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Noel Hilliam was a notable, although sometimes controversial, historian and shipwreck specialist from Northland, New Zealand.
Key Events
In 1982, Mr Hilliam reported seeing the wreck of a Spanish ship at Bayly's Beach, but it was never located.
In 1998, elders from Te Uri o Hau restricted access to sacred Māori sites in Kaipara after Mr Hilliam visited without permission and claimed to have discovered a prehistoric village, allegedly occupied by a people displaced by Māori around 600 years ago; however, he did not disclose the site’s location.
In 2000, he resigned from the Northland board of the Historic Places Trust, frustrated by its lack of interest in pre-Māori history, according to NZPA.
In 2004, Mr Hilliam participated in excavating a shipwreck west of Dargaville, which he had pursued for 30 years. This shipwreck had last surfaced in 1973 and before that in 1909, with items recovered including an anchor chain and a 1.5-meter cannon.
In 2008 The Underwater Heritage Group (of which Hilliam was vice-president) announced that they had discovered a German U-boat off the Kiapara Coast. Hilliam claimed the boat had been 'observed seven times' and three divers had been to it - however, no photographs exist and it has not since been seen.
In 2009, it was suggested that Spanish sailors might have reached New Zealand over a century before Abel Tasman. A researcher examined these claims, based on Mr Hilliam's belief that a Spanish ship visited in the 16th century and sank. Hilliam noted that 22 of the 53 crew members were from Aranga, Spain—a name also found in a Northland area where the wreck was seen. The main street in that Spanish town was ‘Rua Tui,’ which also resembles a Māori name.
In 2012, Mr Hilliam co-authored To the End of the Earth, which controversially argued that the Māori demigod Maui was not Polynesian but an ancient Egyptian navigator.
In 2017 Hilliam claimed he found human remains that pre-dated Māori.
References