10/6/08
The Maori Struggle for Land and Life
| Written by John Schertow | |
| Thursday, 02 October 2008 | |
 TheMaori People of Aotearoa (New Zealand) are now standing at acrossroads, forced to choose between sovereignty and colonialism.Within the recent Maori settlement program, the government offers largesums of money and small fragments of land. In exchange, the Maori areexpected to give up their independence and become New Zealand citizens.Recent history shows that the New Zealand government is more thanwilling to use intimidation and violence to control and assimilate theMaori.The 1840 Treaty of Waitangi between the Maorileadership and the colonial state resulted in massive land seizures andviolence against the Maori. The current land claims process is arenewal of this tragic legacy of repression. One major differencebetween then and now is that in the past the Maori refused to let go oftheir sovereignty -- always maintaining they did not intend to cede it.We can see that's true, given that the original treaty "does not usethe Maori word for 'sovereignty,' kingitanga, or even the Maori wordfor 'independence,' rangatiritanga." Kevin Jon Heller, a law professorat the University of Auckland in New Zealand, points out: [T]heBritish had to have known that the Maori did not intend to cedesovereignty to the Queen. In 1835, the British and the Maori had signedthe Declaration of Independence, in which the British guaranteed thatthe Maori chiefs would maintain sovereignty over their land. TheDeclaration made use of all three of the words that are at the heart ofthe dispute over the Treaty, with the British translatingrangatiritanga as "independence," kingitanga as "sovereign power andauthority," and kawanatanga as "functions of government." How thencould the British have honestly believed a mere five years later — withmany of the same British officials present at the signing of bothdocuments — that Article 1's use of the term kawanatanga, as opposed tokingitanga, meant that the Maori were giving up their sovereignty? Inretrospect, we can assume that belief had nothing to do with it. Afterall, New Zealand has never acknowledged the original treaty as anythingbut a 'courtesy.' The real treaty, they say, is the English translation they drew after the original. This version, of course, plainly states the Maori ceded their rights: TheChiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand and theseparate and independent Chiefs who have not become members of theConfederation cede to Her Majesty the Queen of England absolutely andwithout reservation all the rights and powers of Sovereignty which thesaid Confederation or Individual Chiefs respectively exercise orpossess, or may be supposed to exercise or to possess over theirrespective Territories as the sole Sovereigns thereof. Inany case, "the question is now moot," says Heller. "New Zealand courtshave long since given up trying to determine the "true" meaning of theTreaty. Now they — and the Waitangi Tribunal, which makesrecommendations to the government concerning Maori grievances — simplyapply the so-called "Treaty Principles" [which are based on the Englishtreaty]." Heller's right to say it'smoot, but the New Zealand government's insistence is little more than adesperate plea. They simply can't afford to respect the Maori version,which would be an admission that they committed fraud, would could inturn de-legitimize the state, or at least force them to acknowledge theMaori's rights. The only thing would be expected to do to avoid thiswas to make it into a non-issue, and then pray the Maori buy into it.As we can gather from the recent wave of settlements, a vast number ofthe Maori leadership is doing just that. You can find more articles by John Schertow at his blog, Intercontinental Cry Photo by Simon Oosterman |
9/12/08
Armed invasions by Colonial Troops-Aotearoa
1864 Orakau
1881 Parihaka
1978 Takaparawhau
1995 Paikatore
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1995 Takahue
2007 Ruatoki
11/8/07
The Maori resistance
Tuesday November 6, 2007
The Guardian
 |  The Maori activist Tame Iti. |
Unfortunately, he was not. Or at least, he may have been from the British point of view, but he most definitely was not from the Maori's. And if last month, more than 140 years after his death, a shocked New Zealand woke up to the news that 17 Maori rights activists had been arrested on weapons and terrorism offences following the discovery of "paramilitary training camps" in the remote mountain ranges of North Island, it is not entirely fanciful to suggest that the late reverend should bear at least some of the blame.
Sixteen people are on trial in Auckland district court following the raids, the culmination of a year-long police undercover operation that involved up to 300 officers and was centred on the isolated North Island hamlet of Ruatoki, gateway to the Urewera mountains that are home to the fiercely independent Tuhoe tribe. The raids followed sightings of "armed men in camouflage and balaclavas moving through forests carrying heavy packs and firearms". There are unconfirmed claims that among the weapons seized was a napalm bomb, or perhaps some molotov cocktails, and rumours that the prime minister, Helen Clark, may have been a target.
One of the men arrested has reportedly told police he was training to be "a vicious, dangerous commando", would "declare war on this country very soon", and that "white men are going to die here". Another, a colourful Maori and Tuhoe activist called Tame Iti - previously best known for baring his buttocks at public protests and shooting at the New Zealand flag - is said to have been preparing an IRA-style "war on New Zealand" aimed at establishing an independent state on his tribe's land. One New Zealand paper, the Dominion Post, has claimed Iti's 20-strong group was known as Rama - the Maori word for enlightenment - and included ex-New Zealand army Vietnam war veterans as well as several teenaged recruits. It had adopted the IRA's Green Book as its training manual, the paper claimed.
Quite how much of all this will ever be proved true is anyone's guess. Claims and counter-claims have been flying furiously since the first raid a fortnight ago: Maori leaders are livid at what they say is police heavy-handedness; some have suggested that the camps (if they exist at all) were harmless bushcraft retreats. Pita Sharples, leader of the country's Maori party, says the raids have "set race relations back 100 years". Meanwhile, the rightwing NZ First party has called on moderate Maori to "disown their subversive and divisive sub-culture".
What is certain is that these events have exposed wounds that most people outside New Zealand could be forgiven for assuming had healed long ago. Disease and massacres, we sort of vaguely know, finished off most of the indigenous people of Australia, and many of the Aboriginals who survived now live on squalid reservations beset by problems of health, education, unemployment, crime and substance abuse. But the Maori? They had a hard time, no doubt. But nowadays their culture is all over New Zealand, isn't it? Maori do very well, don't they, in all walks of life? And look at the All Blacks! New Zealand and the Maori, they're pretty much OK, aren't they? No big issues there.
It turns out, though, that there are - and that feelings about them are starting to run dangerously high. Listen, for example, to Allan Hawea, a moderate, law-abiding Maori community worker from the Bay of Plenty. New Zealanders of European extraction, known in Maori as Pakeha, he warns, "can harp on all they like about how tired they are of Maori considering themselves above the law, or how sick and tired they are of hearing Maori bleat on about the race issue. Well, friends, get used to it. We will not have you tell us how we will respond to the issues that concern us. We will decide how we respond. We are not going away. If you find our response unreasonable, illogical, perhaps it is because we have been reasonable and logical for far too long."
Some facts. Just under 15% of New Zealand's four million-strong population are Maori. A survey last month from the ministry of social development showed that in all but four of 20 basic socio-economic indicators, they are worse off than European New Zealanders. Maori are three times more likely to die from a violent assault (and four times as likely to be arrested for violent assault) than non-Maori. They account for around 40% of all convictions in the courts, and 50% of the New Zealand prison population. Maori are nearly three times as likely to be unemployed, and their household income is roughly 70% of the national average. Healthwise, Maori life expectancy is nearly 10 years lower than non-Maori. They are four times more likely to live in an overcrowded house, and far more likely to have drug or alcohol problems.
A 2006 report by Rodolfo Stavenhagen, the United Nations' special rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, concluded that while some progress had been made, and New Zealand ranked pretty high on international human and social development indicators, "persistent disparities" continue between Maori and non-Maori in fields such as health, paid work, economic standard of living, housing and justice. Some of these, Stavenhagen added, were consistent with "a history of discrimination", and there was a need for "continued specific measures based on ethnicity" to "strengthen the social, economic and cultural rights" of the Maori. "While the standard of living of the Maori of New Zealand has improved and is better than that of indigenous peoples in poorer countries," Stavenhagen wrote in a separate statement, "there is widespread concern that the gap in social and economic conditions is actually growing larger and an increasing proportion of Maori are being left behind."
Some Maori have no hesitation in saying what they think this is all about. "It's quite obvious that underlying all this is a deeply entrenched racism," says Professor Margaret Mutu of the University of Auckland's Maori studies department, who is also actively involved with the Maori rights movement. "The European attitude is basically: we are superior, we are in charge, and that's just the way it is. It's really a huge problem here. And I do consider the patience of the Maori amazing. They could have taken up arms long ago, but they have not done so."
The roots of Maori resentment lie, of course, in the past, and more specifically in February 1840. Back, then, to the Rev Williams, who with the assistance of his son Edward - raised among Maori and deemed an even more able scholar of the Nga-Puhi dialect than his father - produced the Maori version of the three-clause treaty of Waitangi.
In article one of the treaty's English text, the Maori signatories apparently cede their "sovereignty" to the British Crown. Williams's Maori version of the text, however, which was the one the chiefs signed, used a missionary neologism, "kawanatanga", to translate this concept - the term means something akin to "governorship". This was curious, because a pretty good translation of "sovereignty" already existed in Maori: "tino rangatiratanga".
Even more curiously, article two of the Maori version expressly reserves "tino rangatiratanga", or full sovereign authority, over "their lands, forests, fisheries and everything they value" to the Maori chiefs. And since the only reason the chiefs were sitting down with the representative of the British Crown in the first place was because they had been obliged to asked for Britain's help in controlling the lawless, land-grabbing and violent band of European whalers, sealers and other settlers who had invaded their islands, it seems clear that what the Maori believed they were signing - what they did, in fact, sign - was a document granting the Crown a strictly limited authority over the non-Maori settlers.
What the British signed, on the other hand, was a document granting them full sovereignty over what, three months later, duly became the Crown colony of New Zealand. And thanks to a subsequent barrage of questionable land purchases and wholesale confiscations of vast tracts of New Zealand, between 1840 and 1890, the Maori lost approximately 95% of their territories. Over roughly the same period, meanwhile, the Maori population had shrunk from 100,000 to about 36,000, while the European population rose from 2,000 to more than 600,000.
"The land issue is the legal, cultural and spiritual focus of almost all Maori grievances today," says Dr Tracey McIntosh, a University of Auckland sociologist and member of the Tuhoe tribe. "Many tribes, including mine, never even signed the treaty, so we just view our land as having been stolen. And above and beyond the Maori's spiritual relationship with their lands, you can make a very strong evidence-based argument for saying that the alienation of our land removed our whole economic base and distorted the whole range of social relationships. That's why this history is so important: for Maori, the injustices of the past have real implications for our present lives. We're still seeing their consequences."
There has been some attempt to address the land issue, but not with any tremendous success: the Waitangi Tribunal, established in 1975 to hear complaints of alleged treaty violations, has in the 32 years of its existence registered 1,400 cases, heard around 150, issued 50 reports - and settled barely 20 claims, for a total value of just over NZ$700m (£258m). The tribunal's decisions, moreover, are non-binding. In recent years, Maori have had further cause to question their government's intentions when it passed the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act, giving the Crown ownership of coastal areas and overturning a court of appeal ruling that the islands' indigenous inhabitants enjoyed "customary title" or property rights. The UN is sufficiently unimpressed with this legislation, dubbed by many Maori "the last great land grab", to have formally recommended it be repealed, or at least significantly amended.
Paradoxically, Maori language and culture have come to occupy a significant, even a fundamental place in New Zealand life. Thirty years ago, speaking Maori in school was liable to get you caned. These days, Maori is an official national language and is taught, along with Maori history and culture, in creches and at primary and secondary school. Maori place names have been restored, and their correct pronunciation is seen as important; there is Maori-language TV and radio; a Maori party exists and seats are reserved for Maori in New Zealand's parliament; much of the very iconography of the state is now Maori. "It's true we now have a real consciousness, an awareness of Maori issues that many other countries with indigenous peoples do not have," says McIntosh. "It's pretty difficult to be in this country and not to be aware of it. Partly as a result, everything around Maori is political."
Much of this has been accomplished as a result of the so-called Maori revival, started in the 1960s and 70s. Fuelled by almost invariably peaceful protest - essentially sit-ins, occupations and marches - the Maori protest movement has been highly successful in raising their profile and achieving concrete, if limited progress in areas such as land rights, the Maori language and culture, and racism. "The problem," says McIntosh, "is that there may now be a great deal of recognition of Maori issues, but that certain practices are very deeply embedded here. Plus, there's a lot of tolerance for ignorance around Maori issues. This is a country, remember, that in the 1960s firmly believed it had the best race relations in the world. It simply did not believe it had a race issue."
It is an environment, many Maori feel, in which "it can all too easily seem as if most non-Maori in the land are saying: 'We know, we care - but we don't really understand, so don't expect us to do anything about it,'" says one contributor to a popular New Zealand chat community. "It's as if their efforts on the cultural front can excuse them from taking the underlying historical grievances and social and economic problems seriously." Mutu adds that New Zealand is "very, very good at the propaganda it puts out, and has been for years. It's so successful, in fact, that it has convinced most of its own population. There's a real perception among many Pakeha that Maori are now a privileged group, that we already get way too much preferential treatment."
But paramilitary training camps? Police raids? molotov cocktails and napalm? War on the streets of Wellington? Few Maori seem to believe a word of it, preferring instead to talk of "ignorance and misunderstanding" and a "huge overreaction" by the police. There is, though, a wary acknowledgement that tensions are building. "The powerlessness and disenfranchisement some Maori feel may lead people to explore different ways of articulating power," says McIntosh. "There may be a significant few who feel that way. My worry is that this incident will do a great deal of damage to a group that already feels very alienated. I worry about the response it may provoke."
Mutu also doubts there was "anything remotely threatening going on up in those mountains", in part because "if there was, I think I would have heard about it". But, she concurs, "the whole of Maoridom has been traumatised by these raids. Attitudes are certainly hardening. Eventually, I think, we will get together, and we will discuss how to handle it. And yes, I can see a day we will go back to our land and reclaim it. There will not be military action, because that is not our way, but we will go on to the state-owned farms, into the forests, to the wild places where very few people live, and we will say: 'This is ours, now try and stop us taking it. We've been patient, we've believed your fine words, for too long. We know what is right'".
8/28/07
Te Kotahi A Tuhoe
As Treaty Settlement Claims have gathered momentum so too has the country's politician call for "one law for all".
For the people of ... all » Tühoe though, they say their authority and their law casts the stronger shadow over their ancestral lands. This belief forms the foundations of their Treaty Claims as Tahuri Tumoana reveals.
8/20/07
Institutional Racism Rampant in NZ
Twenty or more years ago, our communities told the gubbament what we needed to stem the flow of our young people from state 'care', to youth 'facilities' and eventually prisons. They never listen, and make out consultation to be a 'big' thing, when its just another con. Its obvious us to me that our current engagement with the pakeha system will be the death of us alright. The whole lot of this farken system can Haere Atu!!!!!!!!
Courts 'ignoring ethnic factors'
Maori criminals should have their sentences assessed against their ethnic and cultural backgrounds, a United Nations report says.
The recommendation comes as part of a damning assessment of New Zealand's race relations, issued at the weekend by the United Nations committee on the elimination of racial discrimination.
Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples welcomed the report and said Maori were often the victims of "cultural ignorance" within the criminal justice system.
The report said Maori were over-represented in prisoner statistics and that provisions in the Criminal Justice Act, allowing people to provide "cultural" reasons for their offending, were underutilised.
Under section 16 of the act, relevant cultural information submitted to the court can then be taken into account during sentencing.
The report said only 14 per cent of criminals surveyed were aware of their entitlement and blamed "resistance" among court officials for the low uptake.
Dr Sharples, who has been a vocal critic of the justice system in the past, said he was in total accord with the report's findings. He said the system failed to recognise New Zealand was a multicultural society.
It was disappointing so few prisoners were aware of their right to present cultural evidence to the court, he said. "People within the justice system have made a decision that (cultural factors) are not that valuable. A lot are just ignorant, they just don't see it as a bona fide suggestion."
Dr Sharples said he wanted to see restorative justice and family group conferences used more widely in sentencing, as they were a more culturally appropriate approach to criminal justice for Maori.
The report also criticised the Government's implementation of the Foreshore and Seabed Act, recommending "renewed dialogue" take place between Maori and the government on the legislation.
It recommended the Treaty of Waitangi be entrenched in a national constitution, in order to have binding powers on the Crown.
Concerns were also raised about a members bill proposing to delete references to the Treaty from legislation and the practice of detaining asylum seekers in prisons.
NZ First leader Winston Peters - whose colleague Doug Woolerton sponsors the bill - dismissed the UN report, saying it was erroneous and meddlesome.
Mr Peters said though the report's authors were experts in their fields, they were not experts on the issues facing New Zealand society.
The chairman of the Treaty Tribes Coalition, Ngahiwi Tomoana, said critical international race relations assessments were becoming an embarrassment for the Government.
"Our identity is as a human rights leader and we are consistently being shown up as having serious problems," he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen said the report put the Government "on notice" to listen to Maori, particularly on foreshore and seabed issues.
Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said the committee had produced a balanced report.
Urgent action was needed to deal with the number of Maori being arrested, convicted and jailed, he said.
"There will be differing views about some of the issues raised, but the recommendations are just that."
8/19/07
Tougher rules to smash gangs
He said the Government should use anti-terrorism legislation, including the 2002 Terrorism Act, as part of its arsenal against organised crime.
"The average frontline policeman is quite clear: they need to be able to harass and harry gangs out of existence.
Wednesday, 8 August 2007
Gang members face tougher jail terms, with police given greater powers to spy on them, in a Government crackdown on organised crime.
More leeway for police under search proposals
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The fallout from the gang-related drive-by shooting of Wanganui toddler Jhia Te Tua has prompted a revision of laws governing gangs.
But critics say a golden opportunity to outlaw them has been lost.
Justice Minister Mark Burton told Parliament yesterday that several laws would be changed, including those covering organised crime groups.
The Crimes Act would be amended to allow the maximum sentence for participating in an organised crime group to be doubled to 10 years.
Simply being part of an organised crime group would become a stand-alone offence, and judges would be given more powers to cite gang affiliations when imposing longer jail terms.
Police would get stronger powers to eavesdrop electronically on gang activities - a law change also recommended in an unrelated Law Commission report issued yesterday.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said the changes were prompted by the murder in May of two-year-old Jhia amid tensions between the Mongrel Mob and Black Power in Wanganui.
"We've certainly been looking at ways of tightening the law so that the police have a better chance of getting convictions around gang-related crime," Miss Clark said.
Twelve Mongrel Mob associates charged with Jhia's murder are due to reappear in court tomorrow.
Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws, who has championed a bylaw banning gang regalia in the central city, said the law changes were "a step in the right direction".
However, more needed to be done to eradicate gangs, including outlawing membership.
"I don't want to be seen slamming the Government, but they have been in power since 1999. We are still a long way away from the proper solution - outlawing gangs."
He said the Government should use anti-terrorism legislation, including the 2002 Terrorism Act, as partof its arsenal against organised crime.
"The average frontline policeman is quite clear: they need to be able to harass and harry gangs out of existence."
National accused the Government of ripping off its ideas, and NZ First MP Ron Mark said it was "sick irony" that the Government was proclaiming measures to clamp down on gangs while failing to outlaw them.
"Parliament has no problem banning foreign terrorist organisations. It now needs to accept that these are our own home-grown domestic terrorists and that they deserve the same treatment," Mr Mark said.
Canterbury University sociologist and former prison inmate Greg Newbold said the stiffer penalties were simply window dressing.
"This will have no effect on organised crimes or gangs, because most of the offences they're involved in carry more than 10 years in prison anyway."
Gangs had been around since the 1950s and organised crime since the 1970s, and both were here to stay, Dr Newbold said.
Civil Liberties chairman Michael Bott said the election campaign had obviously started early.
He pointed out that prisons were a rich recruiting ground for gangs and that Mr Burton, who said two years ago that there were too many people in prison, was now talking about locking up more people.
http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2007/07/maori-are-from-pas-pakeha-are-from.html
8/18/07
Gang photos from jail on internet site
Jailed members of an Auckland street gang are using cellphones smuggled into prison to send out photos of themselves.
Supporters of the JCBs - Juvanyle Crip Boys - are posting the photos on the internet and calling for jailed members, in prison for violence offences, to be freed.
The Weekend Herald has obtained a photo of a member of the JCBs taken inside Mt Eden Prison, and others of JCBs members in custody in court cells.
There are also photos of JCBs members with guns, and partying with Black Power members.
A newborn baby is shown wrapped in JCB gang regalia, and one photo shows members of an associated South Auckland street gang posing with Prime Minister Helen Clark.
The photos are being circulated among a network of four South Auckland street gangs called the "Crip Family", and some are on the Bebo social networking website.
Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor yesterday said the JCBs prison photo was outrageous.
He said the Government would next week announce "jamming technology" that stopped cellphones working in prisons.
Mr O'Connor conceded Corrections was having trouble keeping cellphones out of prisons.
A prisoner in Rimutaka jail was yesterday alleged to have been using smuggled phones to mastermind importing $1 million worth of drugs from Thailand.
National Party justice spokesman Simon Power said Corrections' ineptitude was "helping glamorise people who don't take the justice system seriously".
The department said it would investigate the photo of the JCBs member.
Helen Clark said the photo of her arm-in-arm with gang members was "most disturbing".
It shows her with two teenagers who are doing a "Crips" hand signal, and has been posted on the internet titled "Cripn' Clark".
The teenager to the Prime Minister's left is wearing a TNS - Thugs Not Soldiers - cap. The TNS are also in the Crip Family.
A spokeswoman for Helen Clark said the photo was taken in March, while she was visiting a "family fun day" in an Otahuhu Housing NZ neighbourhood.
"She is most disturbed to hear that someone has tried to take advantage of that."
Jurors sent on a mission
A judge has ordered a jury to "go back and make South Auckland a safer place" after it let eight JCBs walk free for a gang attack that nearly killed a teenager.
Chief Manukau District Court Judge Charles Blackie said it was a "tragedy" that juries were being called upon more and more frequently to listen to cases of street gang violence.
South Auckland was becoming more and more dangerous, and the violence had to be curbed - "otherwise you are going to see more and more people who come within an inch of losing their life".
The trial, which ended last month, was for an October 2005 attack in a Mangere Park where up to 15 JCBs took to three teenagers with a baseball bat, steel bar, hammer, machete and lengths of wood. One of the victims was left paralysed and unable to speak.
The jury acquitted all eight JCBs who went to trial for the attack. Other gang members had earlier admitted their involvement.
Six JCBs were convicted this year for their part in a night of violence that cost $2.5 million to investigate.
Message To RBG Family From RBG SS: "Revolutionary Warfare"
6/10/07
The shooting of Steven Wallace
Steven Wallace was shot dead by a police officer over a week ago after smashing windows with a baseball bat and golf club. There is still no official explanation as to why this happened. Police spokespersons have said that the police homicide enquiry may take several weeks; while the Police Complaints Authority enquiry may take several months. There are serious discrepancies between the reports from witnesses and the brief statement issued by the police about what happened at the time of the shooting.
Given the anguish of Steven’s family and friends, and the depth of public concern about the shooting, surely by now the police have sufficient evidence to answer the most pressing questions. Why did police officers decide to arm themselves with guns when Steven was obviously not carrying a firearm himself ? Why didn’t they choose another option to stop him - for example, by waiting for the dog unit which was apparently on its way from New Plymouth ? Why was Steven shot four times ? Why were local people who tried to offer him comfort and assistance as he lay bleeding and dying in the street for 20 minutes prevented by the police from going near him ? Why is this young man dead ?
In a region where injustice is the common theme for Maori stretching back more than one hundred and fifty years through land confiscation, peaceful resistance which ended in incarceration and death for some, there is a strong feeling that this is another atrocity to add to a long list.
Steven’s death is not seen as a tragedy, it is seen as an outrage. In the short term, the answers to the questions above have to be forthcoming, and justice has to be found for the loss this shooting has brought to Steven’s family and friends. Without this there is no chance whatsoever for healing even to begin.
TITOKOWARU (?–1888).
Maori warrior.
A chief of Ngati Ruahine tribe of South Taranaki, Titokowaru was prominent as a prophet and priest. He was responsible for organising a campaign against Government forces by gathering picked fighting men around him from neighbouring tribes. A most skilful warrior, he was second only to Te Kooti in guerilla warfare and trained his men in bush fighting, surprise attacks on small military posts, ambushing, and enticing untrained white troops into unfamiliar terrain.
Titokowaru's pa was Te Ngutu o te Manu, deep in the rata forest near Hawera. In his large assembly hall and temple he selected his war party by curious methods of divination, using his sacred staff. During the attack on his pa in 1868, when Von Tempsky was killed, Titokowaru walked up and down the clearing inside the stockade, disregarding bullets, and, spear in hand, recited prayers to ancient Maori gods. After the battle–a victory–he stood with his hands resting on his spear and in a croaking voice ordered the 20 white bodies to be burned. Then he farewelled Von Tempsky's corpse before lighting the funeral pyre.
His most famous victories were at Te Ngutu o te Manu and Moturoa where Government forces were heavily defeated. Maoris attribute his decline of power to an illicit liaison with another chief's wife at Tauranga-ika pa. This circumstance was fatal to his own prestige and sanctity so that he was no longer “the invincible war priest and war captain of his people”. After stands at Otautu and Whakamara, Titokowaru was harried by Wanganui Maoris until he finally abandoned the district, with his power broken, never to fight again. He settled at Kawau pa in the upper Waitara Valley until 1875, and died in 1888.
Remembered for his outstanding military leadership, he was a master tactician in guerilla warfare; as an engineer he modified the fortified pa and made it virtually indestructible, even to artillery and mortar fire. In later years he came under the influence of Te Whiti and led the ploughing parties at Parihaka.
http://www.newzealandwars.co.nz/cam_southtaranaki.html
http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/waitara.htm
4/18/07
New Plymouth Pigs Burn Maori Woman off Property
A WOMAN at the centre of a land dispute at Urenui was devastated to discover all her belongings have perished in a suspicious blaze.http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/72891/index.php
what is passed off as police in New Zealand never ceases to turn my guts, unless it's what's passed off as a judge ofcourse. Late on Sunday afternoon a series of suspicious fires destroyed all of Margaret Eriwata's possessions, including a make-shift house, two caravans and two campervans, leaving her with nothing more than the clothes on her back.
Ms Eriwata (53) has been fighting for almost four years for the right to live on her share of 20ha of farmland on Mataro Rd, Urenui, which was left to her in her grandfather's 1922 will. Police are not investigating the fires. Ms Eriwata says she is devastated by what has happened.Last year Ms Eriwata was evicted from the land after Justice Wild in the New Plymouth High Court said he was satisfied she was in contempt of court orders prohibiting her from staying on the land.
Ten cars were removed from the land and lined up along the road side but were later moved back on to the land. Ms Eriwata had not seen the damage for herself, she spent Sunday night in police custody after being arrested for breaching her totally unreasonable bail conditions by returning to her property only hours before the fires were lit. (by the police) Ms Eriwata, who is vowing to continue her fight to live onher land, says she was tipped off about the fires and tried to stop the police.
She says police did nothing and have not investigated death threats she has received. Waitara police Senior Sergeant Matt Prendergast says police treat all complaints they receive seriously while grinning ear to ear. The fires were being treated as suspicious, he said, with a chuckle.
