Rua Kenana Hepetipa
Encyclopedia
Rua Tapunui Kenana was a Māori prophet, faith healer
and land rights
activist.
Rua Tapunui Kenana (1869–1937)
Māori prophet, faith healer
and land rights activist.
Rua Kenana Hepetipa was of many Māori prophetic leaders who arose in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He called himself Te Mihaia Hou, the New Messiah, and, like the others, owed his power to the great skill with which he applied the scriptures to the daily lives of those who believed in him. These early visions of Rua had little appeal to Europeans, but his messianic dreams for his people incorporated other pragmatic and comprehensible schemes. By 1908 he had built for himself and his followers a new community at Maungapohatu in the heart of the isolated Urewera bush country. By 1907 around 600 followers were living there with him. Inspired by Rua's ideas,the community operated on a cooperative basis and was based on non-violent principles. Maungapohatu, however, was too remote, and bitter winters, bad housing, and a poor diet meant that by 1913 the community had been reduced from more than 500 people to about 30 families. Some battles had been fought between the Māori and Europeans in the Ureweras between 1869 and 1872, after the outlawed Te Turuki sought refuge with the Tuhoe. Their principal grievance was the recent loss of their low-lying lands across the mouth of the Waimana and Ruatoki valleys, which were taken in 1866 in the Bay of Plenty
confiscations following the Land Wars in the Waikato
and Bay of Plenty regions. The few European visitors who undertook the arduous inland journey to the settlement praised the enthusiasm of the faithful, whom Rua was directing towards the creation of a modernised and equitable life on ancestral Tuhoe lands.
These more recognisable goals made Rua into a person of note in the Whakatane
district. Indeed, he became a very familiar figure as he rode down from the mountains on his customary white horse with his disciples on large-scale shopping expeditions to the general stores at Waimana, Gisborne
and Opotiki
.Today he is not remembered with fear,yet contemporary European commentaries viewed him as dangerous, and European children were hurried home from school when Rua rode by. Though a pacifist, he was a separatist leader of the last section of the Māori people who emerged from relative isolation into contact with European settlement- the Tuhoe of the Urewera country.
New Zealand government officials considered Rua to be a troublemaker, especially when, as a pacifist, he objected to Tuhoe participating in World War I. Acting on the excuse that alcohol was being sold illegally at Maungapohatu, Rua was summoned to appear in court. He refused because it was harvesting season, and he told the constables to tell the magistrate that if he wanted a court he should come to Maungapohatu. He also shouted, "I have fourteen hundred men here. I am not going to let any of them enlist or go to the war. You have no king now. The King in England is no good. He is beaten. The Germans will win. Any money I have I will give to the Germans. The English are no good. They have two laws, one for Maori and one for the Pakeha. When the Germans win I am going to be king here." These comments caused Rua to become known as the kaiser of the bush by newspapers of the time. Angered by his response, the police mounted an armed expedition, arriving at Maungapohatu on 2 April 1916. Rua was there to meet them, standing unarmed on his marae, when a shot was fired. Two Māori were killed, including Rua's son Toko, and while the police claimed the first shot came from Rua's camp, modern analysis of events on the day makes this seem unlikely.
Rua was charged with treason, and while he was found not guilty by the jury, Judge Frederick Chapman did find him guilty of resisting arrest and sentenced him to one year of hard labour, followed by 18 months of imprisonment. Eight of the jury members protested the harshness of his sentence and successfully petitioned to have it reduced. Rua was released in April 1918 and returned to Maungapohatu. The community was in decline, however, and by the early 1930s, most people had left to find work elsewhere. Rua moved on to Matahi in the eastern Bay of Plenty
and lived there until his death in 1937.
, and of Ngahiwi Te Rihi. Rua was a member of the Tamakaimoana hapu
of the Tūhoe tribe and, although not a chief in his own right, was of high birth and could trace his descent from Potiki and Toroa of the Mataatua
canoe.
In 1887 Rua left Maungapohatu to learn farming. He worked on sheep stations in the Gisborne
and Bay of Plenty
districts and was a member of a shearing gang on the East Coast. During this period he studied the Bible. In 1905 he returned to Maungapohatu where he set himself up as a prophet
of the New Testament
type. Here he formed his new self sufficient community at Maungapohatu which he called the “New Jerusalem
with its eventual population of between 800–1000 followers.
Te Kooti Arikirangi, the founder of the Ringatu
religion, had predicted before he died that he would have successor. Rua's statement that he was the successor to Te Kooti was first announced through an experience that he underwent on Maungapohatu, the sacred mountain of Tuhoe. The oral narratives tell how Rua and his first wife, Pinepine Te Rika, were directed to climb the mountain by a supernatural
apparition, later revealed to be the archangel Gabriel. There they were shown a hidden diamond, the guardian-stone of the land, whose bright light was shielded by Te Kooti's shawl. Rua, in his turn, covered it again to protect it. In some versions of the narrative Rua met both Whaitiri, the ancestress of Tuhoe, and Christ on the mountain. Rua would soon claim to be the Māori brother of Christ.
The first of three periods of settlement at Maungapohatu, Rua arrived at this isolated outpost as the winter set in. Those who were there can still remember the harshness of that first year: the potato crop failed and there were no pigs to be had. Tatu, one of the Riwaiti, had to go back to Te Whaiti to collect 6 sows to start their own breeding colony. At least fifty people died that winter, most of them children, from the inadequacy of the houses, an outbreak of typhoid which came from the valley camps, and a measles epidemic which devastated the community. Sometimes there was nothing to eat but huhu
, and the coarse toi leaves, normally used only for clothing. But from this inauspicious beginning, the community struggled on to a first summer of great plenty. Two groups had come together to build ‘te pa tapu o te atua’, the sacred pā
of the Lord, The Tuhoe, about half the entire tribe, and the Whakatohea, who through confiscation were almost landless. To signify the union between these two Mataatua tribes, Rua constructed the house of the Lord, Hiruharama Hou, built with two gables. One side was for Tuhoe and the other for Whakatohea.
Rua claimed to be the new Christ, the son of Jehovah
, and said that no one who joined him would die. He called himself Te Mihaia Hou, the New Messiah. Rua owed his power to the great skill with which he applied the scriptures to the day today events in the lives of those who believed in him. His prophetic sayings (nga kupu whakari) gave meaning to a harsh existence, and offered hope to the future. He attempted to create a new system of land ownership and land usage. He organised a strong communal basis in all the settlements he founded but also emphasised the concept of family ownwership of property. He cast aside all traditional Māori tapu
practices and replaced them with new forms specifically associated with the faith in himself as the Promised Messiah. His followers vested their lands in Rua and he had these surveyed and sold back to them. The settlement was administered by the prophet's own parliament. He also formed a Māori mining company to exploit the mineral resources of the Urewera. At the prophet's command, 5 miles of forest were cleared and a prosperous farming community grew up under his leadership. Rua acted as his people's banker and took tithe
s of all they earned. In return, he gave them a prosperity they had never before known.
Rua built a curious two-storied circular temple of worship at Maungapohatu, called the Hiona (Zion) that also became his parliament from where the community affairs were administered. This circular meeting house, built in 1908, was decorated with a design of blue clubs and yellow diamonds, and stood within the inner sanctum of the pa. This was Rua's “Council Chamber and Court House” – also known as “Rua's Temple”. Rua thought it was modelled on the Jerusalem Temple
(even though his chamber was not to be a place of worship), but the actual model was the present day Dome of the Rock
on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, a Muslim holy site and one of the most sacred of Islamic shrines. Its unique cylinder shape would make it one of a kind He grew his hair long and affected a bushy beard in the patriarchal tradition fashioned on the Jewish Nazirite
. As his reading of the Bible appeared to prescribe seven wives, Rua kept to this number and immediately replaced any who died or ran away. In all he had 12 wives and over 70 children.
From the King-ite tradition he inherited the idea that Māori possessed a separate nationality, and this, together with the success of his community, aroused the jealousy of local chiefs and incurred the Government's enmity. Through his personal vision his messianic religion promised the return of Māori lands and mana to Māori, and the end of their subjection to pākehā
rule. He wanted to remove the Tuhoe people totally from European influence and induced many to sell all their stock and farming interests.
By 1908 Rua's struggle for power had brought the Tuhoe to the brink of civil war and the Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward
intervened to curb the prophet's influence. The Government had organised a meeting in March 1908 at Ruatoki of all the Tuhoe tribes in an attempt to sort out the political differences between the two main Tuhoe factions, that of Rua Kenana and Numai Kereru, chief of the Ngatirongo and the main opponent among the Tuhoe of Rua's Christian-Judaic religious movement. Because conflict was expected, the New Zealand Prime Minister had decided to informally visit both parties before the conference. At a dramatic encounter with Sir Joseph Ward
on the Whakatane beach front on 23 March 1908, Rua and Joseph Ward exchanged words. Rua, flanked by some of his wives and supporters while seated on a chair that had been borrowed from the pub, acknowledged Joseph Ward approaching. Ward addressed both parties publicly, asking for their assistance in reconciling the differences in the forthcoming meeting at Ruatoki. To Rua's followers Ward said that he could not accept all that Rua had asked for. In particular, his request for his supporters to be placed on the European electoral role (presumably because they were outnumbered in the Eastern Māori electorate) was unacceptable, for Māori have "special representation of their own.” To Rua's request to have a special Māori government, he said, “I told Rua... that in New Zealand King Edward
is king, and is represented here by his government or king. There can’t be two suns shining in the sky at the same time.” Rua replied to Ward, "Yes, there is only one sun in the heavens, but it shines on one side – the Pākehā side – and it darkens on the other.”
Rua had become a political embarrassment, and there arose the need by the Government to make an example of this man widely seen as an agitator, hoping a crackdown would discourage other Māori activists. The mainstream Anglican church encouraged the Government to suppress Rua Kenana. In 1907, the church passed a motion that supported "the recent action of the Government in the direction of the suppression of tohungism
(traditional Māori healing), and trusts that it may be possible for the Church to make more aggressive action among the tribes which are specifically affected by this evil." Authorities saw Rua Kenana as a disruptive influence and targeted him with the Tohunga Suppression Act
of 1907, which banned traditional Māori healers from using herbs and other healing methods which were part of their traditional medicine. The Tohunga Suppression Act was designed to neutralise powerful traditional Māori leaders and tailor-made as a political weapon specifically against Rua Kenana and his movement of dessenting Māori.
As a result of a number of trumped up charges in 1910, Rua was fined for sly grogging
and, in 1915, served a short gaol sentence for a similar offence. These charges were surprising given that he was not an avid drinker and neither did he smoke. On his release he resumed his alleged sly grogging.
Rua insisted that his people boycott military service, pertaining it was immoral to fight for a Pākehā King and Country given the injustice meted out on Māori under the British crown. Rua said, "I have 1400 men here and I am not going to let any of them enlist or go to war. You have no king now. The King of England he is no good. He is beat. The Germans will win. Any money I have I will give to the Germans. The English are no good. They have two laws. One for the Māori and one for the Pākehā. When the Germans win I am going to be king here. I will be king of the Māori and of the Pākehā." This was taken by the establishment as sedition
and finally gave the Government and Rua's detractors the incentive to intervene against Kenana and the Maungapohatu community, which they did in a violent manner.
On 2 April 1916 a large, (70 officers) heavily armed police party arrived at Maungapohatu to arrest him for sedition
. Because Rua's village was so remote, the police had to take a lot of equipment and camp on the way. They moved like a small army with wagons and pack-horses. So as not to alert the Maungapohatu village of their intention to spring an attack they did not wear their police uniforms till just before the raid. They were convinced that when they reached Maungapohatu there would be an ambush. In fact there was no violent resistance from Rua. There are conflicting versions of what took place. Rua refused to submit to arrest, and his supporters fought a brisk half-hour gun battle with the police. In this exchange, his son and a Māori bodyguard were killed and two Māori were wounded. Four constables were also wounded. After the battle ensued for half an hour, Rua was arrested and transported to Rotorua
, his hair and beard removed. From Rotorua, with six other Māori prisoners including Whatu, Rua was transferred to Auckland
and sent directly to Mount Eden prison
. Rua was held, at first, on a nine months sentence imposed for the 1915 charges and now increased by his default of fines. After a trial on sedition which lasted 47 days, New Zealand's longest until 1977, he was found not guilty of sedition but conveniently sentenced to one year's imprisonment for resisting the police.
When he returned to the Urewera, the settlement at Maungapohatu was broken, divided, and the lands overgrown and much of the community having relocated. The Presbyterian Mission under Rev. John Laughton had moved into Maungapohatu and was teaching Presbyterian
Christianity and Pākehā
value systems. This shocked Rua, as he had banned pākehā schools from the original community. The costs of defence at the various trials had ruined the community financially as it had to sell stock and land to meet the debt. The community was even ordered to pay the costs of the entire police operations and raid at Maungapohatu. Even though the supreme court had found Rua's arrest illegal and a legal petition had been drafted to Parliament on 1 May 1917 on behalf of the Maungapohatu people calling for a full public inquiry into the events of 2 April 1916, and the behaviour of the police there and later intimidating witnesses, no compensation was ever offered to Maungapohatu.
Eventually Rua moved downstream to Matahi, a community he had founded on the Waimana River in the eastern Bay of Plenty in 1910, where he lived until his death on 20 February 1937. He was survived by five wives, nine sons, and 13 daughters. Belief in his divinity did not long survive him, however, as he failed to fulfill his promise to rise from the dead. Little now remains to show the glories of Maungapohatu, and his church (Te Wairua Tapu) boasts few followers. The Urewera Country is peaceful, a startling contrast to what it was in the stirring days of the Prophet Rua.
Faith Healer
Faith Healer is a play by Brian Friel about the life of faith healer Francis Hardy as monologued through the shifting memories of Hardy, his wife, Grace, and stage manager, Teddy.-Synopsis:...
and land rights
Land rights
Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these species of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use agreements, including renting, are an important...
activist.
Background
Māori prophet, faith healer
Faith Healer
Faith Healer is a play by Brian Friel about the life of faith healer Francis Hardy as monologued through the shifting memories of Hardy, his wife, Grace, and stage manager, Teddy.-Synopsis:...
and land rights activist.
Rua Kenana Hepetipa was of many Māori prophetic leaders who arose in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He called himself Te Mihaia Hou, the New Messiah, and, like the others, owed his power to the great skill with which he applied the scriptures to the daily lives of those who believed in him. These early visions of Rua had little appeal to Europeans, but his messianic dreams for his people incorporated other pragmatic and comprehensible schemes. By 1908 he had built for himself and his followers a new community at Maungapohatu in the heart of the isolated Urewera bush country. By 1907 around 600 followers were living there with him. Inspired by Rua's ideas,the community operated on a cooperative basis and was based on non-violent principles. Maungapohatu, however, was too remote, and bitter winters, bad housing, and a poor diet meant that by 1913 the community had been reduced from more than 500 people to about 30 families. Some battles had been fought between the Māori and Europeans in the Ureweras between 1869 and 1872, after the outlawed Te Turuki sought refuge with the Tuhoe. Their principal grievance was the recent loss of their low-lying lands across the mouth of the Waimana and Ruatoki valleys, which were taken in 1866 in the Bay of Plenty
Bay of Plenty
The Bay of Plenty , often abbreviated to BOP, is a region in the North Island of New Zealand situated around the body of water of the same name...
confiscations following the Land Wars in 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...
and Bay of Plenty regions. The few European visitors who undertook the arduous inland journey to the settlement praised the enthusiasm of the faithful, whom Rua was directing towards the creation of a modernised and equitable life on ancestral Tuhoe lands.
These more recognisable goals made Rua into a person of note in the 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...
district. Indeed, he became a very familiar figure as he rode down from the mountains on his customary white horse with his disciples on large-scale shopping expeditions to the general stores at Waimana, Gisborne
Gisborne, New Zealand
-Economy:The harbour was host to many ships in the past and had developed as a river port to provide a more secure location for shipping compared with the open roadstead of Poverty Bay which can be exposed to southerly swells. A meat works was sited beside the harbour and meat and wool was shipped...
and 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...
.Today he is not remembered with fear,yet contemporary European commentaries viewed him as dangerous, and European children were hurried home from school when Rua rode by. Though a pacifist, he was a separatist leader of the last section of the Māori people who emerged from relative isolation into contact with European settlement- the Tuhoe of the Urewera country.
New Zealand government officials considered Rua to be a troublemaker, especially when, as a pacifist, he objected to Tuhoe participating in World War I. Acting on the excuse that alcohol was being sold illegally at Maungapohatu, Rua was summoned to appear in court. He refused because it was harvesting season, and he told the constables to tell the magistrate that if he wanted a court he should come to Maungapohatu. He also shouted, "I have fourteen hundred men here. I am not going to let any of them enlist or go to the war. You have no king now. The King in England is no good. He is beaten. The Germans will win. Any money I have I will give to the Germans. The English are no good. They have two laws, one for Maori and one for the Pakeha. When the Germans win I am going to be king here." These comments caused Rua to become known as the kaiser of the bush by newspapers of the time. Angered by his response, the police mounted an armed expedition, arriving at Maungapohatu on 2 April 1916. Rua was there to meet them, standing unarmed on his marae, when a shot was fired. Two Māori were killed, including Rua's son Toko, and while the police claimed the first shot came from Rua's camp, modern analysis of events on the day makes this seem unlikely.
Rua was charged with treason, and while he was found not guilty by the jury, Judge Frederick Chapman did find him guilty of resisting arrest and sentenced him to one year of hard labour, followed by 18 months of imprisonment. Eight of the jury members protested the harshness of his sentence and successfully petitioned to have it reduced. Rua was released in April 1918 and returned to Maungapohatu. The community was in decline, however, and by the early 1930s, most people had left to find work elsewhere. Rua moved on to Matahi in the eastern Bay of Plenty
Bay of Plenty
The Bay of Plenty , often abbreviated to BOP, is a region in the North Island of New Zealand situated around the body of water of the same name...
and lived there until his death in 1937.
The history of Rua Kenana
Rua was born in 1869 at Maungapohatu in the Urewera Country New Zealand. He was the posthumous son of Kenana Tumoana, who was killed at Makaretu in November 1868 while fighting for Te KootiTe 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...
, and of Ngahiwi Te Rihi. Rua was a member of the Tamakaimoana hapu
Iwi
In New Zealand society, iwi form the largest everyday social units in Māori culture. The word iwi means "'peoples' or 'nations'. In "the work of European writers which treat iwi and hapū as parts of a hierarchical structure", it has been used to mean "tribe" , or confederation of tribes,...
of the Tūhoe tribe and, although not a chief in his own right, was of high birth and could trace his descent from Potiki and Toroa of the Mataatua
Mataatua
In Māori tradition, Mataatua was one of the great voyaging canoes by which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand. Māori traditions say that the Mataatua was initially sent from Hawaiki to bring supplies of kūmara to Māori settlements in New Zealand...
canoe.
Gisborne, New Zealand
-Economy:The harbour was host to many ships in the past and had developed as a river port to provide a more secure location for shipping compared with the open roadstead of Poverty Bay which can be exposed to southerly swells. A meat works was sited beside the harbour and meat and wool was shipped...
and Bay of Plenty
Bay of Plenty
The Bay of Plenty , often abbreviated to BOP, is a region in the North Island of New Zealand situated around the body of water of the same name...
districts and was a member of a shearing gang on the East Coast. During this period he studied the Bible. In 1905 he returned to Maungapohatu where he set himself up as a prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
of the New Testament
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....
type. Here he formed his new self sufficient community at Maungapohatu which he called the “New Jerusalem
New Jerusalem
In the book of Ezekiel, the Prophecy of New Jerusalem is Ezekiel's prophetic vision of a city to be established to the south of the Temple Mount that will be inhabited by the twelve tribes of Israel in the...
with its eventual population of between 800–1000 followers.
Te Kooti Arikirangi, the founder of 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, had predicted before he died that he would have successor. Rua's statement that he was the successor to Te Kooti was first announced through an experience that he underwent on Maungapohatu, the sacred mountain of Tuhoe. The oral narratives tell how Rua and his first wife, Pinepine Te Rika, were directed to climb the mountain by a supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
apparition, later revealed to be the archangel Gabriel. There they were shown a hidden diamond, the guardian-stone of the land, whose bright light was shielded by Te Kooti's shawl. Rua, in his turn, covered it again to protect it. In some versions of the narrative Rua met both Whaitiri, the ancestress of Tuhoe, and Christ on the mountain. Rua would soon claim to be the Māori brother of Christ.
The first of three periods of settlement at Maungapohatu, Rua arrived at this isolated outpost as the winter set in. Those who were there can still remember the harshness of that first year: the potato crop failed and there were no pigs to be had. Tatu, one of the Riwaiti, had to go back to Te Whaiti to collect 6 sows to start their own breeding colony. At least fifty people died that winter, most of them children, from the inadequacy of the houses, an outbreak of typhoid which came from the valley camps, and a measles epidemic which devastated the community. Sometimes there was nothing to eat but huhu
Huhu beetle
The huhu beetle, Prionoplus reticularis is the largest endemic beetle found in New Zealand, a member of the longhorn beetle family ....
, and the coarse toi leaves, normally used only for clothing. But from this inauspicious beginning, the community struggled on to a first summer of great plenty. Two groups had come together to build ‘te pa tapu o te atua’, the sacred pā
Pa (Maori)
The word pā can refer to any Māori village or settlement, but in traditional use it referred to hillforts fortified with palisades and defensive terraces and also to fortified villages. They first came into being about 1450. They are located mainly in the North Island north of lake Taupo...
of the Lord, The Tuhoe, about half the entire tribe, and the Whakatohea, who through confiscation were almost landless. To signify the union between these two Mataatua tribes, Rua constructed the house of the Lord, Hiruharama Hou, built with two gables. One side was for Tuhoe and the other for Whakatohea.
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....
, and said that no one who joined him would die. He called himself Te Mihaia Hou, the New Messiah. Rua owed his power to the great skill with which he applied the scriptures to the day today events in the lives of those who believed in him. His prophetic sayings (nga kupu whakari) gave meaning to a harsh existence, and offered hope to the future. He attempted to create a new system of land ownership and land usage. He organised a strong communal basis in all the settlements he founded but also emphasised the concept of family ownwership of property. He cast aside all traditional Māori tapu
Tapu
Tapu, tabu or kapu is a Polynesian traditional concept denoting something holy or sacred, with "spiritual restriction" or "implied prohibition"; it involves rules and prohibitions...
practices and replaced them with new forms specifically associated with the faith in himself as the Promised Messiah. His followers vested their lands in Rua and he had these surveyed and sold back to them. The settlement was administered by the prophet's own parliament. He also formed a Māori mining company to exploit the mineral resources of the Urewera. At the prophet's command, 5 miles of forest were cleared and a prosperous farming community grew up under his leadership. Rua acted as his people's banker and took tithe
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
s of all they earned. In return, he gave them a prosperity they had never before known.
Rua built a curious two-storied circular temple of worship at Maungapohatu, called the Hiona (Zion) that also became his parliament from where the community affairs were administered. This circular meeting house, built in 1908, was decorated with a design of blue clubs and yellow diamonds, and stood within the inner sanctum of the pa. This was Rua's “Council Chamber and Court House” – also known as “Rua's Temple”. Rua thought it was modelled on the Jerusalem Temple
Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...
(even though his chamber was not to be a place of worship), but the actual model was the present day Dome of the Rock
Dome of the Rock
The Dome of the Rock is a shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. The structure has been refurbished many times since its initial completion in 691 CE at the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik...
on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, a Muslim holy site and one of the most sacred of Islamic shrines. Its unique cylinder shape would make it one of a kind He grew his hair long and affected a bushy beard in the patriarchal tradition fashioned on the Jewish Nazirite
Nazirite
In the Hebrew Bible, a nazirite or nazarite, , refers to one who voluntarily took a vow described in . The term "nazirite" comes from the Hebrew word nazir meaning "consecrated" or "separated"...
. As his reading of the Bible appeared to prescribe seven wives, Rua kept to this number and immediately replaced any who died or ran away. In all he had 12 wives and over 70 children.
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...
rule. He wanted to remove the Tuhoe people totally from European influence and induced many to sell all their stock and farming interests.
By 1908 Rua's struggle for power had brought the Tuhoe to the brink of civil war and the Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward
Joseph Ward
Sir Joseph George Ward, 1st Baronet, GCMG was the 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand on two occasions in the early 20th century.-Early life:...
intervened to curb the prophet's influence. The Government had organised a meeting in March 1908 at Ruatoki of all the Tuhoe tribes in an attempt to sort out the political differences between the two main Tuhoe factions, that of Rua Kenana and Numai Kereru, chief of the Ngatirongo and the main opponent among the Tuhoe of Rua's Christian-Judaic religious movement. Because conflict was expected, the New Zealand Prime Minister had decided to informally visit both parties before the conference. At a dramatic encounter with Sir Joseph Ward
Joseph Ward
Sir Joseph George Ward, 1st Baronet, GCMG was the 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand on two occasions in the early 20th century.-Early life:...
on the Whakatane beach front on 23 March 1908, Rua and Joseph Ward exchanged words. Rua, flanked by some of his wives and supporters while seated on a chair that had been borrowed from the pub, acknowledged Joseph Ward approaching. Ward addressed both parties publicly, asking for their assistance in reconciling the differences in the forthcoming meeting at Ruatoki. To Rua's followers Ward said that he could not accept all that Rua had asked for. In particular, his request for his supporters to be placed on the European electoral role (presumably because they were outnumbered in the Eastern Māori electorate) was unacceptable, for Māori have "special representation of their own.” To Rua's request to have a special Māori government, he said, “I told Rua... that in New Zealand King Edward
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
is king, and is represented here by his government or king. There can’t be two suns shining in the sky at the same time.” Rua replied to Ward, "Yes, there is only one sun in the heavens, but it shines on one side – the Pākehā side – and it darkens on the other.”
Rua had become a political embarrassment, and there arose the need by the Government to make an example of this man widely seen as an agitator, hoping a crackdown would discourage other Māori activists. The mainstream Anglican church encouraged the Government to suppress Rua Kenana. In 1907, the church passed a motion that supported "the recent action of the Government in the direction of the suppression of tohungism
Tohunga
In the culture of the Māori of New Zealand, a tohunga is an expert practitioner of any skill or art, religious or otherwise. Tohunga may include expert priests, healers, navigators, carvers, builders, teachers and advisors. The equivalent term in Hawaiian culture is kahuna...
(traditional Māori healing), and trusts that it may be possible for the Church to make more aggressive action among the tribes which are specifically affected by this evil." Authorities saw Rua Kenana as a disruptive influence and targeted him with the Tohunga Suppression Act
Tohunga Suppression Act
The Tohunga Suppression Act 1907 was an Act of the New Zealand Parliament aimed to replace tohunga as traditional Māori healers with "modern" medicine....
of 1907, which banned traditional Māori healers from using herbs and other healing methods which were part of their traditional medicine. The Tohunga Suppression Act was designed to neutralise powerful traditional Māori leaders and tailor-made as a political weapon specifically against Rua Kenana and his movement of dessenting Māori.
As a result of a number of trumped up charges in 1910, Rua was fined for sly grogging
Sly-grog shop
A sly grog shop is an Australian term for an unlicensed hotel or liquor-store, often with the added suggestion of selling poor-quality liquor; a place where alcoholic beverages are sold by an unlicensed vendor....
and, in 1915, served a short gaol sentence for a similar offence. These charges were surprising given that he was not an avid drinker and neither did he smoke. On his release he resumed his alleged sly grogging.
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
and finally gave the Government and Rua's detractors the incentive to intervene against Kenana and the Maungapohatu community, which they did in a violent manner.
On 2 April 1916 a large, (70 officers) heavily armed police party arrived at Maungapohatu to arrest him for sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
. Because Rua's village was so remote, the police had to take a lot of equipment and camp on the way. They moved like a small army with wagons and pack-horses. So as not to alert the Maungapohatu village of their intention to spring an attack they did not wear their police uniforms till just before the raid. They were convinced that when they reached Maungapohatu there would be an ambush. In fact there was no violent resistance from Rua. There are conflicting versions of what took place. Rua refused to submit to arrest, and his supporters fought a brisk half-hour gun battle with the police. In this exchange, his son and a Māori bodyguard were killed and two Māori were wounded. Four constables were also wounded. After the battle ensued for half an hour, Rua was arrested and transported to 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...
, his hair and beard removed. From Rotorua, with six other Māori prisoners including Whatu, Rua was transferred to Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
and sent directly to Mount Eden prison
Mount Eden Prisons
Mount Eden Prisons refers to two New Zealand prisons, located in Lauder Road in the Central Auckland suburb of Mt Eden. They are:* Mount Eden Prison, which holds about 420 sentenced male prisoners...
. Rua was held, at first, on a nine months sentence imposed for the 1915 charges and now increased by his default of fines. After a trial on sedition which lasted 47 days, New Zealand's longest until 1977, he was found not guilty of sedition but conveniently sentenced to one year's imprisonment for resisting the police.
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
Christianity and 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...
value systems. This shocked Rua, as he had banned pākehā schools from the original community. The costs of defence at the various trials had ruined the community financially as it had to sell stock and land to meet the debt. The community was even ordered to pay the costs of the entire police operations and raid at Maungapohatu. Even though the supreme court had found Rua's arrest illegal and a legal petition had been drafted to Parliament on 1 May 1917 on behalf of the Maungapohatu people calling for a full public inquiry into the events of 2 April 1916, and the behaviour of the police there and later intimidating witnesses, no compensation was ever offered to Maungapohatu.
Eventually Rua moved downstream to Matahi, a community he had founded on the Waimana River in the eastern Bay of Plenty in 1910, where he lived until his death on 20 February 1937. He was survived by five wives, nine sons, and 13 daughters. Belief in his divinity did not long survive him, however, as he failed to fulfill his promise to rise from the dead. Little now remains to show the glories of Maungapohatu, and his church (Te Wairua Tapu) boasts few followers. The Urewera Country is peaceful, a startling contrast to what it was in the stirring days of the Prophet Rua.
Published books
- Mihaia: The prophet Rua Kenana and his community at Maungapohatu, (by Judith BinneyJudith BinneyDame Judith Binney, DNZM, FRSNZ was a New Zealand historian, writer and Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Auckland. Her work focussed primarily on religion in New Zealand, especially the Māori Ringatū religion founded by Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki and continued by Rua Kenana...
, Gillian Chaplin and Craig Wallace. Oxford University Press, 1979). - Bell, James, Mackintosh. The Wilds of Māori Land, London.1914.
- Best, ElsdonElsdon BestElsdon Best was an ethnographer who made important contributions to the study of the Māori of New Zealand.-Early life and career:...
. The Maoro 2 vol, Wellington 1924. - Tuhoe:The Children of the Mist, 2 Vols 2nd ed, Wellington 1972 and 1973.
- Bourne, George (Taipo) A Dusky Dowie: A Māori Prophet at Home Life (Melbourne) December 1908.
- Moon, Paul The Tohunga Journal:M Rua Kenana, Hohepa Kereopa, and Maungapohatu Auckland, 2008.
See also
- Māori protest movementMaori protest movementThe Māori protest movement is a broad indigenous rights movement in New Zealand. While this movement has existed since Europeans first colonised New Zealand its modern form emerged in the early 1970s and has focused on issues such as the Treaty of Waitangi, Māori land rights, the Māori language and...
- Waitangi TribunalWaitangi TribunalThe Waitangi Tribunal is a New Zealand permanent commission of inquiry established under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975...
- Land rightsLand rightsLand law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these species of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use agreements, including renting, are an important...
- PākehāPakehaPākehā 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...
- Te KootiTe KootiTe 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...
- MataatuaMataatuaIn Māori tradition, Mataatua was one of the great voyaging canoes by which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand. Māori traditions say that the Mataatua was initially sent from Hawaiki to bring supplies of kūmara to Māori settlements in New Zealand...
- Ngāi Tūhoe
External links
- Rua Kenana, The Prophets and activist
- Rua Kenana – Tuhoe Prophet of the Urewera from the Dictionary of New Zealand BiographyDictionary of New Zealand BiographyThe Dictionary of New Zealand Biography contains biographies for over 3,000 New Zealanders. It is available in both English and Maori. All volumes of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography are available online....
from the Dictionary of New Zealand BiographyDictionary of New Zealand BiographyThe Dictionary of New Zealand Biography contains biographies for over 3,000 New Zealanders. It is available in both English and Maori. All volumes of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography are available online.... - Rua Kēnana on Te Ara