Taranaki Stories
Showing stories tagged as Parihaka.
by Virginia Winder on 17 December 2009
A fairytale figure with a wizard-like beard is the last keeper of the Cape Egmont Lighthouse.
But these days, Bryan Richards is the keeper of the tower's story, not its light.
The Welshman's skills became redundant in 1986 when he was replaced by an automatic light. He was 55.
Instead of moving on from the navigational lifesaver, Bryan (72) and his wife Janet (65) retired on the land...
by Virginia Winder on 07 December 2009
In a Taranaki dawn as colourless as a black-and-white photograph, hundreds of fighting men scramble to dress in the gloom.
More than 1500 volunteers and members of the Armed Constabulary slide swords into sheaths, pistols into pouches and throw rifles over shoulders. Some harness horses. Each man has 40 extra rounds of ammunition and enough rations to last two days.
As the sun rises on 5...
by Virginia Winder on 03 December 2009
Imagine a leader so inspiring he is able to encourage men with warrior hearts to stand up for their rights, while laying down their weapons.
Picture this same man convincing 2000 people to welcome battle-thirsty soldiers into their village, and even offer them food and drink.
Even more surprising is how this peaceful leader allows himself and his people to be arrested without showing the...
by Virginia Winder on 04 November 2009
One hundred years on from the 1881 invasion of Parihaka, a university student named Hazel Riseborough stands amid a sea of hurting people.
"The grief of the people was palpable and I wondered at the gap between the reality and the meagre accounts in the history books used in schools and universities," she writes in her revised version of Days of Darkness, released in 2002.
In person, she...
by Virginia Winder on 04 November 2009
Ask That Mountain author Dick Scott believes people are now exaggerating the story of Parihaka.
"It's too one-sided now," he says. "A huge amount of stuff has been done about Parihaka that's made it much worse than it really was."
Parihaka is famous as a place of passive resistance; a stance led by Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi who advocated the use of non-violent tactics to keep Maori...
by Virginia Winder on 04 November 2009
The man who wrote Ask That Mountain first learnt about Parihaka when he was bed-bound and bored.
"I was sick in bed, desperate for reading material and I had a law report - a big grey boring thing," says Dick Scott, remembering back to the early 1950s.
The 80-year-old history writer can't recall if he had mumps or measles, but does know he was struck by a childhood illness when aged about 30...