(GULLS SQUAWK) - WOMAN PERFORMS KARANGA: # He one pu, he oneone, # kore rawa au e whakaae, kia riro toku whaenua e! # (GUNFIRE) - The Tauranga campaign over six months in 1864 is the violent conclusion to the brutal, grinding battle for Waikato. And once again, it is an epic struggle for the very future of Aotearoa New Zealand. - This is a hugely significant series of conflicts that continue to be felt and experienced in lots of ways. - History calls it the Tauranga campaign, but in fact it's far bigger than that. It will encompass the whole Bay of Plenty and beyond. Tribe will be pitted against tribe, Christian on Christian, invader against defender. - We have accounts of elderly women who weren't fast enough to vacate areas being beaten to death. And so some real mamae. - It will see remarkable moments of courage, compassion, victory and defeat. - In the heat of battle kindness was shown, and courage was also shown. - A lot of the detail of what happened is lost. What isn't lost is the magnitude of the emotion that our people felt. - And the shockwaves reverberate through our history to this very day. Kia ora, I'm Mihingarangi Forbes. Join me for the stories of Tauranga Moana. (SOMBRE MUSIC) Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2024 (SHIP HORN HONKS) - Te Tauranga o nga waka. Tauranga ` the safe anchorage of many waka. Mauao, Mount Maunganui standing watch as it does over the harbour and its history. This rohe was home to Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Ranginui, Ngati Pukenga, Waitaha. And it's on their past that the present is built. Tauranga is one of Aotearoa's fastest-growing cities, and that growth begins in the mid-1800s with a thriving Maori economy. - Coming up to the 1860s, commerce is big. We're exporting flax; we're exporting spuds and pigs and kumara. A lot of the hapu in Tauranga have their own ships, and so we're sending off our goods to the Auckland market, to Sydney as well. Maori are literate. They're embracing writing; they're embracing commerce. And so leading up to 1864, there is a sense of camaraderie not only between Maori and Pakeha, between Maori and Maori as well. It looks like a bright future at that time. - But all of that is about to change. (OMINOUS MUSIC) By 1863, the imperial invasion of neighbouring Waikato is raging. And the settler government has its eyes firmly fixed on Tauranga. - Tauranga is of interest for a number of reasons ` one, because Tauranga is a route where supplies of men and food and even weapons are being sent to Kingitanga forces in the Waikato across the Kaimai Ranges. There are other reasons why the Crown is interested in this district as well. And one is that the lands are very fertile. Tauranga has one of the best harbours on the entire east coast of the North Island, and that makes it an attractive proposition as well. So already, Tauranga is essentially being earmarked for future confiscation. (CLAMOURING) - Waikato are having a hard time. What we need to do is we need to take out some of that pressure off our king, some of that pressure off our kin in Waikato. So we start building our pa so that we can invite the Pakeha to come over here. (POIGNANT MUSIC) - By early January 1864, both sides are motivated to open a new front, but for very different reasons. Maori start construction of their battle pa, while the British dispatch 600 troops here to the Church Missionary Society grounds in Tauranga. The orders are ` 'Establish a military foothold; 'don't engage with the enemy, not until we've dealt with Waikato.' At the same time at Tawhitinui just 13km west of the British camp, Maori are hard at work, building the first of what will be a series of battle pa. The purpose is twofold ` to draw in colonial troops and to defend the Wairere track ` the critical main supply line over the Kaimai ranges, delivering fighters and food to the frontline in Waikato. But the British know little, if anything, about it. Tawhitinui is the first pa site. - Yep. - Who was involved? - So this was all Ngati Haua, Te Waharoa. All those ones came over. They came to build it as a part of the alliances at that time. We built it here to defend the Wairere, which was of strategic value. Tawhitinui literally means 'a long way away'. So it was too far. It was of no strategic importance, really, for the Pakeha, who didn't really know of the advantage of the Wairere Track. - So what would have happened next? - We moved inland toward the city where it is now, eventually out to Poteriwhi by the Wairoa River. We build a pa there, and then we send another invite. 'Come to Tauranga. Come and fight us here.' - The British didn't engage with these various challenges because Lieutenant-General Cameron, first of all, wanted to achieve victory in the Waikato. And once he'd done that, it opened up the opportunity to bring those troops to Tauranga and to do the same thing there. And that's what he was waiting for. And that's why he had issued orders for the troops that were stationed in Tauranga to remain on the defensive in the meanwhile. - The hui was held at Poteriwhi, on the banks of the Wairoa River. All the fighting men come together to strategise. And then they all decided that it'll be at Pukehinahina. And then they started to prepare to get the job done. (TENSE MUSIC) - Two rangatira are tasked with constructing the fighting pa at Pukehinahina ` Rawiri Puhirake, the battle tactician, and Pene Taka Tuaia, the engineer, credited with its remarkably innovative design. But this time, the fighting pa is just too close to the British camp at Te Papa to ignore. - Pene Taka ` he had seen 20 years prior, in the Northern Expeditions, the damage the British artillery could really lay waste. Whole fortifications in a half a day, and how to create fortifications or strategies to really give us a fighting chance. And so what he would create was really a maze of underground bunkers and concealed bunkers. Trenches, lots of corners as well. That way, musket fire ` there's lots of places to conceal yourself and hide around corners, etc. Not a lot of straight spaces to be able to shoot down. They were dug deep, and the korero is once you had dug deep, you dug deeper. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) - There was one large pa which was about 80m long, and that had around 200 defenders in it, and so they were from the local iwi ` Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Rangunui, some Ngati Pukenga. Then there was a smaller fortification about 30m away that was connected by a covered tunnel. That had about 30 people in it. Many of them were from Ngati Koheriki. - Not only was the design innovative; the tactics that will be used to defend the pa will also baffle the British. Such was their brilliance. Rawiri Puhirake is the commander, the senior fighting rangatira. - At Pukehinahina we have the pre-eminent rangatira who dominates our narrative now ` Rawiri Puhirake. Rawiri Puhirake has, as a young boy, been taken from Tauranga in the Ngapuhi raids. And to the best of our knowledge, Rawiri Puhirake is taking part in either the construction or maybe even the battles at Ruapekapeka, at Ohaeawai. And he's learning... the art of warfare with musket and cannon. (SOMBRE MUSIC) - It doesn't look like much today, but this is the site of one of the greatest fighting pa ever constructed during the New Zealand Wars. Pukehinahina, or Gate Pa as it's known, because it was once the gateway between Church Mission and Maori land. But it's also remarkable in our history for a very different reason. This man ` Henare Taratoa. He can read and write. He's a formidable warrior in his own right. Henare Taratoa helps formulate a revolutionary moral and ethical code of conduct for the battle based on the Christian values he's been educated in. - Henare Taratoa had trained at Saint John's Theological College in Auckland. And really, the logical next step was for him to go on and become an ordained priest. But it was said that he had a somewhat fiery temperament and he wasn't considered the right sort of character to take that ultimate step ` become an Anglican priest. And he was away at the Otaki Mission station with Octavius Hadfield, the missionary there. He returned home to Tauranga in 1864 when he heard that war was imminent in the district. - Taratoa, who wrote the code of engagement in the most beautiful English that you could find anywhere. Who else would start a letter with 'Salutations'? - 'To the Colonel. Friend. 'Salutations to you. 'Do you give heed to our laws for regulating the fight? 'Rule one ` 'If wounded or captured and butt of musket or hilt of sword be turned to me, 'he will be saved. 'Rule two ` if any Pakeha...' - VINCENT: Henare Taratoa's code of conduct set out various rules for fighting. And that includes that those who surrender will be well treated. They won't be harmed. That non-combatants, women and children, will not be harmed either. And the injured will be respected and looked after. It's really quite a remarkable document because the very first Geneva Convention is signed months later, in August 1864, and a number of the things in that are anticipated, really, in this code of conduct that Maori at Tauranga themselves devised. - They had their rules of engagement which was clearly written out by the religious sectors, and that was largely Henare Taratoa and Te Kereti and all of them. And they were the Catholics, the Anglicans. It was all about helping the wounded. Which came from the Bible, from Romans. 'If thy enemy thirst, give him drink.' - It just showed that our tupuna believe that, at the core, people were people and they should be taken care of. Even my enemy. From an indigenous people, to write that rule of regulation for the fight and how we would conduct ourselves in an honourable way. Written in both the native language and in English, to be given over, I think, is... a moment in history, yeah, we should be super proud of. Yeah. - Maori will scrupulously observe the code of conduct in the bloody fighting ahead. But as for the British officers... - The British officers didn't really know what to make of the code of conduct. They were just bemused by it. So they didn't formally respond. They basically ignored it. (TENSE MUSIC) - At the same time as the battle lines are being drawn at Pukehinahina Gate Pa, another dramatic turn of events is unfolding 50 K's down the coast at Maketu. A flotilla of war canoes has arrived from Te Tairawhiti. Some 700 warriors ` Tuhoe, Ngati Porou, Te Whanau-a-Apanui, Whakatohea ` determined to pass through Te Arawa land to join the upcoming fight in Tauranga. - Throughout the early months of 1864, there had been taua from the East Coast attempting to make their way to Tauranga and, up until April 1864 anyway, ultimately to Waikato. - Some Te Arawa iwi are just as determined that won't happen. Standing in between is the British redoubt at Maketu. When the war party attacks, Te Arawa join Imperial troops and forest rangers and fight back, while HMS Falcon and the Steamer Sandfly pound the attackers. (OMINOUS MUSIC) - Ngati Porou, Whanau-a-Apanui, Whakatohea ` they want to get here. But they were blocked by Te Arawa at Maketu ` big battle down at Kaokaoroa. And so they were on their way to help Tauranga in particular and then go over to Waikato and help as well. In order for taua to go through the rohe` someone else's rohe, they're usually under, you know, nga kawa o Tumatauenga. If that taua encounters anyone on the way on te ara o Tu, then they sort of have to go through te kawa o Tumatauenga with that encounter. - The taua so desperately needed in Tauranga is forced back down the coast in rolling skirmishes. And of the 700 who set out, at least 100 are killed or wounded. In Tauranga, the British war machine arrives in force, battle-hardened from the Waikato campaign. The commander of the Imperial forces, Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron, personally takes charge. He assembles a force of 1700 troops. - After the Battle of Orakau ends on the 2nd of April, 1864, he saw an opportunity for a decisive victory at Tauranga. So Cameron does a reconnaissance of the pa on the 27th of April, and he's pretty underwhelmed by what he sees. There's limited timber available in the district, and so the palisading and fencing around the pa is pretty flimsy. It's not something that Cameron feels at all intimidated by. - Cameron's confidence is unsurprising. - Maori are fighting the world's sole superpower at the time, and they have some of the heaviest artillery ever fired in anger in New Zealand, including 110-pound Armstrong guns. Which is a hugely powerful weapon. - Maori are relying on karakia, courage and cunning. - Rawiri Puhirake is the one who was on the ramparts at Pukehinahina going, 'Kia u, kia u te manawa rere!' And he's really visual, and he's really audible at Pukehinahina to the British. - Manawa rere! - Rawiri Puhirake we can see that purposeful in the strategy that ` one, we would be outnumbered and, two, we would be outgunned. Most of the arms we had were fowling rifles and double-barrelled shotguns, or our term for them is tupara. So really close-range is the only effect you're gonna get from them. Because Maori at the time are very, very skilled at hand-to-hand combat. Close-range combat we can deal with. The favoured weapon for us would be the short-handled Tomahawk. And, in a close fighting trench, it's effective. So engineered pa, set up to really cause confusion once that enemy was in, and a strategy that would need to be employed to endure that long-range assault. - As a soaking wet dawn breaks on April 29th, 1864, the most ferocious artillery barrage ever seen on New Zealand soil is about to be unleashed. It will shake their newfound faith to its core. The moment so vividly recalled years later by Ngai Te Rangi rangatira, Hori Ngatai. - 'The British column came to within 500yd of our front, 'where they mounted their guns and pitched tents. 'Soon there was a flash and a roar! (BOOM!) 'Shells from the big gun flew whistling like a kehua over our heads. 'The big guns poured shots and shell into our position. 'We were every now and then smothered with the dirt thrown up by the exploding shells, 'and the rain which had set in soon converted into mud 'to add to our suffering.' - Ihakara, which is our tipuna ` he had his head taken off. (OMINOUS MUSIC) - At most, 250 warriors are defending Pukehinahina against a combined force of 1700. Among the graphic accounts, one of a Maori Christian minister eviscerated mid-prayer. - 'The big guns struck our Christian tohunga, 'scattering his body all over the place. 'One of our tattooed veterans had leaned his gun against the earthworks and went to pick it up 'and found some of the dead minister's intestines were wrapped around the barrels ` 'a grim joke even at the cannon's mouth did the old warrior utter, '"He hinu ano kai roto I te purepo a te Pakeha!"' - The barrage continues nonstop till 4 in the afternoon. Then comes the order for the 300-man British storming party to advance. (GUNFIRE, SHOUTING) - (GROANS) - 'The storming party rushed gallantly to the attack. 'Then we loosed our fire on them when they got well within range. 'Still, they charged on with bayonets fixed and swords waving, 'cheering as they came. 'Through and over the breached walls they rushed. 'They entered the ruins of the larger pa. 'Most of it was in their possession. 'But all at once, the tide of war was changed.' - The storming party of 300 men ` they get inside the pa, and for a moment, they assume that they've taken it. It's only moments later that this incredible fire rains upon them, and a lot of the men don't know where it's coming from. It's coming from the occupants of the pa, concealed beneath them in these bunkers, who are firing up through the ground. - One devastating volley, then brutal close-quarter, hand-to-hand combat. - 'Men fell thick and fast. 'Tomahawk clashed on cutlass and bayonet. 'Tupara met rifle and pistol. 'Skulls were cloven. 'Maori were bayoneted. 'Ngai Te Rangi hatchets bit deep into white heads and shoulders. 'The place was soon full of dying and dead men ` Pakeha and Maori. 'It was terrible work.' - Of the 300 men, 31 are killed, including 10 officers, which is an incredibly high proportion of officers. Another 80 are injured, so overall, around a third of that force end up as casualties. And, the British Army at this time ` they're not supposed to retreat in a chaotic and confused way in the way they did here, even leaving behind gravely wounded and dying men inside the pa. So this was regarded as a huge embarrassment and a humiliating defeat for them. (GROUP PERFORM HAKA) (PENSIVE STRING MUSIC) - In London, the stunning defeat received strikingly critical coverage, while the very motivation for war in the far-off colony comes into question. - 'It is impossible to talk away the fact 'that the real cause of war is to be found in the coveting 'of their neighbours' land by the English settlers. 'That territorial lust, 'which we denounce in Frenchmen, Germans and Russians, 'but to which we give free license 'when we come in contact with the brown man.' (SOLDIER GROANS, COUGHS) - Help me. - The blood-soaked scene at Pukehinahina leaves British High Command humiliated and at a loss to explain why. Once again, they've badly underestimated their foe and paid a heavy, heavy price. Lives lost, but also legends made. In the smaller pa 30m away, the wahine toa Heni Te Kiri Karamu ` this is her in old age ` forges her place in history. - She had previously fought in the Waikato War. She was at Paparata when it was attacked by the Forest Rangers in December 1863. It was said that she had followed her brother to Pukehinahina, and they'd arrived the day before on the 28th of April with a Ngati Koheriki force. They had occupied the smaller fortification there, and although women had helped to construct Gate Pa, Hori Ngatai said that they were removed to a place of safety before fighting took place, so Heni is the exception to that. She later recalled that she loved her brother so much, she wanted to remain by his side whether they lived or died. She's one of the most remarkable wahine toa from the New Zealand Wars and is there through a series of conflicts throughout the 1860s. Later in the evening... - SOLDIER: Help me! - ...Heni Te Kiri Karamu, the only woman inside the pa, she sees injured men lying around calling out for water. - In the heat of battle that was taking place at that time, that, still, kindness was shown and courage was also shown. - Oh. Thank you. - The chivalry that was shown after the battle where our enemy would lie dying upon the battlefield ` we would stay true to that code of conduct that was written up by Henare, and we would go out and deliver water to those dying officers. - VINCENT: One of the senior British officers is Colonel Booth. And he's lying there dying, and he calls out for water, and she takes water to him in an iron tin. Speaks to him in English. - Thank you. Thank you. - Think it's a reflection of the grace that we would show each other. And the courage to do so in amidst that kind of fear upon the battlefield. (MELANCHOLY MUSIC) - (EXHALES) (COUGHS) - VINCENT: During the night, the Maori occupants of the pa evacuate. They'd achieved their purpose. They'd inflicted a crushing and humiliating defeat on the British. When the British enter the pa the next day, they're not quite sure what to expect. Booth is still alive. He talks about how well he'd been treated, and some of the other men do as well. They discover that the Maori had honoured the code of conduct that Henare Taratoa had devised, and in many ways had gone above and beyond that in terms of Heni risking her own life to take water to gravely-wounded British officers and men. So the British recognise and acknowledge that incredible chivalry that is shown during the conflict. - Having slipped away in the dead of night, the defenders of Pukehinahina remain a real and present threat, while the volatile situation in neighbouring Waikato is far from resolved. (INQUISITIVE MUSIC) At their military camp in Te Papa ` and there's still traces of it in the CBD. The British are in a defensive holding pattern. 900 troops remain in place, while the General and almost half the invasion force leave for Auckland. But Maori are still armed and at large. Colonel Henry Greer is now in command. Just two months after the disaster at Pukehinahina, he learns yet another battle pa is under construction, this time at Te Ranga, just 10km away. Now, Greer has the advantage of surprise and goes on the offensive. Early on June 21st, and without hesitation, he marches out towards a pa that's not yet battle ready and still housing women and children helping in its construction. - What Rawiri Puhirake was attempting to do was to draw the British out of their base at Te Papa, because the British had commandeered the mission station there. That was their headquarters. He was hoping to engage them in conflict at that site. The problem was the point at which, by this stage, Colonel Greer attacked the site, the pa was still very far from completion. - People have gone back, have done whatever they need to do in their kainga, and then now we're all coming back and congregating at Te Ranga. And Puhirake has said that Te Ranga is going to be our next stand. Te Ranga, like Pukehinahina, is also another strategic place on the top of a plateau that crosses across the plateau and blocks the way between another ara between Tauranga and Waikato. During the construction of Te Ranga, we've got tamariki there; we've got wahine there; we've got people there who are not intending on taking part in the fight. They're just there to help the people who are digging the pa. They need to be fed and they need to be housed. It's more like a village. - Colonel Greer estimates he's facing a force of 600. He knows from bitter experience he must act immediately. - He knew what Cameron said. 'Don't let them dig in. You can't get them out.' So... he said to his men, 'Attack.' So they started that 6-pounder, firing it on the families and the men who were there. - But there are far fewer fighters than Greer expects. In fact, the defending Maori are outnumbered, outgunned and out on their own. - When it came to Te Ranga, we had 140. All the other iwi had, for whatever reason, thought they had done enough. No need to fight any more. The rest of us that fought there ` we carried the can after that. - There's a lot of stories, too, about how they were set upon and then pursued as they looked to escape, and they would plunge over into some of the ravines down below and still not escape that fate. And they would be shot as they crossed streams. (SHOUTING) When our people talk about Te Ranga up on the marae, in our own settings, we never talk about it like it was an honourable battle. It's a huge, sad period for our people. - Two hours after opening fire on the Maori lines and itching to avenge their humiliation at Gate Pa, the British forces launch a full frontal assault. The Maori defenders, short on ammunition, choose to make a stunningly courageous last stand. - When they walked out, the British troops just marched on, walked towards them. And we stood there marching forward and just took our lives, and we all died at Te Ranga. Our men we're falling. One of the British troops leaned over and said to one of our men, 'You could see that we were an overwhelming force. 'Why didn't you stop?' And then that's when he says, 'Me mate ahau mo te whenua' (SOMBRE MUSIC) - At least 120 killed. Among them ` Rawiri Puhirake, hero of Pukehinahina, and Henare Taratoa, his Bible and the historic code of conduct still on his body. - JOSHUA: There was an expectation that the rules into how we would meet each other on the battlefield would continue after Pukehinahina. We had stuck to that code of conduct. We hadn't deviated from it. And so in no way had we felt that our enemy should and would. - At Te Ranga, we lost a lot of our leadership then, we did. The mamae that our people felt and also the anger that our people felt... And that has` I think that has been a great impact as well, a big impact on our people. - # He aha # ra te ao e hora nei? # Ka kore noa ahau # i a koe. # Na te aha ra koe # i moumou atu ai? # Ko te kura, # ko te kura koti whero. # He onekura toto # te whakangarotanga # ki te riu o te whenua. # (MELANCHOLY MUSIC) - The desolate scenescapes of Te Ranga, photographed soon after the battle. 10 years later, with the earth barely settled, both warriors will be disinterred and laid to rest at the old Mission Cemetery in Tauranga as a mark of respect. - On the 50th anniversary of both of their deaths at the Battle of Te Ranga, this was erected, and huge crowd, more than a thousand people turned out for the unveiling of this on that anniversary. And it commemorates the chivalrous conduct of the Maori leader and his people that so impressed their contemporaries at the time. They were both initially buried at Te Ranga, about 10 years later reinterred in the cemetery, and then this rather impressive memorial was later unveiled for them. - Why are they here? Because often in the war stories we hear that Maori aren't buried in urupa like this and not amongst the Pakeha soldiers. - Well, I think it speaks to the respect that Europeans had for them. In particular, incidents such as the one that is commemorated in the marble frieze here of taking water to the dying Colonel Booth. Rawiri Puhirake summoning help from the back, and obviously that contains some historical inaccuracies, in that it's a man bringing water and he is using a calabash rather than an iron tin. - And it's not Heeni Te Kiri Karamu. - It's not Heeni Te Kiri Karamu. No. - And interestingly enough, Colonel Booth is actually just over there. - Yeah. Colonel Booth is laid to rest very nearby to here. - But respect for the dead does not extend to the living. For Maori, the price of defying the British will come at a devastating cost. Raupatu ` mass land confiscation by the Crown. But iwi who lay down their weapons and surrender lose far less of their lands than those who don't. - Our people suffered mightily after the raupatu. They really did because the land was taken. Everything was taken from them from which they had their economic base. # Tena ra koutou e nga tupuna e, # ki a koe ra e to tatou taonga # te awa tipua o Te Wairoa e... # - For the people of Te Wairoa Marae, named for the river, the legacy of confiscation is literally driven home every day. - Ko te ingoa o tenei whenua ko te Severance Block. Why was that? Because, as you can see, that highway is severed right through the land on this side and the land on that side, which is one block. So what we have is all of this traffic and huge trucks that go backwards and forwards. They go past our marae. I nga wa o mua, when we had tangihanga, we would always take the tupapaku outside on the last day ` the ra nehu, but we don't do that any more. Do you know why? Because ko te hoihoi o nga waka, i runga i te huarahi matua, kare matou i whakarongo ki nga korero o nga kuia o nga koroua. so it's been really, really hard. - The war doesn't end at Te Ranga. Those who refuse to surrender take the fight into 1867 and beyond in what history calls The Bush Campaign, or as Maori call it, Te Werenga - The Burning. - In 1866, the British began progressively withdrawing their troops from New Zealand, and after that, colonial troops and their Maori allies were solely responsible for fighting the wars on behalf of the Crown. So British troops no longer had any role in that. And in some ways, one of the consequences of that is the wars take on a harsher, more racially-tinged sort of aspect to them as well. - Captain Gilbert Mair ` that's him on the left ` leads an irregular force of mostly young Maori fighters in a three-month guerrilla campaign against the so-called rebels. Te Weranga goes largely underreported in the colonial records. But in some Maori accounts, it is a rampage of scorched earth, murder, rape and pillage. - I think a part of the hurt there too is that, you know, a lot of our extended whanau were employed at that time to do a lot of that hunting out of our other tupuna. And so it's a very dark time in our histories here in Tauranga Moana. - One of the things about the Tauranga Bush Campaign is that it's not very well documented. So a lot of the stories around this history are probably ones that are held by the tribal custodians of that knowledge. There aren't a lot of detailed reports about what takes place on the ground. - Te Weranga for us is a time when the established rules, the chivalry, the code of conduct established by Taratoa and his ilk is actually just thrown out the window. - JOSHUA: Te Weranga was such a treacherous time. The force would come in and move those people off and burn everything left behind. Whare, fields of crops would all be decimated in the process. And that's probably a really PG way of putting that. Our accounts are tragic. We have accounts of elderly women who weren't fast enough to vacate areas being beaten to death. Just real travesties happening within the kainga with our women. And so some real mamae. - KORO: That mamae is so severe that the kind of intergenerational trauma that still exists means that we don't like to pass on a lot of that korero to the next generation because of how much it hurts. A lot of the detail of what happens during Te Weranga is kind of lost. What isn't lost is the magnitude of the emotion that our people felt and still feel these days, because of what occurred in the Tauranga Bush Campaign ` Te Weranga. (SOMBRE MUSIC) (SOMBRE MUSIC BUILDS) - In the Tauranga of today, the symbols of the past are still very present. Embedded at the old pa site of Pukehinahina ` the stories of Rawiri Puhirake and Henare Taratoa and his revolutionary code of conduct. The Maori chivalry, the honour shown on the battlefield, so exemplified by Heni Te Kiri Karamu ` 'If thine enemy thirst, 'give him water'. And in the church mission cemetery ` Old adversaries lie side by side in an apparent show of respect and unity. But time has not healed. Not really. - Amongst the suffering of land loss with the suffering of loss of identity, loss of language ` which are huge things. You know, identity is what ties ourselves to people and place. An individual with no knowledge of who they are... kind of doomed to roam the earth disconnected. And so it's a real sad fate for a lot of our whanau. - Crown machinations that resulted in Maori fighting Maori. The pain still burns. Settlement for the vast tracts of land that were confiscated is not fully resolved and still mired in acrimony. - As far as I'm concerned, kei te haere tonu te pakanga. It's just morphed into something else, eh. And which is a bit more scary because it's like... everything looks all right on the surface, but it's what's happening underneath. You ask me the question, who won the war? I'd like to say we won the war, and we will win the war eventually. But will it be in my time? - The New Zealand Wars don't end with the campaign and Tauranga Moana ` far from it. More fighting will erupt elsewhere in the years ahead. What it does signal is the end to a punishing and brutal campaign that began in the Waikato in 1863. That, and the inevitable loss of land, mana and hope for tangata whenua of Tauranga Moana. A legacy that lingers even now. - # He aha # ra te ao e hora nei? # Ka kore noa ahau # i a koe. # Na te aha ra koe # i moumou atu ai? # Ko te kura, # ko te kura koti whero... # Captions by Jessie Puru. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2024