Rua Kenana

Rua Kenana, of Tuhoe, was born in 1868 or 1869. When Te Kooti died in 1893 he claimed to be the 'One' (Hepetipa) whom Te Kooti had prophesied would follow him and complete his work by regaining the land.

His claims divided the Ringatu Church, founded by Te Kooti. Many Tuhoe saw Rua as a symbol of a new era in which their lost lands would be returned and kept in their name. In 1907 he built a new religious community at the foot of Maungapohatu, the sacred Tuhoe mountain.

In 1910 Rua sold 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) of Tuhoe land for £31,000. He planned to use this money to develop his community at Maungapohatu. He also hoped that roads and railways would make it economically viable. None of this happened. Many people in the settlement continued to die because of harsh winters, poor diet and poor housing. By 1913 Rua's community had declined from 500–600 people to about 30 families.

The government was suspicious of Rua, and in 1907 passed the Tohunga Suppression Act, aimed mainly at him. When the First World War broke out, he was accused of sedition because he had pacifist beliefs and opposed conscription of Maori into the armed forces. The government harassed Rua, using liquor laws to arrest him for selling illicit alcohol at Maungapohatu. He refused to attend court, claiming he was busy with a harvest. Later he declined to accompany policemen who came to arrest him.

In April 1916 a large force of heavily armed constables was sent to arrest him. A shot was fired, and in the confusion two Maori, including Rua's son, were killed. The historian Judith Binney comments that the police later manipulated the evidence and claimed that Maori, planning an ambush, had fired first. Rua and his followers denied this. According to Binney, the "weight of evidence" supports the Maori case. She also suggests that one of the Maori who died might have been executed. The way in which the arrest warrant was executed was later found to be highly questionable, if not illegal.

Rua's trial in the Supreme Court was one of the longest in New Zealand's legal history. He was found not guilty of sedition, but guilty of resisting arrest. He was sentenced to one year's hard labour, followed by 18 months’ imprisonment. The presiding officer, Judge Chapman, commented that Maori needed to learn that the law "reached every corner" of the land. Eight members of the jury later publicly protested the harshness of this sentence.

Rua returned to Maungapohatu after his release in 1918. In 1922 Tuhoe exchanged 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) for a government promise to build roads connecting Rua's settlement with the eastern Bay of Plenty and Rotorua. The roads were never built, although some compensation was paid in the 1950s. Maungapohatu could not survive economically, and by 1930 most of the people had left. Rua died in 1937.

• See also: biography of Rua Kenana at DNZB website