Faith’s resistance against expansion
The Pai Mārire faith helped promote resistance against colonial expansion in Manawatū during periods of the 19th century, the Waitangi Tribunal has heard.
Historian Paul Husbands presented to the Waitangi Tribunal about Pai Mārire as two days of tribunal hearings for the Porirua ki Manawatū inquiry started in Wellington yesterday.
It is the first hearing for the inquiry since October, with Covid19 postponing scheduled hearings since then.
Under the inquiry, the Ngāti Raukawa iwi confederation claims that large areas of land between Kāpiti and Manawatū were taken from Māori historically.
Husbands told the tribunal about the practice and politics of Pai Mārire, a Māori form of Christianity, in the district.
Pai Mārire was founded in late 1862 by Taranaki prophet Tu Ua Haumēne, who wanted to create a peaceful and righteous society at a time of uneasy peace between the Crown and the Kīngitanga movement. It was embraced by Māori King Tāwhiao.
Husbands said the practice of Pai Mārire within the inquiry district was closely connected with resistance to extension of the colonial government’s authority and European settlement.
The new religion took root in communities with strong connections to the Kīngitanga, he said.
‘‘Having followed the example of King Tāwhiao and renounced violent, armed resistance, Pai Mārire-practising communities from the Rangitīkei to taki continued to uphold the kaupapa of the Kīngitanga, opposing the further sale and survey of Māori land, and the extension into their territory of colonial infrastructure such as roads, railways and telegraph lines.’’
But Husbands said that since the beginning of the 1870s this kind of resistance was hard to sustain.
‘‘Confronted by the rising tide of European settlement, many within Ngāti Raukawa and its affiliated hapū and iwi saw engagement with the colonial regime as the only practicable option.’’
The faith had encouraged peace in the district during a time of war in 1865 and 1866, as the government wanted to suppress ‘‘a dangerous and fanatical sect’’ and attacked Pai Mārire strongholds in southern Taranaki.
The religion was in decline by the middle of the 1870s, but it did continue to be practised into the 20th century.