The raid on Maungapōhatu
- When
- 2 April 1916
- Where
- Maungapōhatu
- Reach
- Local
Seventy armed police marched into the Tūhoe prophet Rua Kēnana’s community in the Urewera. Two men were shot dead, including Rua’s son.
Rua had built a self-governing settlement at Maungapōhatu and discouraged his people from enlisting. The warrant was for sly-grogging. The police party’s size and armament, and the shooting of Toko Rua and Te Maipi Te Whiu, made it plainly a political operation. Rua was found not guilty of sedition but convicted of resisting arrest, and eight of the jurors publicly protested the severity of his sentence. The Crown pardoned him and apologised to his descendants in 2019, in a bill signed into law at Maungapōhatu.
Regions affected
Sources
Written for this project from these references rather than copied from them. Follow a link to check the account against the original.
Related
The 28th (Māori) Battalion
Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū
A volunteer battalion organised by tribal area fought through Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy, and took proportionally the heaviest casualties of any New Zealand unit.
Te Kooti escapes from Rēkohu
Deported without trial, Te Kooti seized a schooner, sailed 300 prisoners home, and led a four-year pursuit through the Urewera that never caught him.
Gisborne and Te UreweraThe influenza pandemic
About 9,000 people died in two months — roughly half as many as died in four years of war. Māori died at more than seven times the Pākehā rate.
Tohunga Suppression Act
An Act making it an offence to practise as a tohunga, aimed at prophets and healers whose authority the state saw as a threat to assimilation.