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Next Saturday the Crown will officially issue a pardon for Tuhoe prophet and leader Rua Kēnana.
Government representatives will sign an agreement at Maungapohatu Marae on September 9, and will also apologise to the descendants of Rua Kēnana and Nga Toenga o Nga Tamariki a Iharaira.
After the agreement is signed the next step in the process will be the Crown bringing in legislation.
This will also include a summary of the circumstances surrounding the 1916 invasion of Maungapōhatu and subsequent events – to enshrine the statutory pardon in law.
On Friday the Maori Development Minister, Te Ururoa Flavell Flavell, said in 2012 the Waitangi Tribunal determined excessive force was used in the police raid and it was unlawful.
“It has been over a century since this happened and it is time to right that wrong.”
“I am proud to announce the Crown intends to bring in legislation to pardon Rua Kēnana and this agreement with his whanau and followers of the Iharaira faith is another step on that journey.
“It was a heart breaking moment in the history of our nation. His descendants and followers of the faith have suffered immeasurably since the police actions of that fateful day.”
On April 2, 1916, a brigade of 70 armed police reached Maungapōhatu, Rua Kēnana’s home, after a trek through rugged bush.
They had come to arrest him for sedition but, despite standing unarmed in front of the marae with his son Toko and one other man, an exchange of gunfire broke out.
The government had banned Māori healing and there were suggestions that Rua Kēnana opposed his men enlisting for World War I.
After a lengthy trial, Rua was found not guilty of sedition but guilty of resisting arrest. He was sentenced to one year of hard labour followed by 18 months imprisonment.
On his return to Maungapōhatu, he discovered the village – which once had about 1000 residents – largely abandoned and overgrown.
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