Journey to a Hanging

by Peter Wells

Part history, part biography, part social commentary, this fascinating book is about infamous events that shook New Zealand to its core.

In 1865, Rev Carl Sylvius Volkner was hanged, his head cut off, his eyes eaten and his blood drunk from his church chalice. One name – Kereopa Te Rau (Kaiwhatu: The Eye-eater) – became synonymous with the murder. In 1871 he was captured, tried and sentenced to death. But then something remarkable happened. Sister Aubert and William Colenso — two of the greatest minds in colonial New Zealand — came to his defence.

Regardless, Kereopa Te Rau was hanged in Napier Prison. But even a century and a half later, the events have not been laid to rest. Questions continue to emerge: Was it just? Was it right? Was Kereopa Te Rau even behind the murder? And who was Volkner – was he a spy or an innocent?

In a personal quest, author Peter Wells travels back into an antipodean heart of darkness and illuminates how we try to make sense of the past, how we heal, remember - and forget.

416 pages, Paperback

First published July 4, 2014

Reviews

[Angelique Simonsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

really well researched book about colonial new zealand. I enjoyed the narrative. New Zealand pakeha dispensing with their own slow cruel utu 😢😢 sad story really

[Robbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story of two hangings & the government response. A fascinating insight into opposing world-views. This book could have been made better by the inclusion of maps showing where the locations were but otherwise worth a read.

[Nelson Wattie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The gruesome hanging and decapitation of the German missionary Carl Voelkner has long been debated by historians and figures in fiction by Witi Ihimaera, Maurice Shadbolt and others. Peter Wells convincingly shifts it to the centre of Maori-Pakeha relations in the nineteenth century, explores the often contradictory evidence and debates its impact on major historical personalities such as Sister Aubert, William Colenso and Donald Mclean – as well as the impact it should continue to have today. I found Wells’s narrative analysis of life in 1870s Napier (my turangawaewae) especially moving, but the entire book has the narrative power of an excellent novel. It also questions deeply the entire enterprise of historiography when dealing with potentially unreliable evidence (ultimately all historical evidence is unreliable). This book is not only a great read, it is also of considerable significance to the project of exploring New Zealand history.