Personal details
Full Name:
- Riwha Tītokowaru
Lifetime:
- ?–1888

Ngā Ruahine prophet, military leader, master tactician, peacemaker and Parihaka supporter, Tītokowaru was one of New Zealand's most important nineteenth-century figures.
Read more...Events In History
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5 November 1881Invasion of pacifist settlement at Parihaka
About 1600 troops invaded the western Taranaki settlement of Parihaka, which had come to symbolise peaceful resistance to the confiscation of Māori land. Read more...
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7 September 1868Von Tempsky killed at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu
Gustavus von Tempsky was killed during an assault on Tītokowaru's south Taranaki pā. His exploits during the New Zealand Wars had made the Prussian soldier of fortune a folk hero for many European settlers. Read more...
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9 June 1868Beginning of Tītokowaru's war
Ngā Ruahine fighters led by Riwha Tītokowaru killed three Pākehā settlers near Ketemarae, north of Hāwera, signalling the resumption of fighting in south Taranaki. Read more...
Articles
Tītokowaru's war
In the 1980s James Belich argued that Tītokowaru’s war had become a ‘dark secret’ of New Zealand history, ‘forgotten by the Pākehā as a child forgets a nightmare’. For Belich, Tītokowaru was ‘arguably the best general New Zealand has ever produced’.
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Page 2 – Early years
Tītokowaru’s commitment to missionary Christianity was showing signs of strain by the 1850s as a Māori nationalist movement emerged.
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Page 3 – The year of the lamb
Tītokowaru proclaimed 1867 as ‘the year of the daughters … the year of the lamb’. His efforts for ‘reconciliation and peace’ were remarkable, given the events of the previous
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Page 4 – The war begins
In March 1868 Tītokowaru authorised a muru (punitive plunder) against Pākehā involved in the confiscation of land at Ketemarae (Normanby).
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Page 5 – Turuturumōkai to Moturoa
Before dawn on Sunday 12 July 1868, 60 of Tītokowaru’s men led by Haowhenua bypassed the large colonial force in Waihī Redoubt and attacked nearby Turuturumōkai, which was
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Page 6 – Crisis of confidence
News of Te Kooti’s assault on Matawhero in Poverty Bay a few days after the defeat at Moturoa raised serious questions about the Armed Constabulary’s ability to protect
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Page 7 – Taurangaika
Taurangaika measured 140 m across at its widest point and was without doubt Tītokowaru’s ‘most formidable fortress’.
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Page 8 – A return to peace
In late 1869 Tītokowaru had his third conversion to peace, after which his relationship with Te Whiti-o-Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi of Parihaka strengthened.
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Page 9 – Further information
Links to further information and books about Tītokowaru
Treaty timeline
See some of the key events between 1800 and 1849 relating to the Treaty of Waitangi.
- Page 2 - Treaty events 1850-99See the key events between 1850 and 1899 relating to the Treaty of
New Zealand's 19th-century wars
War changed the face of New Zealand in the 19th century. Many thousands of Māori died in the intertribal Musket Wars between the 1810s and the 1830s. There were more deaths during the New Zealand Wars of the 1840s to 1870s between some Māori and the Crown, which for many tribes had dire consequences.
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Page 5 – End of the New Zealand Wars
The New Zealand Wars ended in 1872. European settlers prevailed through weight of numbers and economic power. By 1900, New Zealand was a settler society, with Māori pushed out
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Main image: Report from Joseph Orton
Newspaper report confirming Tītokowaru's attendance at a Wesleyan missions meeting at Onehunga in 1858.