Rua Kenana
Rua
Kenana was a Maori prophet who led the Tuhoe people at a time
when their land in the Urewera Ranges was threatened by
prospecting and milling. In his twenties Rua worked as a laborer around Gisborne. He returned home and had a vision that the white people would be driven into the sea, and the Maori would once more come into his own.
In about 1906 he announced the establishment of a Jerusalem at Maungapohatu in the rugged Ureweras about 20km north of Lake Waikaremoana. Soon Maungapohatu had a thriving farming community of a 1000 people. The land was owned and farmed collectively and all proceeds were shared according to need.
During World War One he was harassed by the police because of
the region's liquor sales and in a moment of anger he told his
followers to support the Germans. In March 1916, seventy police
were sent to arrest him for sedition. He was arrested on April
2nd 1916, after a shootout between his followers and the police.
He was sentenced to 12 months hard labour for resisting arrest.
The cost of defending themselves at the trials that followed this raid, and the cost of the raid itself, which the Maoris had to pay, almost ruined Rua's people. They had to sell much of their land and all their animals.
When Rua returned to his followers in 1918 he found them much poorer, and although many people had left his settlement, others stayed with him until his death in 1937.
David Grace
David Grace's father is from Ruatoria and his mother from Waitara. He was born in the Whanganui district and grew up in Paraparaumu, Porirua & Sydney. Bands he has been in are Chaos, Harumbe, Dread Beat & Blood, and Survival.He has been influenced by Te Whiti, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Geronimo, Crazy Horse, Bob Marley, Eva Rickard and Sid Jackson. On his Bebo page, he says his path in life is to walk with any people who have had suffered injustice, although he advises us not to walk with Muslims.
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Published on the web Dec 2008