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'Parihaka Remembered' 100cm x 70cm Acrylic on board
One must look at the wars of the 1860's waged against Māori if we are to understand the origins of Parihaka, a large village founded during the punitive years of mass confiscation and dispossession of Māori from their lands. By 1870 it had become the largest Māori village in the country. Then in 1881 it was the scene of one of the worst infringements of civil and human rights ever committed and witnessed in this country.
The invasion of the settlement on the 5th of November 1881 by 1500 militia and armed members of the constabulary was the result of greed for Māori owned land and the quest for power by politicians and settlers. Parihaka had become a haven for the dispossessed from througout the country.
Throughout the wars of the 1860's the Parihaka leaders forbade the use of arms and condemned violence and greed. They challenged the Colonial Government over the illegality of the wars, the confiscation of the land and the punitive policies enacted by the Settler Government against Māori.
In 1880 the Parihaka people erected barricades across roads, pulled survey pegs and escorted road builders and surveyors out of the district.
The Native minister John Bryce described Parihaka as "that headquarters of fanaticism and disaffection". Parliament passed legislation enabling the Government to hold the protesters indefinitely without trial.
By September 1880 hundreds of men and youths had been exiled to South Island prisons where they were forced to build the infrastructure of Cities like Dunedin.
They wore 3 white goose feathers in their hair, which became their symbol for passive resistance toward evil. The Parihaka tribe inspired Ghandi with the power of passive resistance.
