Rua Kenana Hepetipa - Background

Background

Rua Tapunui Kenana (1869–1937) Māori prophet, faith healer and land rights activist.

Rua Kenana Hepetipa was one of many Māori prophetic leaders who arose in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He believed he had inherited the special powers of Te Kooti and considered himself his successor although he did not hold Te Kooti in high regard, calling him a "man -killer". He called himself Te Mihaia Hou, the New Messiah, and, like the others, owed his power to the great skill with which he applied the scriptures to the daily lives of those who believed in him. These early visions of Rua had little appeal to Europeans, but his messianic dreams for his people incorporated other pragmatic and comprehensible schemes. By 1908 he had built for himself and his followers a new community at Maungapohatu in the heart of the isolated Urewera bush country using money he had received from selling land to the governmnet. By 1907 around 600 followers were living there with him. Inspired by Rua's ideas,the community operated on a cooperative basis and was based on non-violent principles. Maungapohatu, however, was very remote, and bitter winters,poor mountain soils, bad housing,no modern amenities and a poor diet meant that by 1913 the community had been reduced from more than 500 people to about 30 families. Many young people people died of pneumonia. Some battles had been fought between the Tuhoe sheltering and supporting the escaped convict Te Kooti and the government in the Ureweras between 1869 and 1872, after the outlawed Te Turuki(Te Kooti) sought refuge with the Tuhoe. Their principal grievance was the confiscation of their low-lying coastal lands across the mouth of the Waimana and Ruatoki valleys, which were taken in 1866 in the Bay of Plenty confiscations following the Land Wars in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions after Tuhoe warriors had taken part in the rebellion against the government at the Battle of Orakau. Rewi Maniapoto who had tribal links to Tuhoe visited the area in 1862 and persuaded them to join the uprising. To show their support Tuhoe gave Rewi ammunition to start the war. About 50 Tuhoe warriors took part in the Battle of Orakau against the government, with nearly all being killed. Initially Tuhoe had supported the government in chasing and eventually capturing the escaped convict and Ringatu leader Te Kooti. Tuhoe tried to use to Te Kooti as a bargaining chip to gain concessions from the government but the government insisted that Te Kooti be handed over for trial. Tuhoe released him and gave him sanctuary in the Urewera Mountains with many Tuhoe playing an active part in the guerilla war that lasted 4 years. The few European visitors who undertook the arduous inland journey to the settlement praised the enthusiasm of the faithful, whom Rua was directing towards the creation of a modernised and equitable life on ancestral Tuhoe lands.

These more recognisable goals made Rua into a person of note in the Whakatane district. Indeed, he became a very familiar figure as he rode down from the mountains on his customary white horse with his disciples on large-scale shopping expeditions to the general stores at Waimana, Gisborne and Opotiki.Today he is not remembered with fear,yet contemporary European commentaries viewed him as dangerous, and European children were hurried home from school when Rua rode by. Though a pacifist, he was a separatist leader of the last section of the Māori people who emerged from relative isolation into contact with European settlement- the Tuhoe of the Urewera country. In 1907 when prospectors found signs of gold in the Ureweras, Rua formed a mining company and sold mining rights for gold prospecting in direct violation of New Zealand law. In 1908 Rua gathered 1,400 signature from Tuhoe (effectively the whole tribe)in a petition that offered to sell 100,000 acres of Tuhoe land to the Crown but the government declined as Rua was not the legal representative of Tuhoe. Later Rua was bought onto the legal committee in 1910 because of his widespread mana and he immediately offered the land for sale again.

New Zealand government officials considered Rua to be a troublemaker, especially when, as a pacifist, he objected to Tuhoe participating in World War I. Acting on the reason that alcohol was being sold illegally at the sacred new Jeruslaem- Maungapohatu, Rua was summoned to appear in court. He refused because it was harvesting season, and he told the constables to tell the magistrate that if he wanted a court he should come to Maungapohatu. He also shouted, "I have fourteen hundred men here. I am not going to let any of them enlist or go to the war. You have no king now. The King in England is no good. He is beaten. The Germans will win. Any money I have I will give to the Germans. The English are no good. They have two laws, one for Maori and one for the Pakeha. When the Germans win I am going to be king here." These comments caused Rua to become known as the kaiser of the bush by newspapers of the time. Angered by his response, the police mounted an armed expedition, arriving at Maungapohatu on 2 April 1916. Rua was there to meet them, standing unarmed on his marae, when a shot was fired. Two Māori were killed, including Rua's son Toko, and while the police claimed the first shot came from Rua's camp. The first policeman shot was hit in the genitals.

Rua was charged with treason, and while he was found not guilty by the jury, Judge Frederick Chapman did find him guilty of resisting arrest and sentenced him to one year of hard labour, followed by 18 months of imprisonment. Eight of the jury members protested the harshness of his sentence and successfully petitioned to have it reduced. Rua was released in April 1918 and returned to Maungapohatu. The community was in decline, however, and by the early 1930s, most people had left to find work elsewhere. Rua moved on to Matahi in the eastern Bay of Plenty and lived there until his death in 1937.