Object description

Ripapa Island is located just off the shore of Lyttelton Harbour has played many roles in the history of New Zealand. The island initially played a key role in an internal struggle for the South Island Ngāi Tahu tribe in the early 19th Century. Between 1873 and 1885 the island was used as a quarantine station for ships arriving from Britain to the nearby port in Lyttelton, though 1880 saw the use of the quarantine buildings as a prison, notably for members of the Parihaka Māori settlement in Taranaki during its passive resistance campaign against the surveying and selling of its land by the government. The quarantine buildings were dismantled when the Island was incorporated into the coastal defence scheme.