Author(s): Angus Gillies

True Crime

When you talk about terrorism, most people in New Zealand think about problems overseas. But those in Gisborne and the East Coast merely cast their minds back to the 1980s to the Ruatoria Troubles. From 1985 to 1990 the township was terrorised by a Maori sect calling itself the Rastafarians. Their story is one of the most bizarre chapters in modern New Zealand history. Yet most Kiwis under the age of 40 haven't heard of the Rastas or their reign of terror ...until now.