Pai Marire
Encyclopedia
The Pai Mārire movement was a syncretic
Māori religion that flourished in New Zealand
from about 1863 to 1874. Founded in Taranaki by the prophet Te Ua Haumene, it incorporated Biblical
and Māori spiritual elements and promised its followers deliverance from Pākehā
domination, providing a religious aspect to the issue of Māori independence, which had until then been a purely political movement. The embracing of the religion by Māori also signalled a rejection of Christianity and a distrust of missionaries over their involvement in land purchases. The religion gained widespread support among North Island Māori and became closely associated with the King Movement
, but also became the cause of hysteria among European settlers.
Although founded with peaceful motives (its name means Good and Peaceful), Pai Mārire became better known for an extremist form of the religion popularly known as Hauhau
, though there is evidence the most violent activities, committed in 1864 and 1865, were led by subordinate prophets acting against the wishes of Te Ua and the basic precepts of the religion. The rise and spread of the violent expression of Pai Mārire was largely a response to the New Zealand Government's military operations against North Island Māori, which were aimed at exerting European sovereignty and gaining more land for white settlement. Pai Mārire became well known for its revival of ancient rites including incantation
s, a sacred pole
and belief in supernatural protection from bullets. Its rites also included beheadings, the removal of the hearts of enemy soldiers and cannibalism
. Pai Mārire spread rapidly through the North Island from 1864, welding tribes in a bond of passionate hatred against the Pākehā and helping to inspire fierce military resistance to colonial forces, particularly during the Second Taranaki War
(1863–1866).
Governor Sir George Grey launched a campaign of suppression against the religion in April 1865, culminating in the raiding of dozens of villages in Taranaki and on the East Coast and the arrest of more than 400 adherents, most of whom where incarcerated on the Chatham Islands
. Elements of the religion were incorporated in the Ringatu
("Raised hand") religion formed in 1868 by Te Kooti, who escaped from the Chatham Islands after being incarcerated there.
New Zealand censuses have as recently as 1961 showed hundreds still listing Pai Mārire as their religion.
Te Ua Haumene was born in Taranaki, New Zealand, in the early 1820s. He and his mother were captured and enslaved by a rival tribe in 1826. He learned to read and write in Māori while in captivity and began studying the New Testament
. He was baptised
by the Rev John Whiteley in the Wesleyan
mission at Kawhia in 1834 and given the name of Horopapera Tuwhakararo, a transliteration of the name John Zerubbabel
. He later returned to Taranaki.
During the 1850s he became a supporter of the King Movement
, which opposed further expansion of European sovereignty and the sale of land to European settlers, and in the 1860s fought against colonial forces in the First Taranaki War
and Waikato War
, in which he also acted as a chaplain to the Māori soldiers. By the early 1860s Te Ua was part of a runanga (local board of management), which administered local government and also ensured that the boundary of the land that was covered by the mana
of the Māori King was undisturbed.
By then the cornerstones of Te Ua's religious teaching were set. He believed Māori had a right to defend the boundaries of their territory; believed in national salvation of the Māori from the white settlers; and suspected that missionaries were aiding and abetting the loss of Māori land.
The elevation of Te Ua to the role of prophet followed an incident in September 1862 in which the British steamer Lord Worsley was wrecked off the Taranaki coast and local Māori debated what action should be taken with the cargo and crew. Te Ua – then living at Wereroa Pă, near Waitotara
– argued that goods salvaged from the vessel should be sent to New Plymouth
untouched, but was ignored and the cargo was instead plundered. On September 5, aggrieved over what had taken place, he claimed to have experienced a vision in which the Archangel Gabriel announced to him that the last days
of the Bible
were at hand and that God had chosen him as a prophet who would cast out the Pākehā and restore Israel (the Māori) to their birthright in the land of Canaan
(Aotearoa/New Zealand). There are conflicting reports over Te Ua's response to the vision: he is claimed to have killed his child, explaining in a letter circulated to tribes that it was as a redemption for his people, "forgetful, desolate and in doubt"., while there are also claims he broke the child's leg and healed it miraculously. As reports about Te Ua began to circulate, he quickly gained a reputation for having other miraculous powers. The view among settlers was less sympathetic: Bishop William Williams claimed Te Ua showed strong signs of insanity and colonial soldier and historian T.W. Gudgeon claimed he had been thus far regarded as a "harmless lunatic" of "weak intellect, but yet of peaceful disposition".
morality, Christian doctrine and traditional Māori religion. Its goal was to create a peaceful society in which righteousness and justice prevailed. They believed they were a second Chosen People and that, with divine aid, they would regain control of their hereditary land when the Creator, Jehovah
, fought for them and drove the English into the sea. To help him propagate the religion, Te Ua chose three men – Tahutaki, Hepenaia and Wi Parara.
, near New Plymouth, believing some
Pākehā
would be delivered into their hands. The group surprised a combined force of 57th Regiment and the newly formed Taranaki Military Settlers, a total of 101 men, as they rested without their weapons during a mission to destroy native crops. The Māori force killed seven and wounded 12 of their enemy. The bodies of the seven dead, including their commander, Captain P.W.J. Lloyd, were stripped naked and decapitated. The leg of one of the soldiers was also removed.
The easy victory of the Māori over the numerically stronger British-led force gave a powerful impetus to the Pai Mārire movement and confirmed in the minds of many Māori the protection of the Archangel Gabriel, of whom Te Ua was now regarded as a prophet. The number of adherents swelled and Pai Mārire rites continued to develop, some incorporating the decapitated heads of the slain soldiers, through which Te Ua claimed to communicate with Jehovah.
Three weeks later, on April 30, 1864, 200 warriors demonstrated their faith in divine protection when they marched on the Sentry Hill redoubt, 9 km north-west of New Plymouth. The redoubt, on the crown of a hill, was defended by 75 imperial soldiers and two Coehorn mortars
. Atiawa Māori viewed the construction of the outpost on their land as a challenge and formed a war party of the best fighting men from west coast iwi. When they came under fire at close range, they shielded themselves from the fusillade only by holding their right hands up and chanting. As many as a fifth of the Māori force were killed in the assault.
In a 1920 interview with historian James Cowan, Te Kahu-Pukoro, a fighter who took part in the attack, explained: "The Pai-marire religion was then new, and we were all completely under its influence and firmly believed in the teaching of Te Ua and his apostles. Hepanaia Kapewhiti was at the head of the war-party. He was our prophet. He taught us the Pai-marire karakia
(chant), and told us that if we repeated it as we went into battle the pakeha bullets would not strike us. This we all believed."
Led by Hepanaia, the warriors participated in sacred ceremonies around a pole at the Manutahi pā, with all the principal Taranaki chiefs present: Wiremu Kingi
and Kingi Parengarenga, as well as Te Whiti
and Tohu Kakahi
, both of whom would later become prophets at Parihaka
. The force, armed with muskets, shotguns, tomahawks and spears, marched to Sentry Hill and at 8am launched their attack, ascending the slope that led to the redoubt. Te Kahu-Pukoro recalled:
About 34 Māori and one imperial soldier were killed. Among those shot dead, at almost point-blank range, were chiefs Hepanaia, Kingi Parengarenga (Taranaki), Tupara Keina (Ngatiawa), Tamati Hone (Ngati Ruanui) and Hare Te Kokai, who had advocated the frontal attack on the redoubt. According to Cowan, the slaughter temporarily weakened the new confidence in Pai-marire, but Te Ua had a satisfying explanation: that those who fell were to blame because they did not repose absolute faith in the karakia, or incantation.
advanced on the settlement of Wanganui
, intent on raiding it. In what became known as the Battle of Moutoa, Lower Wanganui kupapa (Māori loyal to the Queen) routed the war party, killing 50 of them including the prophet Matene Rangitauira.
The reverses at Sentry Hill and Moutoa Island reinforced Māori belief in Te Ua's movement, with the conviction that the defeats had been caused by disobedience to the leader by the prophets Hepanaia and Matene. More iwi attached themselves to Te Ua. In early 1865 emissaries carrying the smoke-dried decapitated heads were sent from Taranaki to chief Hirini Te Kani at Poverty Bay
via Wanganui
and Taupo
in two parties – one via Rotorua
, Whakatane
, Opotiki
, and East Cape
, and the other through the centre of the island via Ruatahuna
and Wairoa
. The emissaries were instructed to proceed peaceably and obtain the support of tribes they passed, delegating their spiritual powers to leading converts in each tribe, who each took up the duties of Pai Mārire priest. But on February 23 the group clashed at Pipiriki near Wanganui with Māori loyal to the New Zealand government and determined from then to murder missionaries they encountered.
Among European settlers unease grew at the spreading influence of Pai Mārire. In a latter to the Native Minister
, the Resident Magistrate for Central Wanganui warned: "The Hauhau fanaticism is spreading very rapidly in the Province, and I fear will be the cause of great mischief. It is now the mainstay of the King movement
."
The warning came too late to save the life of one North Island missionary. At Taupo the Pai Mārire recruiting party ransacked the house of the Rev. T.S. Grace and at Opotiki
on March 2 shot, hanged and decapitated the German-born Rev. C.S. Volkner
. His head was taken to the local church, where his eyes were removed and eaten by the prophet Kereopa. The killing
was claimed to be in part revenge for Volkner's activities in spying on local Māori for the government, but may also have been motivated by Kereopa's wish to bring government retaliation on local Te Whakatōhea
Māori as a payback for an earlier intertribal battle with his Te Arawa
iwi. Grace, who had fled from Taupo to Opotiki, was arrested and put on trial by the Pai Mārire party. He was rescued from captivity two weeks later by a British man-of-war, HMS Eclipse after an attempt by local Pai Mārire leaders to negotiate a prisoner swap with Tauranga chief Hori Tupaea.
On July 22 Taranaki prophet Horomona led the murder of the master and two of the three crew members of the schooner Kate at Whakatane.
On April 29, 1865 Governor George Grey
issued a proclamation condemning the "revolting acts ... repugnant to all humanity" carried out by Pai Mārire followers and warned the government would "resist and suppress by force of arms if necessary, and by every means in my power, fanatical doctrines, rites, and practices of the aforesaid character". Horomona and Kirimangu were hanged for their July 22 killings on the schooner Kate and a coalition of government and loyal Māori forces led by Hawke's Bay Province
Superintendent Donald McLean embarked on a mission to crush the religion on the East Coast. From June to October 1865 there was a virtual civil war on the East Coast culminating in the battle of Waerenga-a-Hika in Poverty Bay in November. Hundreds of followers were arrested in the campaign, while in Taranaki a separate campaign
led by the increasingly reluctant British commander, General Duncan Cameron, raided dozens of villages to arrest hundreds more adherents.
In February 1866 Te Ua was captured near Opunake
in Taranaki by Cameron's replacement, Major-General Trevor Chute
. Chute claimed Te Ua was immediately abandoned by all those in his village, who swore an oath of allegiance to the Crown and were set free. He reported that kupapa (loyal) Māori urged his immediate execution. Te Ua was taken to Wanganui, writing en route to his North Island supporters, urging: "Let evil be brought to an end ... in order that the General may cease operations against you." Te Ua and Patara were freed in Auckland and most other leaders were pardoned, but Grey transported 400 East Coast followers, including Te Kooti
, to the Chatham Islands
for incarceration. Elements of Pai Mārire were later incorporated into the Ringatu
religion founded by Te Kooti.
Te Ua died at Oeo
in Taranaki in October 1866.
, would fight for them and drive the English into the sea. When the last of the enemy had perished, every Māori who had died since the beginning of the world would be resurrected and stand in the presence of Zerubbabel, healed of all of diseases and infirmities. Men would be sent from heaven to teach Māori all the arts and sciences known by Europeans. Their first great day of deliverance would be in December 1864. He urged men and women to abandon monogamy
and live together communally to produce as many children as possible.
Services were held at a niu, a tall pole, often about 18m high, with yard-arms
from which hung ropes. The first of these niu was the mast of the Lord Worsley. Members of the congregation circled the niu several times a day, chanting and touching a decapitated head mounted on a pole while priests conducted prayer services. Historian Babbage wrote: "The worshippers worked themselves into a state bordering on frenzy during the procedure of the ritual, until catalepsy frequently prostrated them." The chants as devotees circled the niu were described as "a jumble of Christian and ancient concepts, of soldier and sailor terms, of English and Māori language with the barking watchword of the cult interspersed". The "angels of the wind" were said to be present during the service, ascending and descending the ropes dangling from the mast's yard-arm. By the end of 1865 a niu stood in almost every large village from Taranaki to the Bay of Plenty and from the north of the Wellington
district to the Waikato
frontier.
; others were either transliterations or mispronunciations of parts of the Church of England
services, with a sprinkling of Latin
from the Roman Catholic ritual. Some phrases were military orders, picked up at the soldiers' camps. Some others showed a nautical origin; Te Ua boxed the compass
like any pakeha sailor."
The chant began:
(Translation)
A similar belief in the mystical power to avert bullets had earlier been reported among Islamic groups in Africa and Asia and America, such as the Ghost Shirt Movement
.
Syncretism
Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...
Māori religion that flourished in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
from about 1863 to 1874. Founded in Taranaki by the prophet Te Ua Haumene, it incorporated Biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
and Māori spiritual elements and promised its followers deliverance from Pākehā
Pakeha
Pākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
domination, providing a religious aspect to the issue of Māori independence, which had until then been a purely political movement. The embracing of the religion by Māori also signalled a rejection of Christianity and a distrust of missionaries over their involvement in land purchases. The religion gained widespread support among North Island Māori and became closely associated with the King Movement
Maori King Movement
The Māori King Movement or Kīngitanga is a movement that arose among some of the Māori tribes of New Zealand in the central North Island ,in the 1850s, to establish a role similar in status to that of the monarch of the colonising people, the British, as a way of halting the alienation of Māori land...
, but also became the cause of hysteria among European settlers.
Although founded with peaceful motives (its name means Good and Peaceful), Pai Mārire became better known for an extremist form of the religion popularly known as Hauhau
Hauhau
Hauhau is a Māori term that was applied to a branch of the religious movement Pai Marire, founded by Te Ua Haumēne of the Taranaki tribe in New Zealand in the 1860s. The movement inculcated that Māori would regain land that they had lost to Europeans during the colonisation process of New...
, though there is evidence the most violent activities, committed in 1864 and 1865, were led by subordinate prophets acting against the wishes of Te Ua and the basic precepts of the religion. The rise and spread of the violent expression of Pai Mārire was largely a response to the New Zealand Government's military operations against North Island Māori, which were aimed at exerting European sovereignty and gaining more land for white settlement. Pai Mārire became well known for its revival of ancient rites including incantation
Incantation
An incantation or enchantment is a charm or spell created using words. An incantation may take place during a ritual, either a hymn or prayer, and may invoke or praise a deity. In magic, occultism, witchcraft it may be used with the intention of casting a spell on an object or a person...
s, a sacred pole
Totem pole
Totem poles are monumental sculptures carved from large trees, mostly Western Red Cedar, by cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America...
and belief in supernatural protection from bullets. Its rites also included beheadings, the removal of the hearts of enemy soldiers and cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
. Pai Mārire spread rapidly through the North Island from 1864, welding tribes in a bond of passionate hatred against the Pākehā and helping to inspire fierce military resistance to colonial forces, particularly during the Second Taranaki War
Second Taranaki War
-Background and causes of the war:The conflict in Taranaki had its roots in the First Taranaki War, which had ended in March 1861 with an uneasy truce. Neither side fulfilled the terms of the truce, leaving many of the issues unresolved...
(1863–1866).
Governor Sir George Grey launched a campaign of suppression against the religion in April 1865, culminating in the raiding of dozens of villages in Taranaki and on the East Coast and the arrest of more than 400 adherents, most of whom where incarcerated on the Chatham Islands
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun...
. Elements of the religion were incorporated in the Ringatu
Ringatu
The Ringatū church was founded in 1868 by Te Kooti Rikirangi. The symbol for the movement is an upraised hand, or "Ringa Tū" in Māori.Te Kooti was one of a number of Māori detained at the Chatham Islands without trial in relation to the East Coast disturbances of the 1860s...
("Raised hand") religion formed in 1868 by Te Kooti, who escaped from the Chatham Islands after being incarcerated there.
New Zealand censuses have as recently as 1961 showed hundreds still listing Pai Mārire as their religion.
Rise of the prophet
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. He was baptised
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
by the Rev John Whiteley in the Wesleyan
Wesleyanism
Wesleyanism or Wesleyan theology refers, respectively, to either the eponymous movement of Protestant Christians who have historically sought to follow the methods or theology of the eighteenth-century evangelical reformers, John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley, or to the likewise eponymous...
mission at Kawhia in 1834 and given the name of Horopapera Tuwhakararo, a transliteration of the name John Zerubbabel
Zerubbabel
Zerubbabel was a governor of the Persian Province of Judah and the grandson of Jehoiachin, penultimate king of Judah. Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from the Babylonian Captivity in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia . The date is generally thought to...
. He later returned to Taranaki.
During the 1850s he became a supporter of the King Movement
Maori King Movement
The Māori King Movement or Kīngitanga is a movement that arose among some of the Māori tribes of New Zealand in the central North Island ,in the 1850s, to establish a role similar in status to that of the monarch of the colonising people, the British, as a way of halting the alienation of Māori land...
, which opposed further expansion of European sovereignty and the sale of land to European settlers, and in the 1860s fought against colonial forces in the First Taranaki War
First Taranaki War
The First Taranaki War was an armed conflict over land ownership and sovereignty that took place between Māori and the New Zealand Government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand's North Island from March 1860 to March 1861....
and Waikato War
Invasion of the Waikato
The Invasion of Waikato or Kingitanga Suppression Movement was a campaign during the middle stages of the New Zealand Wars, fought in the North Island of New Zealand from July 1863 to April 1864 between the military forces of the Colonial Government and a federation of Māori tribes known as the...
, in which he also acted as a chaplain to the Māori soldiers. By the early 1860s Te Ua was part of a runanga (local board of management), which administered local government and also ensured that the boundary of the land that was covered by the mana
Mana
Mana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian....
of the Māori King was undisturbed.
By then the cornerstones of Te Ua's religious teaching were set. He believed Māori had a right to defend the boundaries of their territory; believed in national salvation of the Māori from the white settlers; and suspected that missionaries were aiding and abetting the loss of Māori land.
The elevation of Te Ua to the role of prophet followed an incident in September 1862 in which the British steamer Lord Worsley was wrecked off the Taranaki coast and local Māori debated what action should be taken with the cargo and crew. Te Ua – then living at Wereroa Pă, near Waitotara
Waitotara
Waitotara is a town in South Taranaki, New Zealand. Waverley is 10 km to the north-west, and Wanganui is 34 km to the south-east. State Highway 3 passes through it. The Waitotara River flows past the east side of the town....
– argued that goods salvaged from the vessel should be sent to New Plymouth
New Plymouth
New Plymouth is the major city of the Taranaki Region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after Plymouth, Devon, England, from where the first English settlers migrated....
untouched, but was ignored and the cargo was instead plundered. On September 5, aggrieved over what had taken place, he claimed to have experienced a vision in which the Archangel Gabriel announced to him that the last days
End times
The end time, end times, or end of days is a time period described in the eschatological writings in the three Abrahamic religions and in doomsday scenarios in various other non-Abrahamic religions...
of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
were at hand and that God had chosen him as a prophet who would cast out the Pākehā and restore Israel (the Māori) to their birthright in the land of Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
(Aotearoa/New Zealand). There are conflicting reports over Te Ua's response to the vision: he is claimed to have killed his child, explaining in a letter circulated to tribes that it was as a redemption for his people, "forgetful, desolate and in doubt"., while there are also claims he broke the child's leg and healed it miraculously. As reports about Te Ua began to circulate, he quickly gained a reputation for having other miraculous powers. The view among settlers was less sympathetic: Bishop William Williams claimed Te Ua showed strong signs of insanity and colonial soldier and historian T.W. Gudgeon claimed he had been thus far regarded as a "harmless lunatic" of "weak intellect, but yet of peaceful disposition".
Formation and spread of the religion
Te Ua began to formulate his new religion, complete with a holy book, Ua Rongo Pai (the Gospel according to Ua) which combined elements of Old TestamentOld Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
morality, Christian doctrine and traditional Māori religion. Its goal was to create a peaceful society in which righteousness and justice prevailed. They believed they were a second Chosen People and that, with divine aid, they would regain control of their hereditary land when the Creator, Jehovah
Jehovah
Jehovah is an anglicized representation of Hebrew , a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton , the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible....
, fought for them and drove the English into the sea. To help him propagate the religion, Te Ua chose three men – Tahutaki, Hepenaia and Wi Parara.
Ahuahu attack, April 1864
Among white settlers, the existence of the new religion was brought into dramatic focus with a series of attacks in April and May 1864. On April 6, a force led by Tahutaki and Hepenaia mounted an expedition to Ahuahu village, set amid dense bush south of OakuraOakura
Oakura is a small township in Taranaki, in the western North Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 45, 15 kilometres south-west of New Plymouth. Okato is 12 km further south-west. The Oakura River flows past the town and into the North Taranaki Bight...
, near New Plymouth, believing some
Pākehā
Pakeha
Pākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
would be delivered into their hands. The group surprised a combined force of 57th Regiment and the newly formed Taranaki Military Settlers, a total of 101 men, as they rested without their weapons during a mission to destroy native crops. The Māori force killed seven and wounded 12 of their enemy. The bodies of the seven dead, including their commander, Captain P.W.J. Lloyd, were stripped naked and decapitated. The leg of one of the soldiers was also removed.
The easy victory of the Māori over the numerically stronger British-led force gave a powerful impetus to the Pai Mārire movement and confirmed in the minds of many Māori the protection of the Archangel Gabriel, of whom Te Ua was now regarded as a prophet. The number of adherents swelled and Pai Mārire rites continued to develop, some incorporating the decapitated heads of the slain soldiers, through which Te Ua claimed to communicate with Jehovah.
Assault on Sentry Hill, April 1864
Mortar (weapon)
A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....
. Atiawa Māori viewed the construction of the outpost on their land as a challenge and formed a war party of the best fighting men from west coast iwi. When they came under fire at close range, they shielded themselves from the fusillade only by holding their right hands up and chanting. As many as a fifth of the Māori force were killed in the assault.
In a 1920 interview with historian James Cowan, Te Kahu-Pukoro, a fighter who took part in the attack, explained: "The Pai-marire religion was then new, and we were all completely under its influence and firmly believed in the teaching of Te Ua and his apostles. Hepanaia Kapewhiti was at the head of the war-party. He was our prophet. He taught us the Pai-marire karakia
Karakia
Karakia are Māori incantations and prayers.Karakia are generally used to ensure a favourable outcome of important undertakings. They are also considered a formal greeting when beginning a ceremony...
(chant), and told us that if we repeated it as we went into battle the pakeha bullets would not strike us. This we all believed."
Led by Hepanaia, the warriors participated in sacred ceremonies around a pole at the Manutahi pā, with all the principal Taranaki chiefs present: Wiremu Kingi
Wiremu Kingi
Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake , Māori Chief of the Te Āti Awa Tribe, was leader of the Māori forces in the First Taranaki War....
and Kingi Parengarenga, as well as Te Whiti
Te Whiti o Rongomai
Te Whiti o Rongomai III was a Māori spiritual leader and founder of the village of Parihaka, in New Zealand's Taranaki region.-Biography:...
and Tohu Kakahi
Tohu Kakahi
Tohu Kakahi was a Māori leader and prophet at Parihaka, who along with Te Whiti o Rongomai organised passive resistance against the occupation of Taranaki in the 1870s in New Zealand....
, both of whom would later become prophets at Parihaka
Parihaka
Parihaka is a small community in Taranaki Region, New Zealand, located between Mount Taranaki and the Tasman Sea. In the 1870s and 1880s the settlement, then reputed to be the largest Māori village in New Zealand, became the centre of a major campaign of non-violent resistance to European...
. The force, armed with muskets, shotguns, tomahawks and spears, marched to Sentry Hill and at 8am launched their attack, ascending the slope that led to the redoubt. Te Kahu-Pukoro recalled:
About 34 Māori and one imperial soldier were killed. Among those shot dead, at almost point-blank range, were chiefs Hepanaia, Kingi Parengarenga (Taranaki), Tupara Keina (Ngatiawa), Tamati Hone (Ngati Ruanui) and Hare Te Kokai, who had advocated the frontal attack on the redoubt. According to Cowan, the slaughter temporarily weakened the new confidence in Pai-marire, but Te Ua had a satisfying explanation: that those who fell were to blame because they did not repose absolute faith in the karakia, or incantation.
Battle of Moutoa, May 1864
Two weeks later, on May 14, a Pai Mārire war party from the upper Whanganui RiverWhanganui River
The Whanganui River is a major river in the North Island of New Zealand.Known for many years as the Wanganui River, the river's name reverted to Whanganui in 1991, according with the wishes of local iwi. Part of the reason was also to avoid confusion with the Wanganui River in the South Island...
advanced on the settlement of Wanganui
Wanganui
Whanganui , also spelled Wanganui, is an urban area and district on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is part of the Manawatu-Wanganui region....
, intent on raiding it. In what became known as the Battle of Moutoa, Lower Wanganui kupapa (Māori loyal to the Queen) routed the war party, killing 50 of them including the prophet Matene Rangitauira.
East Coast killings, March, April 1865
Poverty Bay
Poverty Bay is the largest of several small bays on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island to the north of Hawkes Bay. It stretches for 10 kilometres from Young Nick's Head in the southwest to Tuaheni Point in the northeast. The city of Gisborne is located on the northern shore of the bay...
via Wanganui
Wanganui
Whanganui , also spelled Wanganui, is an urban area and district on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is part of the Manawatu-Wanganui region....
and Taupo
Taupo
Taupo is a town on the shore of Lake Taupo in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand. It is the seat of the Taupo District Council and lies in the southern Waikato Region....
in two parties – one via Rotorua
Rotorua
Rotorua is a city on the southern shores of the lake of the same name, in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand. The city is the seat of the Rotorua District, a territorial authority encompassing the city and several other nearby towns...
, Whakatane
Whakatane
Whakatane is a town in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region, in the North Island of New Zealand, and is the seat of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. Whakatane is 90 km east of Tauranga and 89 km north-east of Rotorua, at the mouth of the Whakatane River.The town has a population of , with...
, Opotiki
Opotiki
Opotiki is a town in the eastern Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand. It houses the headquarters of the Opotiki District Council and comes under the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.-Population:* of the town: 4176 - Male 1,989, Female 2,187...
, and East Cape
East Cape
East Cape is the easternmost point of the main islands of New Zealand. It is located to the north of Gisborne in the northeast of the North Island....
, and the other through the centre of the island via Ruatahuna
Ruatahuna
The town of Ruatahuna is located in the northeast of New Zealand's North Island, 90 kilometres west of Gisborne, and 18 kilometres northwest of Lake Waikaremoana...
and Wairoa
Wairoa
Wairoa is a town in New Zealand's North Island. It is the northernmost town in the Hawke's Bay region, and is located on the northern shore of Hawke Bay at the mouth of the Wairoa River and to the west of Mahia Peninsula...
. The emissaries were instructed to proceed peaceably and obtain the support of tribes they passed, delegating their spiritual powers to leading converts in each tribe, who each took up the duties of Pai Mārire priest. But on February 23 the group clashed at Pipiriki near Wanganui with Māori loyal to the New Zealand government and determined from then to murder missionaries they encountered.
Among European settlers unease grew at the spreading influence of Pai Mārire. In a latter to the Native Minister
Minister of Maori Affairs
The Minister of Māori Affairs is the minister of the New Zealand government with broad responsibility for government policy towards Māori, the first inhabitants of New Zealand. The current Minister of Māori Affairs is Dr. Pita Sharples.-Role:...
, the Resident Magistrate for Central Wanganui warned: "The Hauhau fanaticism is spreading very rapidly in the Province, and I fear will be the cause of great mischief. It is now the mainstay of the King movement
Maori King Movement
The Māori King Movement or Kīngitanga is a movement that arose among some of the Māori tribes of New Zealand in the central North Island ,in the 1850s, to establish a role similar in status to that of the monarch of the colonising people, the British, as a way of halting the alienation of Māori land...
."
The warning came too late to save the life of one North Island missionary. At Taupo the Pai Mārire recruiting party ransacked the house of the Rev. T.S. Grace and at Opotiki
Opotiki
Opotiki is a town in the eastern Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand. It houses the headquarters of the Opotiki District Council and comes under the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.-Population:* of the town: 4176 - Male 1,989, Female 2,187...
on March 2 shot, hanged and decapitated the German-born Rev. C.S. Volkner
Carl Sylvius Völkner
Carl Sylvius Völkner was a German-born Protestant missionary in New Zealand.He was born in Kassel, Hesse, Germany, probably in 1819. Völkner was one of several missionaries sent to New Zealand by the North German Missionary Society. He arrived in New Zealand in August 1849. In 1852 he offered...
. His head was taken to the local church, where his eyes were removed and eaten by the prophet Kereopa. The killing
Volkner Incident
The Völkner Incident describes the murder of the missionary Carl Sylvius Völkner in New Zealand in 1865 and the consequent reaction of the Government of New Zealand in the midst of the New Zealand land wars.-Background:...
was claimed to be in part revenge for Volkner's activities in spying on local Māori for the government, but may also have been motivated by Kereopa's wish to bring government retaliation on local Te Whakatōhea
Te Whakatohea
Te Whakatōhea are a Māori iwi located in the eastern Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand. The iwi comprises six hapu: Ngāi Tamahaua, Ngāti Ira, Ngāti Ngahere, Ngāti Patumoana, Ngāti Ruatakena and Te Ūpokorehe. In the 2006 Census, 12,072 people claimed an affiliation with Te Whakatōhea.The iwi is...
Māori as a payback for an earlier intertribal battle with his Te Arawa
Te Arawa
Te Arawa is a confederation of Māori iwi and hapu based in the Rotorua and Bay of Plenty areas of New Zealand, with a population of around 40,000.The history of the Te Arawa people is inextricably linked to the Arawa canoe...
iwi. Grace, who had fled from Taupo to Opotiki, was arrested and put on trial by the Pai Mārire party. He was rescued from captivity two weeks later by a British man-of-war, HMS Eclipse after an attempt by local Pai Mārire leaders to negotiate a prisoner swap with Tauranga chief Hori Tupaea.
On July 22 Taranaki prophet Horomona led the murder of the master and two of the three crew members of the schooner Kate at Whakatane.
Government suppression
George Grey
George Grey may refer to:*Sir George Grey, 2nd Baronet , British politician*George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent *Sir George Grey , Governor of Cape Colony, South Australia and New Zealand...
issued a proclamation condemning the "revolting acts ... repugnant to all humanity" carried out by Pai Mārire followers and warned the government would "resist and suppress by force of arms if necessary, and by every means in my power, fanatical doctrines, rites, and practices of the aforesaid character". Horomona and Kirimangu were hanged for their July 22 killings on the schooner Kate and a coalition of government and loyal Māori forces led by Hawke's Bay Province
Hawke's Bay Province
The Hawke's Bay Province was a province of New Zealand. The province separated from the Wellington Province following a meeting in Napier in February 1858, and existed until the abolition of provincial government in 1876...
Superintendent Donald McLean embarked on a mission to crush the religion on the East Coast. From June to October 1865 there was a virtual civil war on the East Coast culminating in the battle of Waerenga-a-Hika in Poverty Bay in November. Hundreds of followers were arrested in the campaign, while in Taranaki a separate campaign
Second Taranaki War
-Background and causes of the war:The conflict in Taranaki had its roots in the First Taranaki War, which had ended in March 1861 with an uneasy truce. Neither side fulfilled the terms of the truce, leaving many of the issues unresolved...
led by the increasingly reluctant British commander, General Duncan Cameron, raided dozens of villages to arrest hundreds more adherents.
In February 1866 Te Ua was captured near Opunake
Opunake
Opunake is a small town on the southwest coast of Taranaki in New Zealand's North Island. It is located 45 kilometres southwest of New Plymouth. Rahotu is 16 km to the northwest. Manaia is 29 km to the southeast. State Highway 45 passes through the town.The population was 1368 in the...
in Taranaki by Cameron's replacement, Major-General Trevor Chute
Trevor Chute
Major-General Sir Trevor Chute KCB, 31 July 1816 – 12 March 1886 , was an Irish soldier in the British army, whose six week campaign during the Second Taranaki War was the last to be carried out in New Zealand by imperial troops.-Family Background:...
. Chute claimed Te Ua was immediately abandoned by all those in his village, who swore an oath of allegiance to the Crown and were set free. He reported that kupapa (loyal) Māori urged his immediate execution. Te Ua was taken to Wanganui, writing en route to his North Island supporters, urging: "Let evil be brought to an end ... in order that the General may cease operations against you." Te Ua and Patara were freed in Auckland and most other leaders were pardoned, but Grey transported 400 East Coast followers, including Te Kooti
Te Kooti
Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki was a Māori leader, the founder of the Ringatu religion and guerrilla.While fighting alongside government forces against the Hauhau in 1865, he was accused of spying. Exiled to the Chatham Islands without trial along with captured Hauhau, he experienced visions and...
, to the Chatham Islands
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun...
for incarceration. Elements of Pai Mārire were later incorporated into the Ringatu
Ringatu
The Ringatū church was founded in 1868 by Te Kooti Rikirangi. The symbol for the movement is an upraised hand, or "Ringa Tū" in Māori.Te Kooti was one of a number of Māori detained at the Chatham Islands without trial in relation to the East Coast disturbances of the 1860s...
religion founded by Te Kooti.
Te Ua died at Oeo
OEO
OEO may refer to:* Office of Economic Opportunity* "Optical-Electrical-Optical" conversion of data, often with respect to an Optical switch* Opto-Electronic Oscillator, a type of photonic oscillator that relies upon a locked laser source....
in Taranaki in October 1866.
Rites and beliefs
Te Ua's followers identified themselves with the Jews, calling their ministers Teu (Jews) and accepted the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath. They believed they were a second Chosen People and that, with divine aid, they would return from the wilderness to freedom in their hereditary land. Te Ua taught that the Creator, JehovahJehovah
Jehovah is an anglicized representation of Hebrew , a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton , the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible....
, would fight for them and drive the English into the sea. When the last of the enemy had perished, every Māori who had died since the beginning of the world would be resurrected and stand in the presence of Zerubbabel, healed of all of diseases and infirmities. Men would be sent from heaven to teach Māori all the arts and sciences known by Europeans. Their first great day of deliverance would be in December 1864. He urged men and women to abandon monogamy
Monogamy
Monogamy /Gr. μονός+γάμος - one+marriage/ a form of marriage in which an individual has only one spouse at any one time. In current usage monogamy often refers to having one sexual partner irrespective of marriage or reproduction...
and live together communally to produce as many children as possible.
Services were held at a niu, a tall pole, often about 18m high, with yard-arms
Yard (sailing)
A yard is a spar on a mast from which sails are set. It may be constructed of timber, steel, or from more modern materials, like aluminium or carbon fibre. Although some types of fore and aft rigs have yards , the term is usually used to describe the horizontal spars used with square sails...
from which hung ropes. The first of these niu was the mast of the Lord Worsley. Members of the congregation circled the niu several times a day, chanting and touching a decapitated head mounted on a pole while priests conducted prayer services. Historian Babbage wrote: "The worshippers worked themselves into a state bordering on frenzy during the procedure of the ritual, until catalepsy frequently prostrated them." The chants as devotees circled the niu were described as "a jumble of Christian and ancient concepts, of soldier and sailor terms, of English and Māori language with the barking watchword of the cult interspersed". The "angels of the wind" were said to be present during the service, ascending and descending the ropes dangling from the mast's yard-arm. By the end of 1865 a niu stood in almost every large village from Taranaki to the Bay of Plenty and from the north of the Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
district to the Waikato
Waikato
The Waikato Region is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato, Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the northern King Country, much of the Taupo District, and parts of Rotorua District...
frontier.
The chants
Historian James Cowan described many of the chants as "simply meaningless strings of English words rounded into the softer MāoriMaori language
Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...
; others were either transliterations or mispronunciations of parts of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
services, with a sprinkling of Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
from the Roman Catholic ritual. Some phrases were military orders, picked up at the soldiers' camps. Some others showed a nautical origin; Te Ua boxed the compass
Boxing the compass
Boxing the compass is the action of naming all thirty-two points of the compass in clockwise order. Such names are formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, and are very handy to refer to a heading in a general or colloquial fashion, without...
like any pakeha sailor."
The chant began:
- Kira, wana, tu, tiri, wha—Teihana!
- Rewa, piki rewa, rongo rewa, tone, piki tone—Teihana!
- Rori, piki rori, rongo rori, puihi, piki puihi—Teihana!
- Rongo puihi, rongo tone, hira, piki hira, rongo hira—Teihana!
- Mauteni, piki mauteni, rongo mauteni, piki niu, rongo niu—Teihana!
- Nota, no te pihi, no te hihi, noriti mino, noriti, koroni—Teihana!
- Hai, kamu, te ti, oro te mene, rauna te niu—Teihana!
- Hema, rura wini, tu mate wini, kamu te ti—Teihana!
(Translation)
- Kill, one, two, three, four—Attention!
- River, big river, long river, stone, big stone—Attention!
- Road, big road, long road, bush, big bush—Attention!
- Long bush, long stone, hill, big hill, long hill—Attention!
- Mountain, big mountain, long mountain, big staff, long staff—Attention!
- North, north-by-east, nor'-nor'-east, nor'-east-by-north, north-east, colony—Attention!
- Come to tea, all the men, round the niu—Attention!
- Shem, rule the wind, too much wind, come to tea—Attention!
Divine protection in battle
Te Ua taught that the divine service and strict adherence to his instruction would make them impervious to bullets if, when under fire, they would raise their right hand and cry, "Hapa! Hapa! Pai Mārire, hau! Hau! Hau!" "Hapa" meant to pass over, or ward off, while the exclamation "Hau!" at the end of the choruses – said by one soldier to uttered in a way that sounded like the bark of a dog – had a literal meaning of "wind" but referred to the life principle or vital spark of man, while the wind angels were named "Anahera hau".A similar belief in the mystical power to avert bullets had earlier been reported among Islamic groups in Africa and Asia and America, such as the Ghost Shirt Movement
Ghost Shirts
Ghost shirts were vests held sacred by certain factions of the Lakota Sioux that were supposed to guard against bullets through spiritual power. Contrary to popular belief, Jack Wilson opposed rebellion against the white settlers...
.
Further reading
- Clark, P. (1975) Hauhau: The Pai Marire Search for Maori Identity. Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press.
- Head, L.F. (1992) The Gospel of Te Ua Haumene. Journal of the Polynesian Society vol 101:7-44. Complete text of Te Ua's own copy, now in the Grey Collection, Auckland Public Library.
- Lyall, A. C. (1979) Whakatohea of Opotiki. AH & AW Reed.
- "Taranaki Religions" 2001 NJ Taniwha T.W.O.R 2003