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Kiwi of the Week

Rene Shadbolt

René Shadbolt led the only New Zealand contingent to the Spanish Civil War. She and fellow nurse, Isobel Dodds, cared for wounded soldiers, particularly those from the International Brigades, from July 1937 to November 1938.

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Today in History

2 March

1865 Missionary Carl Volkner killed at Opotiki

On 2 March 1865 the missionary Carl Völkner was hanged from a willow tree near his church at Opotiki. His head was then cut off and many of those present either tasted his blood or smeared it on their faces. In a final insult Kereopa Te Rau swallowed Völkner's eyes, describing one eye as 'Parliament' and the other as the 'Queen and English law'.

In a battle against Ngati Manawa in May that year, three warriors were killed and decapitated and, according to one account, Kereopa repeated his eye-eating act, earning himself the name Kaiwhatu (the eye eater). Völkner's death was attributed to the followers of a new religion, Pai Marire.