Westminster Bridge

From Westminster Bridge, look back for the best view of The Houses of Parliament, a common destination for Indigenous visitors, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. One of the most notable visits included that of Hongi Hika and Waikato, which inspired something of a melee among the MPs straining to get a close look at them. Hongi Hika was an Ngāpuhi ariki, or Māori chief, who travelled to England with his nephew, Waikato, aboard the New Zealander in 1820. Seeking advantage over surrounding Māori communities, the two men hoped to entice miners, blacksmiths, agriculturalists, and soldiers to their homeland. Like so many before them, they rubbed shoulders with aristocrats, politicians, and clergy; toured the sights; had their portraits painted; and met with George IV. Everywhere they went, including the House of Commons, their Tāmoko drew considerable interest, particularly as they dressed in fashionable 19th century outfits, creating a striking contrast with the images their facial tattoos would have cast for their British onlookers. On their return home they sold gifts they had been given in order to purchase up to four hundred muskets. Exerting their power through a destabilizing series of conflicts known as the Musket Wars, the Ngāpuhi deepened their hegemony over large stretches of the North Island, but thousands of Māori died in the process. Revenge for an earlier battle in 1795, in which the Ngāpuhi had suffered heavy losses to the Ngāti Pāoa, Imperial entanglement and the trip to the heart of Empire represented an opportunity for Hongi Hika—but it was to inter-iwi affairs that he turned his attention, reminding us that while London played a clear role in Indigenous networks, it was the periphery rather than the centre.