Key Ideas
- The Parihaka Settlement is symbolically a statement of Maori resistance and strength to defy Eurocentric beliefs and confiscation of native Maori land. Two emerging prophets, Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi established the Taranaki settlement to reflect their peaceful values in the hope to achieve civil and peaceful relations between Maori and Pakeha.
- Such actions that were undertaken by the people of Parihaka is significant as it reinforces that Maori did not want to participate in violent actions with Pakeha and did not react to provocation by the government and European settlers.
- Te Kooti became the figure for religious resistance and gave the prisoners, which whom he was one; light to continue on in time of adversity.
- The actions of Pai Marire followers was an action of protest and active resistance against the spread of European religious ideas.
- The death of Carl Volkner became significant to the cause of Europeans feeling threatened by Maori religions and their followers, especially ritualistic practices, and settlements (such as Parihaka). The threat felt by European settlers was reflected in governmental actions as they imposed harsher sentences of land confiscations and individual prison sentences.
- Te Ua demonstrated and encouraged Maori to fight for their rights and to refuse, through resistance, the confiscation of their land whilst enabling Maori Christianity to break free from the mold of traditional Christian practices and theology.
- Bryce embodied Pakeha values, at the time, and was the voice for Pakeha who opposed the Maori settlement and of Maori in New Zealand.
- An underlying long-term cause of the Invasion was the emergence of Eurocentrism where Europeans felt they were a more superior race and believed they would eventually outcompete Maori to be the sole race populating the lands of New Zealand. This heightened tensions between Maori and Pakeha.
- Another underlying cause of the Invasion was Maori confusion, following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, over the issue of sovereignty and their rights to autonomously live in New Zealand following the influx of European settlers.
- A long-term cause of the Invasion was land surveying, by government officials, which ultimately lead to land confiscations and the heightening of tensions between Maori and Pakeha.
- As a long-term cause of the Invasion, Maori undertook non-violent campaigns in an act of resistance to European colonialism, land confiscations and the further spread of European ideas which raised tensions with the government.
- The establishment of Parihaka and the further spread of ideas on resistance and Maori views became a key factor of the Invasion of Parihaka.
- A short-term consequence following the invasion was the sacking of the settlement, by governmental troops, known as the ‘plunder’ of Parihaka.
- The introduction of military occupation and punitive legislation on the Parihaka community became a short-term consequence, politically oppressing Parihaka Maori.
- These short-term consequences transpired into long-term consequences as Maori lost control over land reserves as further land confiscations occurred.
- Their sense of injustice grew as a result of the Invasion and this inspired Maori to carry out new campaigns, voicing their grievances felt due to the Invasion. This was a short-term consequence.
- The significance of the Invasion is that this caused a legacy to remain for many modern day Maori which would lead to its reassessment in the end of the 20th century. Duly following the invasion, the government held a negative view on the settlement and on Maori, which remained a long-term consequence that is continually reassessed by the Waitangi Tribunal.