Surviving the Tarawera eruption: the experience of Māori settlements in the Red Zone

The 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera was the most lethal volcanic event in New Zealand colonial history, destroying Māori settlements and burying the famed Pink and White Terraces in ash. The traditional landowners were forced from their ancestral lands for generations. As many bodies were never recovered, the Māori casualty toll was tentative, and uncertainty remains. The Tarawera eruption narrative is Eurocentric. Māori survivors of the eruption were poorly documented. This transdisciplinary study re-evaluates Māori survivor and media accounts and photography through the lens of Hochstetter’s 1859 survey bearings and large-scale mapping. Together with archaeological records, these help establish the coordinates of pre-eruption Māori settlements. Relocating Te Ariki proved key to the analysis, as did Totarariki, Matakana, Tokiniho and Waitangi. Gaps in the historical record exist for Te Rata Bay and Oneroa Bay at Lake Tarawera. These led to recognition of a third mortality cluster of 23 people. Some families escaped the Red Zone, and at least one undocumented Māori survivor is known to have escaped. Statistical and Time and Distance studies were made to examine the likelihood of survivors escaping the lake settlements before the eruption's base surges overwhelmed the Rotomahana Basin. Many casualties were likely caused by a toxic gas cloud. The research will assist the traditional landowners to relocate settlements, help reconcile casualty figures and inform as to whether the ancestors’ Flight or Freeze decisions were optimal.