Play on crucial chapter in Waikato history 'likely to cause a fuss'

Monday, 22 June 2026

A Waikato playwright’s work about a tumultuous time in the country’s history is being picked up as a teaching resource in schools around the country.

A Wellspring of Tears - He Puna Roimata is set during the 1850s and 60s, during the genesis of the Māori King Movement and the lead-up to the Invasion of the Waikato by Imperial and colonial troops.

Written by Russell Armitage, the play is based on transcripts taken from actual newspaper accounts of the meetings of rangatira and European leaders at the time.

It tells a tale of the attitudes, perceptions and misconceptions that shaped the dramatic and bloody events that were to come - both of those striving for a peaceful co-existence as envisaged by the Treaty of Waitangi, and others who coveted the fertile land, or looked on Māori with disdain.

It also has a central figure in the form of Wiremu Tarapipiri Tāmihana, known colloquially as The Kingmaker, who was central in unifying Māori by setting up a kingship in opposition to the British government, as well as his efforts in avoiding violence.

Armitage - who has long been involved in Hamilton’s theatre scene - said he spent about four years writing and refining the story. Although the play was only published in February it has already made a big impact, both in a positive and negative way - and both unexpected by Armitage himself.

The positive was in the way schools had wholeheartedly embraced A Wellspring of Tears as a means of educating youngsters about Tāmihana’s crucial contributions to the country’s formation.

This is mainly because much of the play’s dialogue was directly taken from the utterances of the political and community leaders who comprise its cast of characters.

“Very few of the words are actually mine,” Armitage declares. “It’s remarkable that the accounts of these meetings were published in every newspaper in the country at that time.

“Everyone in all parts of New Zealand were reading about these meetings that were being held here.”

The published work includes contributions by Defyd Williams, who heads the history department at St Pau’s Collegiate and Fairfield College principal Richard Crawford.

Williams declared A Wellspring of Tears to be “a story that all New Zealanders should know about … My hope is that this story becomes a roadshow visiting pupils from all the schools of Aotearoa New Zealand, either live or in video format”.

Crawford, meanwhile, praised the play for increasing his understanding of how the Kīngitanga began, as well as the role played by other historical figures such as “native secretary and land purchase commissioner” Donald McLean and Governor Thomas Gore Browne.

Unsurprisingly, both schools had been “first out of the blocks” when it came to obtaining copies to be used as a teaching resource. Ohu Matua, the Ministry of Education’s reference group for the history curriculum - of which Williams is a member - had recommended the work be used as a teaching resource in schools.

Other schools that had requested copies included Hamilton Boys’ High School and Burnside High in Christchurch.

“I have approached 10 schools to see if they want it, and none have said no,” Armitage said.

“I have only just started making it available and so far only a very small number have been printed. If more schools want it, that would mean thousands more copies will be needed.”

The negative reaction to the play had come in the form of comments Armitage had received “all from middle-aged white men”, about the play’s potential to stoke racial division - particularly some of the dialogue from the likes of McLean and MP Alfred Domett.

Armitage’s response was simply: “Well, these people actually said these things. It’s all on the record, and I can’t really leave it out. It’s definitely incendiary … Most of the Pākehā who have read [the play] have been embarrassed by what was coming out of the mouths of those people.”

Likewise, Māori who he had canvassed after writing the play had been firm on their views - “They told me they did not want a word of it changed, and not to leave a word of it out.”

He concedes that what he has written is on the lengthy side - “It’s as long as Hamlet” - and anyone staging it in future will likely have to abridge or condense some of it.

Armitage reckons it is only a matter of time before someone takes issue with Wellspring of Tears, likely for their own ends, but his own summation is a succinct one: “It’s very big, and it’s going to cause a fuss at some stage.”

Armitage said he was compelled to write Wellspring of Tears “purely by chance” when he was unexpectedly approached by a local history aficionado who gave him a box of books - one of which was a biography of Tāmihana - and a request to write a play about the region in the time prior to the Waikato Invasion.

Armitage said he had initially baulked at the thought of a Pākehā writing about what was essentially a significant chapter of Māori history - but soon became entranced by the subject matter.

He sought the input and blessing of kaumātua and history experts, including Tāmihana’s descendant Anaru Tāmihana, who died in 2022; Pine Campbell; Bishop Sir David Moxon; and Tom Roa, a professor in the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato - “who was particularly enthusiastic. He sent me an email that simply stated ‘I love it, and we need to speak’.”

Armitage says he hopes Anaru Tāmihana’s son Hone Tāmihana - who has taken on the inherited title of kingmaker - will at some stage be able to present a copy of the play to Te Arikinui Kuīni Ngā Wai hono i te pō, the Māori Queen.

A Wellspring of Tears is not the only work penned by Armitage that is making waves at present. Another of his plays, A Czech Gambit, will be staged at the Meteor Theatre from June 27 until July 4.

Commissioned by the Prague International Chess Festival and performed there in 2023, it is based on the true story of Czech chess grandmaster Lubomir Kavalek, who escaped to the West in 1968.

It was, possibly, the first play by a New Zealander to be performed in the Czech Republic, and Hamilton audiences will be the first in New Zealand to see it.