Kereopa Te Rau (? – 5 January 1872) was a leader of

Pai Mārire The Pai Mārire movement (commonly known as Hauhau) was a syncretic Māori religion founded in Taranaki by the prophet Te Ua Haumēne. It flourished in the North Island from about 1863 to 1874. Pai Mārire incorporated biblical and Māori spiritua ...

(Hauhau), a

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

religion. He played a key role in the Volkner Incident and was subsequently hanged for his part in it.

Early life

Little is known of Kereopa's early life but he was of the

Ngāti Rangiwewehi Ngāti Rangiwewehi is an iwi of the Te Arawa confederation of tribes. A Ngāti Rangiwewehi kapa haka group was founded in 1968 and has published their own songs and participated in various music festivals such as Te Matatini. The tribe is a two- ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

'' (tribe) of the

Te Arawa Te Arawa is a confederation of Māori iwi and hapu (tribes and sub-tribes) of New Zealand who trace their ancestry to the Arawa migration canoe (''waka'').Cleopas Cleopas (Greek Κλεόπας, ''Kleopas''), also spelled Cleophas, was a figure of early Christianity, one of the two disciples who encountered Jesus during the Road to Emmaus appearance According to the Gospel of Luke, the road to Emmaus ap ...

. He may have served as a police officer in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

during the 1850s. He is known to have fought for the

King Movement King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

during the

Invasion of the Waikato The Invasion of the Waikato became the largest and most important campaign of the 19th-century New Zealand Wars. Hostilities took place in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federation ...

in 1863. His wife and two daughters are believed to have been killed in an attack mounted on 21 February 1864 by government forces on the village of

Rangiaowhia Rangiaowhia (or Rangiawhia, or Rangiaohia) was, for over 20 years, a thriving village on a ridge between two streams in the Waikato region, about east of Te Awamutu. From 1841 it was the site of a very productive Māori mission station until the ...

near

Te Awamutu Te Awamutu is a town in the Waikato region in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the council seat of the Waipa District and serves as a service town for the farming communities which surround it. Te Awamutu is located some south of Hamilto ...

in 1864. His sister was killed in defence of nearby Hairini the next day.

Pai Mārire

Shortly afterwards Kereopa met up with the prophet Te Ua Haumēne and converted to the

faith. In December 1864 he was sent on a mission to the tribes of the

East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...

. His instructions were to go in peace and avoid confrontations with the

Pākehā Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non-Māori New Ze ...

. While he was at

Ōpōtiki Ōpōtiki (; from ''Ōpōtiki-Mai-Tawhiti'') is a small town in the eastern Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand. It houses the headquarters of the Ōpōtiki District Council and comes under the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. Ge ...

the missionary Carl Volkner was seized, tried, hanged and decapitated by his own congregation in what became known as the Volkner Incident. Immediately afterwards Kereopa preached a sermon from Volkner's pulpit during which he gouged the missionary's eyes out of his head and ate them. Kereopa and his Pai Mārire followers went on to Gisborne, and then to the

Urewera Te Urewera is an area of mostly forested, sparsely populated rugged hill country in the North Island of New Zealand, a large part of which is within a protected area designated in 2014, that was formerly Te Urewera National Park. Te Urewera is t ...

mountains to preach to the Tūhoe people. In 1865 he tried to return to the

Waikato Waikato () is a Regions of New Zealand, local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton City ...

but was repulsed by a war party of

Ngāti Manawa Ngāti Manawa is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. Hapū and marae The tribe is made up of four ''hapū'' (sub-tribes). Each has a ''marae'' (communal grounds) and ''wharenui'' (meeting house). * Moewhare, based at Karangaranga marae and Moewhare ...

and

Ngāti Rangitihi Ngāti Rangitihi is a Māori iwi of New Zealand, located in the Bay of Plenty. The tribe is part of the greater Te Arawa confederation of tribes. Nga pumanawa e waru o Te Arawa, the 8 beating hearts of Te Arawa derives from the 8 children of th ...

, kūpapa Maori who supported the government. Following the resulting battle Kereopa is said to have eaten the eyes of three of the slain enemy. For this and the eating of Volkner's eyes, he was nicknamed ''Kai Whatu'' (Eye Eater). He then retreated to the

Ureweras Te Urewera is an area of mostly forested, sparsely populated rugged hill country in the North Island of New Zealand, a large part of which is within a protected area designated in 2014, that was formerly Te Urewera National Park. Te Urewera is ...

where he found refuge and remained in hiding for the next five years. In the early 1870s government forces searching for

Te Kooti Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki (c. 1832–1893) was a Māori leader, the founder of the Ringatū religion and guerrilla fighter. While fighting alongside government forces against the Hauhau in 1865, he was accused of spying. Exiled to the Cha ...

entered the Ureweras. The Tūhoe were conquered and British colonial law and order was established. Kereopa, who had a bounty of £1,000 for his capture, was hiding near Ruatahuna. Major Ropata Wahawaha led a Ngāti Porou party there and Tūhoe handed over Kereopa to him on 18 November. Kereopa was tried for Volkner's murder in Napier on 21 December 1871. He was convicted and, despite appeals for clemency from the missionary

William Colenso William Colenso (17 November 1811 – 10 February 1899) FRS was a Cornish Christian missionary to New Zealand, and also a printer, botanist, explorer and politician. He attended the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and later wrote an accou ...

, who noted punishment had already been meted out for the crime, was hanged in Napier on 5 January 1872. His iwi Ngati Rangiwewehi say that the trial had a predetermined outcome and was a miscarriage of justice. Kereopa was posthumously pardoned as part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement in 2014.Ngāti Rangiwewehi Claims Settlement Bill, April 2014.
/ref>

Early life

Pai Mārire

Footnotes

References

Further reading