Gisborne
Te Tairāwhiti
The first place in the country to see the sun, and where Cook made landfall in 1769. Te Kooti's campaigns and the Ringatū faith both began here.
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9 events in Gisborne between 1864 and 1988
Pai Mārire spreads
Te Ua Haumēne’s faith, an independent Māori Christianity born in war-torn Taranaki, spread across the North Island and was met with force by the Crown.
TaranakiThe siege of Waerenga-a-Hika
Government forces and Ngāti Porou besieged a Pai Mārire pā inland from Tūranga for about six days. More than a hundred prisoners were later deported to Rēkohu without trial, joined by others and their families.
Waerenga-a-HikaTe Kooti escapes from Rēkohu
Deported without trial, Te Kooti seized a schooner and brought nearly 300 prisoners home from Rēkohu. Colonial and Māori forces pursued him for almost four years and never caught him.
Gisborne and Te UreweraThe attack at Matawhero
Te Kooti and about a hundred men attacked the settlement at Matawhero overnight. Sources put the dead at between about 50 and 70, Māori and Pākehā, among them women and children.
MatawheroTe Kotahitanga — the Māori Parliament
Te Kotahitanga o Te Tiriti o Waitangi
A Māori parliament met from 1892 to 1902, seeking authority over Māori land and people under the Treaty of Waitangi and petitioning Parliament for recognition.
Waipatu, Hawke’s BayThe raid on Maungapōhatu
An armed police expedition marched into the Tūhoe prophet Rua Kēnana’s community at Maungapōhatu in Te Urewera to arrest him. Two men were shot dead, including Rua’s son.
MaungapōhatuThe Rātana movement rises
Te Hāhi Rātana
Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana built a church and then a political movement that campaigned for the Treaty of Waitangi to be honoured.
Rātana PāThe Hawke’s Bay earthquake
A magnitude 7.8 quake devastated Napier and Hastings and killed 256 people — still New Zealand’s deadliest earthquake.
NapierCyclone Bola
Over 900 millimetres of rain fell on the East Coast in three days, stripping hillsides and cutting the region off. At least three people died.
GisborneMeanwhile, nationally
9 events that reached Gisborne along with most of the country. They still shade the map and sit on the timeline above, but they are not Gisborne’s own history.
The Native Land Court is established
The court converted customary communal title into individual titles that could be sold, and became the main means by which most remaining Māori land passed out of Māori ownership.
Tohunga Suppression Act
An Act making it an offence to practise as a tohunga, aimed at healers who claimed supernatural powers and at prophets such as Rua Kēnana.
The influenza pandemic
About 9,000 people died in two months — roughly half as many as died in four years of war. Māori died at more than eight times the Pākehā rate.
The 28th (Māori) Battalion
Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū
A volunteer battalion organised by tribal area fought in Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy. Its casualty rate was almost 50% above the average for New Zealand infantry battalions.
Māori War Effort Organisation
Over 300 tribal committees took on Māori recruiting, war work and local food production; Māori felt that for the first time they bore real responsibility for their own affairs.
The great Māori urban migration
Māori went from 26 percent urban in 1945 to nearly 80 percent by 1986 — a migration Te Ara says has been described as the most rapid movement of any population.
Rogernomics — the economy is deregulated
A Labour government floated the dollar, removed farm subsidies and tariffs, and sold state assets in a radical programme of market liberalisation.
Te reo Māori becomes an official language
Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori
Te reo Māori gained official status and the right to be spoken in court, fifteen years after the language petition and following a Waitangi Tribunal finding that it was a taonga.
The Sealord fisheries settlement
The Crown funded a Māori half-share in Sealord and allocated quota, settling commercial fisheries claims nationally in one deal.