Mike Butler: Tuhoe, co-governance, colonial purge

A visitor centre near Lake Waikaremoana, designed by the luminary Maori architect John Scott as a connection with the spirit of Urewera, is being demolished as part of a “colonial purge”, according to a report in the Hawke’s Bay Today newspaper.(1)

Havelock North architect Pierre du Toit said that the decision to demolish “was backed by Tuhoe in a bid to rid the Urewera National Park of colonial influence”.

Mike Butler: Nursing a grudge Tuhoe style

A claim that Crown soldiers threw Tuhoe children into the air and impaled them on bayonets, reported yesterday, offers a glimpse of how Tuhoe have nursed a grudge and how the facts don’t back their beliefs.

Kaumatua Taane Rakuraku “remembered” this story for the benefit of reporter Michael Fox of Stuff news as the Crown prepared to apologise for land confiscations, indiscriminate killings, including of women and children, and scorched-earth warfare. (1)