Iwi counts cost of resistance

The displays of fury, firearms and flesh were gone for the last day of the Urewera iwi Tuhoe's Waitangi Tribunal hearing this week.

While emotion at times ran high it was delivered through words not actions and recounted the loss endured by the iwi, seen as the last to resist encroaching colonisation.

The tribunal's visit to the area in January was marked by an angry protest which resulted in activist Tame Iti facing firearms charges after a flag was shot at.

There was symbolism - the hearing was held at the former religious commune at Maungapohatu wedged at the foot of Tuhoe's sacred mountain of the same name and the site of the last armed conflict between Maori and the Crown.

It was to Maungapohatu that tuhoe's Ringatu prophet Rua Kenana fled with his followers in 1905 to set up a self-sufficient community.

Under his guidance the rugged bush-covered land was transformed into a thriving collectively owned farming community of more than a thousand people with its own school, medical centre and bank.

In 1915 Rua Kenana was arrested. He was sentenced to three months imprisonment for illicitly selling alcohol but the time was for a previous offence.

The following year he was summoned on the same charge but thinking he had served it, he refused to attend court that month.

He also refused to go with the two policemen who tried to arrest him for contempt of court.

The events which followed led to one of the worst clashes between the police and a Maori community.

The wounds of that event, in which two Maori were killed and Rua Kenana was arrested, are still fresh for many of his descendants.

For Pou Temara, whose whanau returned to baches in the area regularly, it was fitting that yesterday's final tribunal hearing was held on the sacred site.

"This was the area for the last battle fought between Maori and the Crown," he said. "Blood was spilled on this ground in 1916.

"This was the area where Rua Kenana kept the majority of his followers in hope of finding some reprieve from the pressure of land confiscations and a place to seek spiritual strength.

"It was a place where Maori faced the might of the state. They sought to isolate themselves from an oppressive society."

Rua Kenana's arrest and imprisonment brought the beginning of the end for the community. Some of his followers left, and those remaining had to sell stock and much of their land to cover his mounting legal fees.

What was once a thriving community is now a collection of baches without power or phones at the end of a 14km gravel road.

Only three of the community's original buildings remain.

For many Tuhoe the tribunal process, which began in 2003, has been an opportunity for them to finally have their say.

Tuhoe kaumatua Pita Keepa said: "It's good for everyone to have their say, to have our history told properly."

He said he was only sorry it had taken so long to get to the claims process.

"Most of our tupuna have passed away."

Mr Keepa said Maungapohatu was a last bastion for Tuhoe.

Mr Temana said the claims process has highlighted divisions within the iwi and he urged unity.

"For the last couple of years Tuhoe has been fragmented by outstanding raupatu (confiscation) claims. Our guns should be aimed at the Crown, not each other."