Invasion of Parihaka
The Invasion of Parihaka occurred on the 5th November 1881 and was lead by Native Minister John Bryce who was accompanied by 1600 Armed Constabulary and volunteers. The arrival of the troops was met with a welcome of poi dance and song, a welcome by young children, the women of the village baked over 500 loaves of bread for the men while some 200 settlers sat quietly awaiting their arrival. Te Whiti and Tohu desisted from contact with the troop and did not greet Bryce. Thought as an act of cowardice, Bryce ordered the destruction of the village. Over the next couple of weeks, the settlement was dismantled, the crop fields were destroyed and the people of the village were forcibly dispersed. Both Te Whiti and Tohu were arrested and detained in a South Island prison where they were imprisoned for 16 months. Due to a loss in leadership, Parihaka crumbled and its people left. Te Whiti and Tohu returned to Parihaka in 1883. The Invasion of Parihaka was based on the government’s growing concern that the settlement was filled with concentrated Maori ideas and growing opposition to the New Zealand government. Worried that the prophets would wage a war again Pakeha and neighbouring settlers, Bryce took matters into his own hands seeing the settlement as ‘the headquarters of fanaticism and disaffection’. However, it was in the interest of Te Whiti and Tohu to establish a settlement that reflect their Christian values of peace, passive resistance while teaching on how to peacefully resist confiscation of their lands and to give their fellow Maori peoples a safe and viable settlement to live in. The New Zealand public at the time were outraged at the actions of Bryce and the government against Parihaka and modern day Maori have continued to voice the grievances felt by Maori in the past and the present.