| abstract | - Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki was born in 1832 into the Ngati Maru sub-tribe of the Māori people in Poverty Bay on the south shore of East Cape. In his early youth he was very wild, causing a great deal of trouble within the tribe and the area. His father rejected him and tried to bury him alive in a kumara pit although some sources say he was buried by his father in a well while clearing sand. He was then adopted by Te Turuki. He argued with local missionaries and together with a group of young Maori terrorized the district. As a result of his lawlessness against both Maori and Pakeha he was driven from the land by a chief of the Te Aitanga a Mahaki in a taua in 1853. He was considered a philanderer and during his life had at least 10 wives. He then became involved in trading, in competition with the Pakeha traders Harris and Captain Reade. A successful trader,he sailed the unlicenced schooner Rua Whetihi up to Auckland . Unlike most of the Ngati Manu he did not initially convert to Pai Marire or Hau Hauism when that new religion swept through the district in 1865. In fact he opposed it actively during the subsequent civil wars (see East Cape War). Te Kooti fought on the government's side during the siege of Waerenga a Hika in 1865. However he was accused by one of the Māori chiefs of supplying gunpowder to the besieged Hau Hau, his brother being among them, and was arrested. The charge was dismissed and he was released. He was later arrested in March 1866 and charged with spying. There is a suspicion, but no evidence, that one of his accusers coveted some land that Te Kooti had refused to sell him. Another suggestion,again with no proof, is that the Pākehā traders resented his success as a competitor. It is also clear that many of the kupapa or loyalist Māori wanted him out of the area, seeing him as a dangerous trouble-maker. Under martial law he was shipped off to the Chatham Islands along with Hau Hau prisoners of war. At the time of Te Kooti's imprisonment on Chatham Island, he was one of 43 Hau hau men, 25 women and children who arrived with 26 guards, half of whom were Maori. At the time the term Hau Hau was a loose term meaning Maori rebels who had fought against the government during the late 1860s uprisings. These uprisings were based on quasi religious beliefs invented by the matakite visionary, Te Ua Haumene, that to fight the settlers would hasten the arrival of the New Canaan. The penal colony was under the control of magistrate William Seed. When the prisoner arrived the Chathams was a well established community thanks to the hard work and skill of a handful of European settlers such as Engst, Thomas Ritchie,Robert Shand and Edward Chudleigh who had purchased land, imported sheep and built European style housing. Ritchie in particular had worked closely with island Maori to develop the economy of the islands,eventually running 16,000 sheep. Clearing and working on the farm was back breaking work for the settlers, often in atrocious weather. The prisoners built a stone redoubt which was surrounded by a ditch and wall. A 3 cell stone prison was built but the prisoners lived in a row of ponga whares with their families. They grew their own vegetables and worked for the settlers at one shilling per day. They also upgraded roads and track around the island. Gradually the number of Hau hau prisoners rose to 163 men,64 women and 71 children. During his time of exile Te Kooti claimed he experienced various spiritual revelations which formed the basis of his new faith, which much later in the 1880s became known as the Ringa Tu, in English, crudely, the Hand Upheld. He began holding religious services for his fellow prisoners and after the departure of the leading chiefs acquired a large following. Initially he preached acceptance but after mid-1868 when the leading chiefs were released and, angry that he was not, Te Kooti seized the opportunity to create a secret resistance movement under his direct control. New Zealand historian Michael King says that if Te Kooti wasn't a Hau Hau when he was captured he certainly was when he escaped.
|
