Sealers' War

The Sealers' War, also known as the "War of the Shirt", was a conflict in southern New Zealand started in 1810 by a Māori chief's theft of a red shirt, a knife and some other articles from the sealing vessel the Sydney Cove in Otago Harbour, and the excessive revenge of unidentified Europeans from the ship. Many of its events have long been known to European historians, though not its original cause, giving rise to the view it was the product of a supposedly treacherous nature of the Māori. After much speculation its true cause was revealed by the discovery of the Creed manuscript in 2003, recording the views of Māori who were alive at the time of the events.