Parihaka

There was once a village in Taranaki called Parihaka. Parihaka was a special place because many different Māori tribes lived there and raised there family. Parihaka was also very special because it was a land of peace. There were two chiefs in the village called Te Whiti and Tohu.

 "We have heard that the soldiers are coming tomorrow to try to make us leave our land. The women will bake bread for them and the children will sing and dance for them."

The women baked 500 loaves of bread to share with everyone. On the 5th November 1881, When the soldiers arrived with their guns they saw the children of Parihaka singing and dancing in the road with white feathers in their hair. 

The children couldn’t stop the soldiers from entering the village and taking the people to prison, but they made the soldiers feel guilty. Te Whiti and Tohu got put in prisoned for 16 months without trial. All the houses of Parihaka were burned down and all the crops got destroyed and new pakeha people started to move in. The pakeha put down pegs were they would live but the māori did not understand and pulled the pegs out because that was their land! but the pakeha didn't understand so they shot the Maori.

For our task we had to think, did fifteen hundred pakeha soldiers want to walk past the children singing and dancing and the women greeting them? How do we think they felt? Guy Fawkes is also on today but it happened in England. Parihaka is today but it happened in New Zealand. I think we should celebrate Parihaka instead of Guy Fawkes because Parihaka happened in New Zealand. What do you think?

I enjoyed and found it easy to create my feather. I found it challenging to know what I was going to write for my explanation of parihaka.

Here is how I thought they felt.