Kōrero: Catholic Church

Catholicism and Māori: Opanaki church, Northland, around 1885 (2 o 3)

Catholicism and Māori: Opanaki church, Northland, around 1885

The heavily bearded Father James McDonald (known to Māori as Maketanara) stands beneath the cross of this small raupō chapel at Opanaki (later renamed Kaihū), in Northland. Father McDonald arrived in New Zealand from Ireland with his brother William in the 1850s. By the 1880s, when this photo was taken, he held responsibility for all Māori Catholics in the northern North Island. He made huge journeys on horseback to remote communities like Opanaki to say Mass, baptise babies, hear confessions and insist that his parishioners repair their local chapel.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library, G. M. Preston Collection
Reference: PA1-o-423-06-1

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Te tuhi tohutoro mō tēnei whārangi:

Rory Sweetman, 'Catholic Church - First Catholic missionaries', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/mi/photograph/29274/catholicism-and-maori-opanaki-church-northland-around-1885 (accessed 12 May 2024)

He kōrero nā Rory Sweetman, i tāngia i te 5 May 2011, reviewed & revised 17 Jul 2018