A commemoration of the "one-day war" which claimed 38 lives and sparked a century-and-a-half of dispute over land illegally confiscated by the Crown will take place in Hawke's Bay tomorrow.
Memorials will be held at the monuments at Omarunui and Eskdale (also known as Herepoho), where the killings happened 150 years ago on October 12, 1866.
The conflict had Maori on both sides and was the subject of the book The One Day War, by John Battersby of Wellington, and published 16 years ago.
The "war" followed the arrival in Hawke's Bay of supporters of Pai Marire, a growing religious movement born of conflict over land in Taranaki.
With some members of Te Haroto-based Ngati Hineuru, the party lost 23 when attacked at Omarunui. The local native contingent had two casualties, and the local settler militia one.