The pōwhiri for Te Pūtake o Te Riri, He Rā Maumahara, an annual commemoration of Ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa (the New Zealand Wars), was hosted by Taranaki iwi at Ōwae Marae in Waitara. Events took place over three days. They included wānanga on the conflicts in Taranaki, the launch of a podcast, Stories of Waitara (part of an RNZ series on the New Zealand Wars), and visits to significant sites of the First Taranaki War (1860–61). Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was among hundreds of people present on the first day.
The first He Rā Maumahara events took place in the Bay of Islands in March 2018 and were centred on the Northern War (1845–46). While the official date for commemorations is 28 October, the day He Whakaputanga (the Declaration of Independence) was signed in 1835, different iwi host the observance each year, and they may choose another date of particular significance to them.
Advocacy for a national day to commemorate the New Zealand Wars was written into the constitution of the Battle of O-Rākau Heritage Society in 2011. The idea was taken up by students of Ōtorohanga College, among whom Waimarama Anderson and Leah Bell were prominent, after they attended an event marking the 150th anniversary of the battle of Ōrākau in 2014.
A petition initiated by the students had attracted nearly 13,000 signatures by the time they presented it to Parliament in 2015. King Tūheitia and the Iwi Leaders Forum also took up the cause. The government announced the day of commemoration in 2016 and in 2017 an advisory panel comprising Crown and Māori representatives was set up to allocate money to support events from a fund which became Te Pūtake o te Riri: Wars and Conflicts in New Zealand.
There was no public observance of the day in 2020 or 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He Rā Maumahara was hosted at Ōrākau by Waikato Tainui in 2022 (marking the Waikato War of 1863–64) and at Pukehinahina (Gate Pā) by Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui and Ngāti Pūkenga in 2023 (marking the 1864 Tauranga campaign). Events in subsequent years will commemorate later phases of the New Zealand Wars. Fighting ended in 1872.