traditional knowledge conference 2008 te tatau pounamu

Working Hard to Make Stubborn Issues PeacefulPaul ReevesTe AtiawaFormer Governor General of New ZealandFormer Chairperson of the Fiji Constitution Review CommissionSome years ago when the military government of Brazil threw the poet Thiago de Mello intoprison, he found that a former inmate had scrawled the words of one of his own poems on thecell of the wall: “It is dark but I sing because the dawn will come.”We should not be surprised that poetry has been the one constant when life is inupheaval. Poetry speaks of solace, comfort and hope in times of loss and deprivation. Whenhuman communication in real time fails, poetry succeeds. The words of Te Whiti oRongomai, the prophet, always convey the power of the poet who shares the predicament ofhis people, gives them the opportunity to think about things together and places them within alarger understanding.So it was that, when the final batch of prisoners returned to Parihaka, they were greetedby Te Whiti in these words:You were not imprisoned for heinous crime or theft but for upholding the words of TeWhiti. In such a case, prison houses lose their disgrace and become houses of joy …You were imprisoned for the land, for the chieftainship and for godliness. A sea fishlying dead on the sand taints the atmosphere for miles around but the fact of yourunjust imprisonment is now known far and near throughout the world.Some years ago, I joined the hīkoi (pilgrimage) from Taranaki that revisited the siteswhere the prisoners had been sent to in the South Island. Even by bus and ferry it was a tiringjourney. In the late 19th century, it was a hazardous journey from Taranaki to Dunedin,Hokitika, Lyttelton or Ripapa Island. Ngā iwi (the tribes) of Taranaki tell the story of a shipcarrying prisoners from Parihaka to Dunedin that threatened to tip over. Māori were loweredinto the sea; they held onto ropes attached to the side and were told that if they let go theywould be shot.The time spent by these men in Dunedin is well documented. A hulk called The Successwas used to transport the prisoners between work sites and the Dunedin jail. The jail ended itslife as the Queen’s Drive boating shed and now lies under Portobello Road. The prisonersreturned to Parihaka in batches. Some died in exile. Three are buried in paupers’ graves inDunedin’s northern cemetery and their names are Wātene Tūpuhi (24), Piriranga (60) andPanirau Pitiroi (45). At least one prisoner, Te Whao, stayed in Dunedin. His descendents, theDuff family, live there to this day.These Taranaki men were prisoners of conscience who went into exile to assert theirownership of land that had been wrongfully confiscated. They had an unshakable belief thatthey were morally right and they had shared a profound sense of loyalty to Te Whiti. In fact,they stated that they had not been taken prisoner but had surrendered as instructed. As HoneAwhi put it:Te Whiti said we would be put in jail but that he would be in gaol with us. We are injail through him and we are not sorry for it. We are not fighting. We gave ourselves113