter Joseph Jenner Merrett.

Joseph Jenner Merret painted the feast in 1844 and later in the 1890s a lithograph was produced in New Zealand and Australia which was widely distributed through the Auckland Star newspaper.

Remuera Heritage’s Chair, Sue Cooper, will talk about the background to the great Remuera feast and its presentation in art and writing.

Auckland Museum’s Great Feast interactive exhibition will be installed at the Remuera Library for the duration of the heritage festival from Tuesday 29 September to 14 October.