Pai Marire

The Pai Marire movement was the first independent, organised Maori church. The Prophet/Founder was

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Te Ua Haumene, he was born in Taranaki, NZ in the early 1820's. Around 1826 he and his mother were

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captured and enslaved, his captors taught him to read and write in Maori & it was while he was a slave

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that he first read the New Testament. He was baptised in the Wesleyan mission at Kawhia in 1834. In the

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1840's he returned to Taranaki and continued his study of the Bible. In the 1850's he became involved

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with the leaders of the movements which opposed the sale of land to the settlers & became a supporter of

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the Maori King movement.

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The 1860's found him fighting against the settler government and acting as a chaplain to the Maori soldiers.

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By the early 1860's Te Ua was part of a runanga (local board of management) which administered local

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government and also ensured that the boundary of the land (Aukati) which was covered by the Mana of the

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Maori King was undisturbed. During this period the cornerstones of Te Ua's religious teaching were set,

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• The right of Maori to defend the boundaries of their territory,
• A belief in national salvation of the Maori (from the white settlers) and
• A deep suspicion that the missionaries were aiding and abetting the loss of Maori Land.

It was during September 1862 that the British steamer "Lord Worsley" beached itself at Te Namu in

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South-west Taranaki, this area was within the Aukati. Te Ua was caught between a compassionate feeling for the passengers and the Kingitanga law which required that trespassers be put to death. His problem was resolved on the 5th September 1862 with a vision in which the Angel Gabriel announced to him that the last days (mentioned in the Book of Revelation) were at hand and that God had chosen Te Ua as a prophet who would cast out the Pakeha (white settlers) and restore Israel (the Maori) to their birthright in the land of Canaan (Aotearoa / NZ).

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Vast energy was set in place by his visions and miracles and by January of the following year his church had been established, a focus had been provided for worship (a mast or niu) and a book Ua Rongo pai

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(the Gospel according to Ua) had been written which set out both the ethical teachings of the church and its organisation.

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The goal of Te Ua's religion of Pai Marire, 'the Good and Peaceful' was to create a peaceful society in which righteousness and justice obtained. But it was inevitable that given his belief in the rights of

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Maori to hold land which the settler Government was determined to take that conflict between the two groups would arise & indeed it did. On April 6, 1864 a government patrol was ambushed near Ahuahu in Taranaki, it was

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slaughtered and the soldier's heads taken in the traditional manner. In December 1864 two followers of

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Te Ua were sent from Te Ua to visit Hirini Te Kani at Gisborne. They were instructed to travel peacefully

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but ignored this instruction and as they travelled they exhorted the Maori to strong action against the

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Pakeha, especially missionaries. At a place called Opotiki, the Anglican Missionary C. S. Volkner, who had

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sided with the government in the land wars, was ritually killed on the 2nd March 1865.

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Thus the difference between Pai Marire and the Hauhau, the Hauhau sprang out of the same faith, the

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same concerns for the treatment of the Maori but saw the resolution of the problems between Maori and

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Pakeha as requiring the use of force. Whereas Pai Marire was essentially non-violent. Eventually Te Ua

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was taken into custody by Government Troops, still preaching the peaceable kingdom of God; he was

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transported to Auckland (then the Capital city) & was held under a lenient custody at the home of the

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Governor, George Grey. In June of 1865 he was allowed to return to Taranaki where in October 1866 he

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died at Oeo.

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Te Ua's concerns were the

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• Alienation of tribal lands,
• The destruction of the Maori way of life, including the very successful Maori capitalistic ventures of the 1820's and 30's which the Pakeha first rendered non-viable and then stole from the Maori.
• As well he was convinced (as many, both Maori and Pakeha, were at the time) that the Maori were descendants of the Israelites and so God's promises made to the ancient Jewish people also applied to the Maori.

Pai Marire related Images and Photos (experimental)

Pai Gow Chinese Dominoes