October 29, 2019
Fight to the death warning for redcoats
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says He Rā Maumahara is proving a valuable way to keep alive tribal stories of past encounters with the crown.
While this year’s main commemoration of the New Zealand Wars was hosted by Taranaki at Waitara, there were other events around the country, including one at Ohaeawai where Kawiti and Penetaui constructed a fighting pa during the Northern War of 1845.
He says the New Zealand Wars were expected by some of the ancestors as a risk of opening the country to outsiders.
"In the 1820s there's a famous saying by the Ngāpuhi chief Hongi Hika: 'Should the shopkeeper, the blacksmith or the gunsmith arrive, embrace them, but when the Redcoats emerge, be prepared to fight to the death,'" Mr Jones says.
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