Te Whiti-O-Rongomai-III

Te Whiti-O-Rongomai-lll

Te Whiti was born in 1830 at Ngamotu Taranaki. His mother was Rangiawau and his father was Tohukakahi a minor chief of the Patukai Hapu in the Tuhirikura branch. He was educated at Reimenschneider’s Mission School at Warea where he excelled at bible studies. Te Whiti was identified to be a possible teacher or prophet. After leaving school he set up a flour mill at Warea. He lived peacefully on the coast of Parihaka until 1865 when the European troops burnt down his village. In spite of this he never took up arms (guns).

By the year 1870 Parihaka had become the biggest village in New Zealand. Nine years later the European troops invaded Parihaka. Around the year 1881 the Europeans began seizing the land from the Maori. As one of the leaders of the Parihaka movement Te Whiti would hold monthly meetings on the 18th of every month, about the progress of the Parihaka movement. Te Whiti and his friend Tohu Kakahi instructed his people to continue to plough the fields on the seized land. As a result of this the men were brutally punished. As Te Whiti was a very spiritual man who preached Christian beliefs his men were not allowed to fight back. Later that year a meeting was held with two European government officials. One hour later Te Whiti was taken to prison. The land of Parihaka was immediately destroyed. It took the army only two weeks to destroy all the houses and two months to destroy all the crops. While in prison Te Whiti learnt how to use European technology. He would play mind games on the guards by putting sugar in their soup and salt in their porridge.

In 1883 Te Whiti was taken back to Parihaka, although many men were still left imprisoned. When Te Whiti arrived back at Parihaka he refused an order from the soldiers to stop running the monthly meetings. For not obeying this order Te Whiti was taken back to prison in 1888 a few days before Te Whiti was released, his wife passed away. Sadly he was not allowed to return to his land or attend his wife's funeral. After being released from prison Te Whiti returned home with his son in law Tare Waitara. Parihaka has started to modernize itself, it now had lighting running water, and drainage. Finally after nineteen years of imprisonments all the people were paroled.

Sadly Te Whiti died in the year 1907. Parihaka was no longer under war and all that Te Whiti lived for had been accomplished.

I believe that Te Whiti was an inspirational leader as he never stopped fighting for what was right. One other reason I think that he is inspiring is because he fought without the use of arms, and when he did fight, he did so in a peaceful way.

By Jack Wellwood