Visions, escapes and murder in warrior's dramatic story

By JON STOKES

The story of Te Kooti Rikirangi, one of Maoridom's most audacious and deadly combatants in the conflict sparked by breaches after the 1840 signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, has it all.

It is a tale of prophetic visions, daring prison escapes and against the odds victory, to his evasion of Crown pursuers until his death - of natural causes - in 1893.

But until this weekend one chapter has been missing.

That covers the fate of up to 128 of his followers captured after trying to flee as Crown troops poised to over-run Ngatapa Pa where a failed stand had been made.

What has emerged is that the Ngati Porou pursuers, sanctioned by settler military commanders and senior settler politician J. C. Richmond, decided to execute their tired and hungry captives.

A report by the Waitangi Tribunal into the claims by Turanga Maori gives no details of the process that led to the killings.

But it says the action taken against untried and unarmed prisoners was one of the worst abuses of law and human rights in New Zealand's colonial history.

"Put simply, the horrors of Ngatapa were perpetuated to avenge the horrors of Matawhero."

It was, in effect an act of utu by Crown troops to avenge the slaughter by Te Kooti and his supporters of between 50 and 70 Pakeha and Maori in the Turanga settlements of Patutahi, Matawhero, and Oweta two months earlier.

Some attribute these killings to Te Kooti's need for revenge.

He had spent two years imprisoned on the Chatham islands, without a trial or any indication as to how long he would have stay.

He was among the group of "worst offenders" sent to the Chathams after a Government attack on a Turanga Maori defensive position at Waerenga a Hika, inland from modern day Gisborne.

Seventy-one defenders were killed in the November 17, 1865, attack.

Almost three years later, inspired by visions during an illness, Te Kooti masterminded an escape. He and his followers - 163 men and 64 women - seized a visiting schooner, the Rifleman.

The party landed at Whareongaonga, 20km South of Gisborne, in July 1868, then moved inland towards Taupo.

But requests for refuge and safe passage to Tuhoe iwi and Waikato chief King Tawhiao were refused.

After repulsing three attempts by Government forces to capture the group, Te Kooti went on the attack.

Between November 8 and 14, Te Kooti and his supporters attacked the settlements of Patutahi, Matawhero, and Oweta.

Between 50 and 70 Pakeha and Maori, including women and children, were murdered. A further 300 Maori were taken prisoner.

The tribunal report said that although Te Kooti and his group were justified in escaping from their illegal imprisonment on the Chathams, and were entitled to resist the "ill-considered attempts by colonial forces to re-arrest them" they, too, had breached their responsibility as treaty partners.

The report said the murders were disproportionate and indiscriminate.

After the capture of most of his supporters Te Kooti and his remaining followers withdrew into the Ureweras. He was pursued by Crown forces but never captured.