E rere nga wai o Mautini. Maku hei inu iho hei manawa ra i ora. Kei aku whakateitei ki te whenua, kei aku whakatamarahi ki te rangi, tena koutou katoa. Ko Mihingarangi tenei e mihi atu nei, nau mai, tahuti mai ra. Welcome to the final episode of The Hui for 2019 ` Maori current affairs for all New Zealanders. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2019 Karahuihui mai. It's a historical milestone for Aotearoa and long-overdue healing for an iwi. The Crown is set to pass a bill pardoning and restoring the mana and reputation of Tuhoe prophet and pacifist Rua Kenana, more than 100 years after it invaded the village of Maungapohatu in Te Urewera. Today, The Hui embarks on a journey into one of the country's most remote communities as they right the wrongs of their colonial past. Reporter John Boynton, a direct descendant of Rua Kenana, returns home as they prepare for the landmark occasion. Here's part one of John's special report, produced by Ruwani Perera. (BIRDSONG) WOMAN: # Kaore te... # whakama # i ahau # i te taura... # whiu kau # i kitea... JOHN BOYNTON: The remote and rugged natural beauty of Te Urewera. At its heart, Maungapohatu ` a sacred site for the people of Tuhoe. WOMAN: He rereke. He rereke a Maungapohatu. It's different. It's a special place. When we have manuhiri coming here from all over the world, they feel the wairua of this place. But that well-being was forever tainted by the injustice suffered by an iwi for more than a century following the brutal treatment of its visionary leader Rua Kenana and his devoted followers. Only two people died, but it was... it was like a whole community died. The government has officially apologised for the traumas of the past. The descendants of Rua Kenana... (BREATHES UNSTEADILY) have suffered ongoing hurt,... shame, stigma. And now his descendants are taking the final steps, seeking justice for their tipuna. Now is the time for our voice to be heard. (DELICATE PIANO MUSIC) And what about those who didn't get to live to see this day? We walk alongside our ancestors. They are here with us. They're what makes us strong. Nga mihi atu kia ratou. (UNEASY MUSIC) Rua Kenana was born in 1869 and by the age of 38 had created a self-sufficient kainga at the foot of Maungapohatu. Rua was a man well ahead of his time and had built this peaceful community on three core values ` kotahitanga, environmental wellness and whakapono. Married to 12 wives, Rua was the leader of this once-thriving village, home to around 1000 people. But today, only a handful of whanau come to visit this isolated settlement. This is a place steeped in history and religion. But the people's faith here was shattered after a bloody police invasion more than 100 years ago. This is a journey into Tuhoe's past, redefining its history and restoring the mana of the prophet Rua Kenana ` my great-great-grandfather. Our story begins on the other side of the valley from Maungapohatu, in Matahi, at my whanau marae, Tuapou. (UNEASY MUSIC CONTINUES) I'm here to meet my uncle Wayne Boynton. Kia ora, Uncle. Good to see you. Tena koe. (UNEASY, MYSTERIOUS MUSIC) 'This is where Rua Kenana spent his final days and where he's laid to rest.' He wanted to be embedded in stone, yeah, so, that was his wishes, and, uh, so his followers, they put him in the tomb there. (SPEAKS MAORI PRAYER) Mere Tukua Whakataata was the eldest child of Rua Kenana and his first wife, Pinepine. Now 70 years old, Uncle Wayne recalls the stories his kuia would share about life in Maungapohatu. They had a pretty enjoyable life up there. They had what all they needed. And it was harsh times, like, for food and that. And, um, they had crops and that, and they harvested the crops and made sure they had it ready for the winter. Nanny would talk about her father in a way that... that he had the vision to bring his people out of the poverty and hard life they'd been having. Rua led his remarkable community from this two-storied, circular meeting house ` his tribal parliament. It was an architectural taonga, built without using a single nail. Like the rest of the village, Hiona fell into disrepair, and this replica model is all that remains. Hiona was where the laws of the land were made, and Rua's followers lived happily. But the early 1900s would bring challenges that would change the way of life for many of my tipuna. With the turn of the century, Europeans were moving into the district, surveyors were coming into Maungapohatu, trying to get in there and surveying the land. And Koro and his followers at Maungapohatu, they didn't really want that to happen. The surveying of the lands would be` the next thing would be the confiscation or the soldiers come in and take it by force. (UNEASY MUSIC) The government at the time felt that Maungapohatu's autonomy undermined the Crown's authority, and they saw Rua as a threat. Whanau weren't required to pay taxes there. They lived off the land, and Rua was against Tuhoe men enlisting in World War I. Did Rua always try to walk down the road of peace? He tried to... He tried to, um, go the peaceful means. To me, he did succeed that way. The Crown decided Rua's influence needed to be stamped out, and in 1916, around 70 police descended upon Maungapohatu. So on that day, they did a powhiri for the police? Yes, they did. Our koro, our tipuna koroua and his two sons were out there to welcome the visitors like we always do, the manuhiri. Instead, they were met with gunfire, police firing first and unleashing their full force on the remote village. They were there to do a job and to break our community down at Maungapohatu, to break our koro. Everyone was scared for their lives. That's when the mayhem started, with the troops saying that they were fired on first, and our whanau up there said they were fired on by the troops as well. So it wasn't a very, uh... a very good time for our people. Two men were killed in the battle, including Rua Kenana's son Toko Rua and Te Maipi Te Whiu. The wahine would also be terrorised. Mahi tukino? Mahi tukino, yeah. Mahi tukino ki wa tatou wahine. So you can see why they wouldn't want to bring up any of that. Yeah, this is the reason why it wasn't spoke a lot about it and to us as we were growing up here. It was sort of like a shameful thing on behalf of the... the Crown. But it was Rua Kenana who was charged with several crimes and taken to Auckland to stand trial, where he was convicted of resisting arrest. At the time, his was the longest court case in Aotearoa's history. Rua and his followers would have to pay for both the significant legal cost and the police expedition to Maungapohatu. So there was a lot of heavy debt that was put on him ` not only debt, but spiritually, emotionally, mentally and of course physically. Yeah, so he endured all that, and not only him ` all his followers, wives that he had, and the children. Rua served two years of hard labour at Mt Eden prison. On his return to Maungapohatu, most of his followers had left; the prosperous community he had built was broken. Before his death in 1937, he lived out his final years at this whare in Matahi. To this day, his followers still leave a whakaaro on his windowsill. It's a token of their gratitude for the sacrifices Rua Kenana made for his people. I know he would have lived with a lot of that mamae. What do you think those final years for him here were like? It would've been hard for him to not achieve what he wanted to achieve, but to us, he did achieve what he set out to do ` was to give us the enlightenment to pave the way to the new world,... which is Te Ao Hou. That's what this place is named. (MOURNFUL STRING MUSIC) Coming up ` what Rua Kenana's imprisonment meant for future generations of whanau at Maungapohatu. You know, as culturally privileged as I am,... (UNSTEADILY) I wouldn't want my children to inherit... the trauma... I've inherited. Maungapohatu was left heavily in debt following Rua Kenana's arrest, his followers having to foot the bill for the lengthy 47-day Supreme Court trial by selling their land and assets such as livestock. Anei te wahanga tuarua. (UNEASY MUSIC) JOHN BOYNTON: The pakeke of Maungapohatu call their mountain Te Manawa-o-Te-Ika-a-Maui ` the heart of the North Island. And when this heart is well, it ripples out to the rest of the whenua. Rua Kenana was a tohunga, a visionary, accepting his calling to lead his people. He came here to this sacred mountain, where he saw a tohu, a diamond, in the sky. At that moment, he knew this was the place to build his promised land for his people ` here at Maungapohatu. As a great-great-grandson of Rua's, my first visit to Te Mapou Marae in Maungapohatu was in 2017. History was made when an agreement with the Crown was signed, finally recognising the wrongful arrest of the Tuhoe prophet. That's when the government accepted that police actions in 1916 were and continue to be a source of deep pain, causing economic, social and spiritual damage to many of the whanau here. It is important that the Crown acknowledges that its actions caused lasting damage to his character, mana and reputation and carried by his descendants. Now Rua's pardon is before Parliament, its first reading emotional for all those involved, including Maori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta. The Crown will, through this legislation, apologise to the descendants of Rua Kenana,... e Nga Toenga o nga Tamariki o Iharaira, for the lasting damage to the character, the mana, the reputation of Rua Kenana and his uri. It really hit home. It was so emotional that I couldn't even... I couldn't even explain the feeling that I was feeling at the time, and I didn't expect to feel that way. One of Rua's uri, 30-year-old Atamira Tumarae Nuku, is leading the fight to restore the mana of our koroua. Her grandmother, Kiri Tuia Tumarae Teka, was a driving force in seeking justice for the blood spilt at Maungapohatu. When she just 14 years old, she gave evidence at Maungapohatu in her wharenui Tane-nui-a-Rangi. I think that was one of the real turning points in my life, having this sort of... invisible weight on my shoulders. I talked about the impacts it had on... the families, the things that happened to our kuia, the hurt and the pain and the suffering that was caused ` not just to them 100 years ago, but how it was handed down to us, and the stigma associated with that. Kiri Tuia passed away last year and, sadly, won't see the pardon passed into law. But Atamira is proud to carry on her nanny's legacy. My nan ` and I knew this from a young age, I guess ` she was preparing me. She didn't know this was what was gonna happen, but she knew that something was going to happen, and that. Because none of her children were able to take it on, she knew it was one of her grandchildren, and it just happened to be me. She'll be at rest, at peace, knowing that we've gotten to this point. The image of Rua Kenana that I had ingrained in my mind is that famous black-and-white headshot with his long, black hair and contemplative look. It's one that always captivated me and was fascinating. More than a century later, his story is still being told, but it's still a story that holds a lot of hurt for my whanau. Just taking him away from the people, I always think about how... the people felt and how... lost they must have felt... not having their leader. You know, as culturally privileged as I am,... I wouldn't want my children to inherit... the trauma... I've inherited. I know it's all a blessing, but it's also, uh, a burden. For Atamira, her whakapapa is tied into the whenua, and it's a place where she finds solace. Ka inoi tatou... (SPEAKS MAORI PRAYER) (GENTLE, INTRIGUING MUSIC) What do you feel when you're walking through your ngahere, you know, the Ureweras up to Maungapohatu? It's like I belong here. You know? I feel at home. I feel comfortable. Like, I can be in the forest by myself and feel all right. So it's that sense of belonging and knowing my identity, knowing where I come from. She's a kaitiaki and shares her matauranga with visitors from around the world. So, here's a very juvenile miro. So, it's really young, but it's a good sign. That means there's a mother miro around, and her seeds are dropping. It's definitely grounded me in who I am and my identity, where I come from and where I want to go and where I want my children to be. So it's a strong connection. Ngawaiata Turnbull also felt compelled to return home to help her people. She's completing her doctorate studies, focusing on the Iharaira faith that Rua Kenana followed. So, that's part of my research now is to interview and to draw from the living narratives inside of our kuia and koroua, our pakeke that grew up practising that faith or witnessing that faith and those tikanga. She says it's that whakapono or faith that Rua practised that originally brought the people of Maungapohatu together. It was about wellness in the times of struggle ` so, the aftermath of all the land confiscations and the depression, the poverty. And so Te Rua, through his visions... (SPEAKS MAORI) he was able to just shine a light for people and gather them here as a refuge place. But the Iharaira faith and its followers dwindled following Rua's arrest. It was like, spiritually, a whole community died after what happened, and that, I think, is where all the pain... really comes from. Because no one spoke of the police invasion that destroyed all that Rua had created, an entire generation has grown up not knowing their history. And I never knew this before 14 years old. I never knew anyone died. I never knew that Rua was arrested. You know, I never knew that there were 70 officers that came into Maungapohatu from Gisborne. All these things I learnt all at once, in the space of three months, and it was quite overwhelming, um,... to find that out, yeah. # Kaore te... This moteatea, 'Te Taura Whiu Kau', was written by Rua Kenana during the 18 months he was an inmate at Mt Eden prison, where he was sentenced to hard labour. # ...e au he karauna... It's dedicated to his daughter and speaks of the pain of being ripped away from his beloved maunga and his people. The sadness and hurt he was still carrying from what happened in Maungapohatu... I think about him composing that to help him lament... and sort of deal with it, yeah. What's hoped will help the people of Maungapohatu is to restore the relationship of whanau to their whenua. Then we can start to begin on a new journey to revitalisation and to well-being. Next ` rewriting history, the healing journey begins... Now's the time for our voice to be heard, for our people's voice to be heard. ...as the people of Maungapohatu look to the future. (CONTEMPLATIVE PIANO MUSIC) For a community that was all but destroyed 100 years ago, today Te Mapou Marae in Maungapohatu is once again a hive of activity. And whanau are back, rediscovering their connections. Tuatahi tonu ko te whakaohoho i nga whanau tonu o konei. Stepping into our role as kaitiaki o Maungapohatu. Mowing the lawn, water-blasting, repairing the holes and the buildings and, um, just tidying up. The descendants of Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana are preparing the marae in the lead-up to the official celebrations for his pardon later this month. I can't believe we're almost... at the time of the pardon being realised. On that day, we are expecting to have the Governor General present. And so Iharaira, Tamakaimoana, Tuhoe will be here in force. Ka hoki mai te Karauna ki Maungapohatu ki te ukui tana hara e kite ai te ao kaore kau he hara o Maungapohatu. Ko te Karauna ke i hara ko te kawanatanga. But before the Crown comes to them, the whanau have made the journey to the corridors of power, to the very place where the campaign to bring our koroua down was actioned. (NGAWAIATA SINGS IN MAORI) (SINGS SOFTLY) It's the next step towards restoring the relationship between Rua Kenana's descendants and the Crown. The only crime committed at Maungapohatu was by the government when it unleashed its force and caused blood to be spilled on the ground. When the heart is well, the body is well. This bill encourages our healing journey. E tautoko nui ana ahau i tenei pire. This pire enables us as a people to move forward. And this process here today helps ease the pain of the past. This Maori Affairs Select Committee is Atamira Tumarae Nuku's opportunity to speak out ` not just for herself but for those who never lived to see this day. For me I think it was being here in person, kanohi kitea, and being able to try to connect the ministers with who we are and what we feel in our manawa and the mauri of what has been handed down to us. With the government's commitment to include the history of Aotearoa in the school curriculum, there's no better time for Rua Kenana's pardon to finally happen. It's something very special, cos as a child, I never learnt any of it in kura. I only learnt it from my kuia and my koroua. And it wasn't till I was an adult today, now, that I realised how important it is to know. Now the next generation are taking the lead on returning Maungapohatu to its former glory ` a place founded on peace. We always say i roto i to matou whanau that this place is he kainga tiaki tamariki. Our tamariki are free to walk here. They don't really even need to be watched. It's safe. It's a safe place. At its peak, what do you imagine life at Maungapohatu was like? I imagine this a lot actually, and I only imagine it because I want to see it again. And I imagine it that everybody in the community, they were well ` I mean spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally ` and that our land was just a reflection of that. Picking up where Rua Kenana left off ` rebuilding the Iharaira faith... and fulfilling his dream to bring his people back together and revitalise Maungapohatu. We're at that point where we're yearning for more. You know? We wanna learn more. We wanna know more, and we want our children to know just as much as our kuia and koroua knew. The final reading of the bill is just the first part of the journey of my whanau to exonerate Rua Kenana, learning from the mistakes of the past and ensuring that history never repeats. This bill is a catalyst for the resurgence of Iharaira Tamakaimoana to dream again, to build again, to seek the extraordinary examples of resilience from within our own history, to celebrate a community built on the tenets of equality. Their collective pain has made the hapu stronger, confident about what their future holds. My husband and I have given ourselves three to five years to move back and live there. If we could move today, we'll move today. What do you envision the community looking like in 20, 30 years' time? Self-sustainable. Self-sufficient. Connected. People connected to each other, people connected to the land. Caring, loving... and hopeful. Yeah. (GENTLE MUSIC) What's your challenge to the Crown? My challenge is that this statutory pardon for my tipuna koroua Rua is not just left on a piece of paper on a shelf somewhere, but it's actually meaningful, real and restorative to our people. (GENTLE, HOPEFUL MUSIC) Na John Boynton tera purongo, and it was produced by Ruwani Perera. Kua hikina Te Hui mo tenei tau. Thank you for watching and supporting our programme. We'll be back next year with more. Noho ora mai ra. Captions by Able. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2019 ALL: He mea tautoko na Te Mangai Paho. The Hui is made with support from NZ On Air.