March 14, 2018
Taniwha drawn from lair for Northern War recap
Northland-based New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says the weekend’s national commemoration of the New Zealand Wars was a history lesson that will stand repeating.
The first He Ra Maumahara focused on the Northern War that started when Hone Heke cut down the flagpole at Kororareka for the fourth time in March 1845.
Mr Jones says the organisers Te Putake o te Riri made history come alive for a new generation, highlighting not just the bleak parts of our shared story but the staunchness of Ngapuhi tupuna to uphold their rights.
"The British didn’t come here and immediately declare war on them. The British came here, Hone Heke felt the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi had been violated, so he with Kawiti and the Ngapuhi war chief Penetaui took the first step and the drew the taniwha out of the lair in the form of the redcoats," he says.
Shane Jones says fortunately for the north the war ended when both sides had enough, and there were not the land confiscations that caused such great hardship in the later wars.
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