April 06, 2021
Rua Kenana Symposium looks to new world
A descendant of Tūhoe prophet Rua Kēnana says last weekend's symposium was a chance to look not just behind but ahead.
The hui at Tuapou Marae near Waimana came a year after a pardon was issued for the supposed crimes that led to the armed raid on Kēnana's Maungapōhatu kainga in 1915 and his subsequent jailing.
Toni Boynton says Ngā Toenga o ngā Tamariki o Iharaira Charitable Trust is now looking at the steps needed for a more comprehensive royal prerogative of mercy to expunge the convictions from the record.
She says during the first decades of the 20th century there were a number of leaders and prophets who were looking for ways to negotiate the new world.
"The wharenui at our marae at Tuapou is called Te Ao Hou and that is what our koroua Rua Kēnana's vision was, a vision in which our people were able to hold the tools of both worlds in that we're able to create a self-sustainable way of living for themselves to be able to maintain their own mana motuhake," Ms Boynton says.
The symposium also included an exhibition of taonga relating to Rua Kēnana and the release of four booklets of research collated by PhD students of Professor Taiarahia Black from Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi.
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