Author(s): James Belich

Maori Books

Secondhand. Reprint 1993.

"Belich tells a truly terrible, truly epic story. Titokowaru strides through his pages like a tragic figure from Greek drama." - Maurice Shadbolt

Straddling the Maori and European worlds of the 1860s, Titokowaruwas one of New Zealand's greatest leaders. A brilliant strategist, he used every device to save the Taranaki people from European invasion. When peaceful negotiation failed, he embarked on a stunning military campaign against government forces. His victories were many, before the battle he lost. Although he was 'forgotten by the Pakeha as a child forgets a nightmare', his vision was one that would endure.Titokowaru was born into the Ngati Ruanuitribe of South Taranaki in 1823. Trained as a leader by his people, he was converted to Christianity in 1843, taking the name Joseph Orton. For nearly 20 years a pacifist and Methodist teacher, he eventually became disillusioned with Christianity, and joined the bitter fighting of the period -protesting against continual land loss and the erosion of his people's rights. Titokowaru returned to pacifism under the leadership of Te Ua Haumene, whose mantle he inherited on the death of the Pai Marire prophet. Through 1866 Titokowa rulead a hikoi of peace, trying to heal the wounds of war in South Taranaki. The mission failing, Titokowaru's war broke out, on 9 June 1868. A brilliant strategist, Titokowaru nearly succeeded in repelling the colonial forces. At the last moment, however, his supporters failed him... in a mystery that has never been solved. As James Belich suggests, it was perhaps the old traditions of his people that undermined Titokowaru's feats of leadership in wars that were to shape the country's history. For he was truly a man of two worlds, negotiating both with an extraordinary dexterity.