The Parihaka Woman

Prologue: Taranaki

The derivation of ‘Taranaki’: in Maori ‘tara’ means mountain peak and ‘naki’ is thought to come from ‘ngaki’ meaning ‘shining’. See ‘New Zealand Volcanoes’, on the GNS science website, www.gns.cri.nz, accessed 19 December 2009.

Erenora is the Maori transliteration of Leonore, which is the German variant of the French Eleanor, meaning ‘shining light’. Leonore is the heroine of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio (Op. 52), 1805–06.

The Last Samurai, Warner Brothers, 2003, was co-produced by and starred Tom Cruise and was directed by Edward Zwick. This epic film was set in the samurai culture of nineteenth-century Japan. Irony: how come the story was not set among Taranaki Maori of nineteenth-century Aotearoa? Where is Kimble Bent when you need him?

The Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake quote, ‘I have no desire for evil …’ comes from G.W. Rusden, History of New Zealand, Chapman & Hall, 1883, Vol. 1, p. 631. The incident of the women facing off the surveyors was published in the Southern Cross and is also cited in Rusden, Vol. 1, p. 631.

For further reading on J.F. Riemenschneider see W. Greenwood, Riemenschneider of Warea, A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1957, and T.A. Pybus, Maori and Missionary: Early Christian Missions in the South Island of New Zealand, Reed, 1954.

Act One: Daughter of Parihaka

The Great Maori Land March of 1975 was led by Dame Whina Cooper (1895–1994) from Te Hapua to Wellington. The marchers arrived at Parliament on 13 October where a petition signed by 60,000 people was presented to Prime Minister Bill Rowling. The march was a defining moment in Maori history, marking a new era of Maori land rights protests, and political, economic, social and cultural activism.

Horitana is the Maori transliteration of the name Florestan, who is the hero in Beethoven’s opera Fidelio. The Maori name should really be Horetana but I decided to be kind to readers by opting for Horitana, a name easier to look at and pronounce.

The incident of the rapa is cited by W.H. Skinner, Pioneer Medical Men of Taranaki, 1834–1880, New Plymouth, 1933, p. 94.

The description of Te Karopotinga o Taranaki is drawn from various sources, including G.W. Rusden, other texts listed and internet sources.

The quote from the Nelson Examiner is cited by Dick Scott in Ask That Mountain, Heinemann/ Southern Cross, 1975/ p. 23.

The physical description and biographical information about Te Whiti o Rongomai in this chapter and throughout The Parihaka Woman, and the physical description of Parihaka, have been primarily sourced from oral information supplied by Ruakere Hond but also from G.W. Rusden and other texts listed and internet sources.

For a more comprehensive account of Titokowaru, no more fascinating account exists than James Belich’s I Shall Not Die: Titokowaru’s War, 1868–1869, Bridget Williams Books, 1989.

The description of General Gustavus von Tempsky is based on internet sources.

The political and social contexts for this chapter have been primarily sourced from Ruakere Hond and G.W. Rusden but also Dick Scott, Hazel Riseborough’s Days of Darkness: Taranaki 1874–1884, Penguin, 2002, and others mentioned.

Dick Scott expanded his 1954 Parihaka Story into Ask That Mountain, published in 1975. There are also some radio items on Parihaka in New Zealand broadcasting archives, two of special interest by Haare Williams and Selwyn Murupaenga. I must not forget, either, Harry Dansey’s play, Te Raukura: The Feathers of the Albatross, a few years later in 1974, the first published play by a Maori.

Regarding the term ‘demilitarised Maori zone’, Rachel Buchanan alternatively offers the wording, ‘right in the middle of the confiscated zone’, in her Parihaka Album: Lest We Forget, Huia, 2009, p. 39. Take your pick.

‘The ark by which’ is cited in Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, pp. 105–06. ‘What matters to us’: J. Caselberg (ed.), Maori Is My Name: Historical Maori Writings in Translation, Dunedin, 1975, p. 136, is cited in Rachel Buchanan, The Parihaka Album, p. 26. Both utterances were made on 1 November 1881 before the invasion of Parihaka. By the way, when you are researching you come across such good old friends, now gone. It was John Caselberg who took me over to Otakou Kaik when I was Burns Fellow at the University of Otago in the 1970s.

See Te Papa-Tai Awatea/Knowledge Net for biographical information on Alfred and Walter Burton and their photography firm; the photograph which the anonymous narrator describes is based on ‘A Parihaka scene in the eighties’, Alexander Turnbull Library, reproduced in Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, p. 39.

‘Softly you awoke my heart’ and ‘And I, dearest wife’: the exchanges between Erenora and Horitana are modelled after the aria, ‘Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix’, Camille Saint-Saëns, Samson et Dalila, libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire, 1877, Act 2, Scene 3.

Tohu Kaakahi’s haka is cited in Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, p. 37. Maori and English from Whatarau Ariki Wharehoka, to whom Scott dedicated his book.

‘The twelve tribes of Israel’ comes from the New Zealand Herald, 21 June 1881 and is cited in Bernard Gadd, ‘The Teachings of Te Whiti O Rongomai, 1831–1907’.

‘I do not care’ is cited in Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, p. 79.

The 1881 census statistics come from the Auckland Star, Issue 4109, 22 June 1881, p. 3; also ‘Vital Statistics for May’, Evening Post, Vol. XXI, Issue 146, 24 June 1881, p. 2.

‘The land is mine …’ is taken from G.W. Rusden, History of New Zealand, Vol. 3, p. 261.

One surveyor reported to the West Coast Commission Report in 1880: ‘The natives came to remove my camp, and I was very much pleased with their quiet behaviour, the utmost good humour prevailing on both sides’, cited in G.W. Rusden, History of New Zealand, Vol. 3, p. 260.

‘Ich hab auf Gott’ is from Beethoven’s Fidelio, Act 1 trio.

Act Two: Village of God

The description of John Bryce uses G.W. Rusden, Dick Scott and other texts listed.

For an interesting government perspective on Hiroki, see R.R Parris, Land Purchase Commissioner’s supplementary report to the Under-Secretary, Native Affairs, Appendices to the Journal of the House of Representatives, G.I. 1882, New Plymouth, 23 May 1882.

Although Erenora explains that the name Piharo is derived from the Maori word ‘piharongo’ (a very hard black stone used for making implements — H.W. Williams, A Dictionary of the Maori Language, 1957) the name is also used to maintain the parallel with Beethoven’s Fidelio. Piharo is the Maori transliteration for Pizarro, the governor of the Spanish state prison in which Beethoven sets his opera.

Piharo’s motto, ‘Fais ce que voudrais’, also happens to be the motto of The Hell-Fire Club: Marjie Bloy, ‘The Hell Fire Club,’ www.victorianweb. org. Bloy gives the motto as ‘Fay ce que voudres’.

The main source for the historical context remains G.W. Rusden, but other important informants in constructing the context for the fiction were Ruakere Hond, Miriama Evans, Bill Dacker, Dick Scott and Hazel Riseborough.

‘I want you to gather the men’ is after Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, p. 55.

‘I Te Raa o Maehe’ is cited in a number of references. The full waiata is printed in Miringa Hohaia, ‘Ngaa Puutaketanga Koorero Moo Parihaka’, in Te Miringa Hohaia, Gregory O’Brien and Lara Strongman (eds), Parihaka: The Art of Passive Resistance, City Gallery Wellington, Victoria University Press, Parihaka Pa Trustees, 2001, p. 48. Hohaia’s use of double vowels has been retained. In his note to the song, Hohaia wrote: ‘This song … was composed by Tonga Awhikau, a returned ploughman who died in 1957 aged 104. He is remembered for leading the land struggle in the 20th century. People flocked to hear his oratorical skills and to see this charismatic tamaiti rangatira noo Taranaki (child leader of Taranaki).’

Te Miringa Hohaia was involved in Taranaki land claims all his life. He was director of Taranaki’s Parihaka Peace Festival when he died on 7 August 2010. Tariana Turia, Maori Party co-leader and local MP said, ‘This is a terrible loss for the people of Taranaki and the nation.’

This would be a good time to also mention Auntie Marj, a great kuia of Parihaka, who died during the writing of The Parihaka Woman. Beautiful and proud, we will always remember you, kui.

‘He hoped, if war did come’ is cited in Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, p. 56.

The ‘death blow’ comes from Rusden, Vol. 3, footnotes, p. 319 and p. 324. The Taranaki desire to strike a death blow to the Maori race was widely proposed. Rusden references Arthur Atkinson, a large Taranaki landowner, as proposing ‘Extermination’.

‘Gather up the earth’ comes from the Reverend T.G. Hammond’s unpublished typescript, ‘Maori Legends and History, Te Whiti and Parihaka, The Passing of Tohu’, Alexander Turnbull Library; cited in Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, pp. 55 and 56 (footnotes).

‘My weapon was the plough’ is cited in Hazel Riseborough, ‘Te Pahuatanga O Parihaka’, Hohaia, O’Brien and Strongman (eds), Parihaka, p. 28. The ploughman who said these words was anonymous.

‘If any man molests me’ and ‘Go, put your hands to the plough’ are cited in G.W. Rusden, History of New Zealand, Vol. 3, p. 272.

Bill Dacker provided valuable oral insights into the Maori parliamentarians in the years surrounding Parihaka.

‘… indispensable for the peace’ and the Stewart denunciation are cited in G.W. Rusden, History of New Zealand, Vol. 3, p. 279.

The political and social contexts for this chapter have been primarily sourced from G.W. Rusden but also Dick Scott, Hazel Riseborough and others mentioned.

‘… every gaol a Bastille’ is after Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, p. 81. ‘My heart is glad’ is from the same source, p. 89.

‘Though the lions rage’ is from the Wanganui Chronicle, 3 November 1881, cited in G.W. Rusden, History of New Zealand, Vol. 3, p. 412.

The dramatic historical sequence of the invasion of Parihaka has been told most graphically by G.W. Rusden. Subsequent tellings by Dick Scott, Hazel Riseborough, Ruakere Hond and others listed have also been used as a context for Erenora’s own version.

‘The man that is come to kill’ is cited in G.W. Rusden, History of New Zealand, Vol. 3, p. 398. ‘If any man thinks’ is cited in Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, p. 107.

‘Takiri te raukura’, transcribed and translated by Ngati Mutunga in ‘Historical Account’ in the Deed of Settlement, 31 July 2005, pp. 49–50, is cited in Rachel Buchanan, The Parihaka Album, pp. 25–6.

Details of constabulary and settler camps are taken from Hazel Riseborough, ‘A New Kind of Resistance’, in Kelvin Day (ed.), Contested Ground: Te Whenua i Tohea — The Taranaki Wars 1860–1881, Huia, 2010, p. 248.

‘Be of good heart and patient’, ‘Be not sad’ and ‘Why are you grieved?’ (this last by an anonymous woman) are cited in G.W. Rusden, History of New Zealand, Vol. 3, p. 417.

The account of looting the Parihaka houses comes from Colonel W.B. Messenger of the Armed Constabulary, as recorded by James Cowan in The New Zealand Wars, Vol. 2, Government Printer, 1922–23, p. 506.

The details of the forcible removals of ‘strangers’ are summarised from Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, pp. 126–30. The destroying of the wairua incident is cited in Hazel Riseborough, Days of Darkness, p. 170.

‘Prey to kites and crows’ is after G.W. Rusden, History of New Zealand, Vol. 3, p. 324. Don’t you just love that poetic phrase?

‘I am indeed of stout heart’ is a line from ‘Takiri te Raukura’, cited in Rachel Buchanan, The Parihaka Album, p. 91.

Act Three: Three Sisters

The Waitangi Tribunal Report, 1996, was the first historical investigation into confiscations from the 1860s to the present. The Taranaki claims were heard in twelve sittings, involving thirty-three research reports from Maori and Pakeha experts such as Hazel Riseborough, a stalwart in telling the story of Taranaki. By using the word ‘holocaust’ in its report, the tribunal, as Rachel Buchanan writes, inflamed New Zealanders.

‘Ko tama wahine’ is cited in Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, footnote, p. 181. Miriama Evans similarly offered advice on mana wahine of Taranaki.

Historical and geographical information in this and subsequent chapters has mainly been sourced from Maurice (Moss) Shadbolt, text, and Brian Brake, photography, Reader’s Digest Guide to New Zealand, Reader’s Digest, 1988. This book, which provides comprehensive historical notes and concise details on main cities, towns and important landmarks in New Zealand, as well as stunning photography, kept me on track in endeavouring to imagine Erenora’s, Ripeka’s and Meri’s odyssey to Wellington and thence to the South Island. Like John Caselberg (see notes to Chapter Five), both Moss and Brian were close friends of mine, now gone. Moss was outraged at what had happened at Parihaka; I like to think he was looking over my shoulder as I wrote The Parihaka Woman.

‘Soon arrived at Ohawe’ is cited in Shadbolt and Brake, Guide to New Zealand, p. 138.

On Mete Kingi see Steven Oliver, ‘Te Rangi Paetahi, Mete Kingi — Biography’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara — The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, updated 1 September 2010. Oliver says, ‘In general, Mete Kingi was in favour of the sale of land, so long as enough was retained to provide for Maori welfare.’

‘The Pakeha is burning the bush’ is from Malcolm McKinnon, ‘Manawatu and Horowhenua Region — Rapid Change, 1870–1880 and 1880–1910’, Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 22 December 2009.

For further reading on the Kapiti Coast see Wattie Carkeek, The Kapiti Coast, Reed, 1968, and Olive Baldwin, Celebration History of the Kapiti Coast, Kapiti Borough Council, 1988.

This chapter was originally titled Va Pensiero after the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves sung in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, Nabucco, libretto by Temistocle Solera, 1842. The intention here, as with the interpolation of the aria from Samson et Dalila, is to maintain the subtextual connection of Maori as the children of Israel suffering the oppression of the Pakeha (Egyptians) with the Old Testament parallels, in this case, of the Israelites under oppression by, respectively, the Philistines and Babylonians. Incidentally, when I was a young boy growing up in Waituhi in the 1950s, one of the earliest tunes I ever heard was ‘Va pensiero’, played as a waltz by an orchestral trio with one of our old koroua, Snapper, on the accordion; people danced with great dignity. As an adult, when I heard the chorus again, this time sung on record, I was puzzled: how come an Italian chorus was singing my koroua Snapper’s tune?

Source reading for Wellington included David Hamer and Roberta Nicholls (eds), The Making of Wellington, 1888–1914, Victoria University Press, 1990.

On Te Wheoro I consulted Walter Hugh Ross, ‘Te Wheoro Te Morehu Maipapa, Wiremu’ from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A.H. McLintock, originally published 1966, Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 23 April 2009.

The sources for information on Mount Cook Prison included James Mackay to the Hon the Native Minister, ‘Maori Prisoners at Mount Cook Prison’, Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1879; and Helen McCracken, ‘National Art Galley and Dominion Museum (Former)’, New Zealand Historic Places Trust/ Pouhere Taonga, 10 September 2008.

‘Fly, our thoughts’ is after ‘Va pensiero’, Chorus of Hebrew Slaves, Guiseppe Verdi, Nabucco, Part 3, Scene 2.

Grateful thanks to Bill Dacker for assistance and information in creating the context for the story of the Parihaka prisoners exiled to the South Island. For further information see Maarire Goodall, ‘From Prisoners in Our Midst’, Witi Ihimaera (ed.), Te Ao Marama Vol. 2: Regaining Aotearoa — Maori Writers Speak Out, Reed, Auckland, 1993. Like John Caselberg, Maurice Shadbolt and Brian Brake, Maarire Goodall is another of the friends and colleagues who once inhabited an earlier life, and I pay tribute to him.

Sources for the ‘roistering township’ of Hokitika included Philip Ross May, Hokitika: Goldfields Capital, published for the Hokitika Centennial Committee by Pegasus Press, 1964. The description of Hokitika Gaol comes from Colin P. Townsend, Misery Hill: Seaview Terrace, Hokitika, 1866–1909: The Home of the Dead, the Mad and the Bad, Leon G. Morel, 1998. I located Mr B.L. O’Brien as the Hokitika gaoler via a long search through http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz.

‘Great Lord, you who flies’ is from Verdi’s Nabucco, Part 1.

The main descriptions of Arthur’s Pass are drawn from Shadbolt and Brake, Reader’s Digest Guide to New Zealand, pp. 268–70 and Wikipedia, ‘Highway 73’. Descriptions of Christchurch are based on James Cowan, The City of Christchurch, New Zealand City Series, Whitcombe & Tombs Ltd, 1939.

The section involving Erenora’s emotional breakdown in Addington is taken from Howard McNaughton’s superb essay, ‘Re-inscribing the urban abject: Ngai Tahu and the Gothic Revival’, New Zealand Geographer 65, 2009, pp. 48–58. Some of the themes and wording in The Parihaka Woman take their inspiration from McNaughton’s work.

After a frustrating hunt for a book titled Addington Prison (all I had to go on was that it was softback, 119 pages), in the end the detail for the gaol in the 1880s was obtained from a number of small references such as Mike Crean, ‘Addington Jail’s Strange History’, The Press, 5 August 2002, Howard McNaughton’s essay (see above) and other general references on Christchurch itself.

Te Whiti’s encouragement, ‘Aue, Erenora’, comes from one of the passages of the Bible, Isaiah 60. The passage provided the words for a Parihaka poi chant.

Archdeacon Canon George Cotterill, the Reverend John Townsend and Samuel Charles Phillips were all real people. Their roles in Christchurch and Lyttelton were deduced from investigation on http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. It took quite a while.

For information on Lyttelton Harbour, Lyttelton Gaol and Ripapa Island I read John Johnson, The Story of Lyttelton, Lyttelton Borough Council, 1952; W.H. Scotter, A History of Port Lyttelton, Lyttelton Harbour Board, Christchurch, 1968; David Gee, The Devil’s Own Brigade: A History of the Lyttelton Gaol, 1860–1920, Millwood Press, 1975; ‘Ripapa — an ideal pa site’, www.doc.govt.nz, accessed 14 October 2010. Prisoner conditions also extrapolated from descriptions in Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, p. 84, citing a Press report and, pp. 85–86, a New Zealand Times report.

‘Oh, Taranaki!’ and ‘Oh, what joy’ are after ‘Va pensiero’, Verdi, Nabucco, Part 3, Scene 2.

‘Here in this void’ is after ‘Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!’ from Beethoven’s Fidelio, Act 2, Scene 1.

For ‘Takiri te raukura’ see the notes to Chapter Seven. The final lines are interpolated as Meri’s. I felt that at an emotional moment of farewell like this, she would want to utter something powerful.

Grateful thanks again to Bill Dacker who, via email correspondence, provided me with many details for this chapter and ensured its accuracy. For information on Dunedin, David Stewart and Robin Bromby’s Dunedin, Historic City of the South, Southern Press, c.1974 was the main source, but other texts also assisted in assembling the setting.

L.C. Tonkin’s Dunedin Gaol in the 1870s: some notorious inmates, L.C. Tonkin, c.1980, reprints a series of articles published in the Otago Guardian, 1873, possibly written by W.J. Perrier or J.J. Utting.

‘The rain was falling, Te Whao making small holes in it with his words’: this is an allusion not a quote, to a line in Hone Tuwhare’s famous poem, ‘Rain’, from Come Rain Hail, University of Otago, 1970; Hone lived in Dunedin for some years. While I’m at it, I could mention another allusion to this same poem at ‘Embers from the beach fire burnt tiny holes in the dark’ Chapter Seventeen. Other allusions exist throughout the novel, e.g. to William Blake’s And did those feet in ancient time, 1804, (best known as the anthem Jerusalem, composed by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916), and so on.

‘We trust in God’s eternal aid’ is after Verdi’s Nabucco, Part 1.

The material on Isaac Newton Watt builds on an email exchange with Bill Dacker and that on Adam Scott is from Stuart C. Scott, The Travesty of Waitangi — Towards Anarchy, Campbell Press, 1995, p. 117. The author, Adam Scott’s grandson, writes, ‘The Scott family was in no doubt but that the attitude of their father to his Maori charges was entirely benevolent, as was that of the Dunedin community as a whole.’

D. Harold, Maori Prisoners of War in Dunedin 1869–1872: Deaths and Burials and Survivors, Hexagon, 2000, provides further information on the earlier Taranaki prisoners. See also Edward Ellison, ‘The Northern Cemetery’, Southern Heritage Trust, Historic Event, Parihaka, 2003.

Rocco is the name of Florestan’s Kerkermeister, or gaoler, in Beethoven’s Fidelio; he has the same function in The Parihaka Woman. I have given him a surname, Sonnleithner, after Joseph von Sonnleithner, who wrote the opera’s German libretto. The original French libretto, which had been used for two previous versions of the story, Pierre Gaveaux’s Leonore, ou L’amour conjugal (1798) and Ferdinando Paer’s better-known Leonore (1804), was written by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly.

Act Four: Horitana

This is the Fidelio act. In Beethoven’s opera, set in late eighteenth-century Spain, the heroine Leonore has been searching for her husband, Florestan, whom she knows is imprisoned somewhere for his political activities. Thinking that she has found him in a fortress near Seville, she takes on the guise of a young man and obtains employment as a prison guard. Her sole objective is to rescue him. Although I did, indeed, set the libretto of Erenora in a prison, for the purposes of The Parihaka Woman I placed the action on Peketua Island.

‘Aue, e Atua’, ‘Here in this void’, and ‘In the springtime of my life’ are from Florestan’s aria, ‘Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!’, from Beethoven’s Fidelio, Act 2, Scene 1.

The Anna Milder is named after the 19-year-old soprano who sang the role of Leonore at the premiere of Beethoven’s Fidelio, on 20 November 1805. Captain Demmer is named after Friedrich Christian Demmer, who sang Florestan in the premiere.

Marzelline’s entry into The Parihaka Woman completes the parallel with the main cast of Beethoven’s Fidelio: Leonore, Florestan, Pizarro, Rocco and now Marzelline, Rocco’s daughter, ‘seine Tochter’.

Walküre is the German for Valkyrie, the mythological warrior women who choose proud warriors, slain in battle, and take them to the hall of death.

Jack is named for Jaquino, listed as doorkeeper in Beethoven’s cast of Fidelio.

Donald Sonnleithner is based on a dear friend and librarian whom I met during my time as Burns Fellow at the University of Otago in 1975.

The topography of the island is modelled after descriptions of the various outlying islands as detailed in ‘Offshore Islands and Conservation: New Zealand’s Subantarctic islands’, www.doc.govt.nz and other sources.

For the Pharos of Alexandria see Michael Lahanas, The Pharos of Alexandria, the first Lighthouse of the World, Hellenica, 2010, especially for its imaginative illustrations. Also useful is Jimmy Dunn, Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria, Tour Egypt, 2010.

The Peketua lighthouse is modelled on the Dog Island and Centre Island lighthouses, built in 1865 and 1877 respectively to mark the dangerous water in Foveaux Strait between the South Island and Stewart Island. Maritime New Zealand is the source for descriptions of the lighthouse and its operation in such articles as ‘Lighthouses of New Zealand and History of Lighthouses in New Zealand’, maritimenz.govt. nz. I could not have imagined what life might have been like for Rocco, Marzelline and Erenora on a lighthouse island had it not been for Helen Beaglehole’s superb Lighting the Coast: A History of New Zealand’s Coastal Lighthouse Systems, Canterbury University Press, 2006.

Le Vicomte de Bragelonne is the title of the trilogy by Alexandre Dumas, père. The third novel is L’Homme au Masque de Fer.

The New Zealand-German back-story for Rocco and Marzelline comes from research I conducted while writing my previous novel, The Trowenna Sea (2009). It is a fascinating story, worthy of a novel of its own. For further information, see Joy Stephens, ‘German Settlement in Nelson’, the prow.org.nz and ‘The Settlement of Nelson & German Immigration to Nelson’, ancestry.com.

Rocco’s wife is named after Lotte Lehmann, a famous mid-twentieth-century interpreter of the role of Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio.

‘Hat man nicht’, ‘Traurig schleppt’, ‘Doch wenn’s in’, ‘Macht und liebe’ and ‘Das Glück dient wie’ are strophes from Rocco’s ‘Gold Song’, in Act 1 of Fidelio.

With the words ‘Mir ist so wunderbar’ Marzelline launches the quartet in Act 1 of Beethoven’s Fidelio. ‘O namenlose pein!’ are the words of Leonore in that quartet.

‘Die Hoffnung schon’ is from Marzelline’s first act aria in Beethoven’s Fidelio and ‘er liebt mich’ are her words in the Act 1 quartet.

‘Monster! How my blood boils’ and ‘Yet though like ocean breakers’ are after Leonore’s great Act 1 recitative, ‘Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin’, from Fidelio. ‘Komm, Hoffnung’, ‘Come, Hope’, is the aria that follows.

Rocco’s words, ‘Vielleicht ist er tot?’, are from Act 2, Scene 1 of Fidelio and ‘O armer Mann’ is after ‘den armer Mann’ in the same scene. ‘Welch unerhörter Mut’ are Pizzaro’s words in the quartet, Act 2, Scene 2.

‘Geh, Eruera, leb wohl’: this constant refrain in Erenora’s life, ‘Live well’, is used again here to give radiance to the end of the chapter, which is constructed like a long, shining aria.

The details of Te Whiti and Tohu in the South Island come from John P. Ward’s Wanderings with the Maori Prophets, Te Whiti & Tohu (with illustrations of each chief): being reminiscences of a twelve months’ companionship with them, from their arrival in Christchurch in April 1882, until their return to Parihaka in March 1883, Bond, Finney, 1883. Ward was appointed interpreter to Te Whiti and Tohu from their arrival in Christchurch in 1882 until their return to Parihaka in March 1883.

For the Otakou Kaik, known by Maori simply as the Kaik, see W.A. Taylor, Lore and History of the South Island Maori, Bascands, 1952.

‘If the grasshoppers’ comes from p. 133 of Ward’s Wanderings with the Maori Prophets.

The extract from the famous double poi, attributed to Te Whetu and as given by the Reverend Paahi Moke and first published in Dick Scott’s The Parihaka Story, 1954, is cited in Dick Scott’s Ask That Mountain, 1975, p. 146.

For the Parihaka aftermath G.W. Rusden and Dick Scott are the main sources of the summary.

‘I shall not die’ is cited by James Belich in ‘Titokowaru, Riwha — Biography, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography’ — Te Ara Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, updated 1 September 2010.

The return of the last Parihaka prisoner is cited in many texts, including ‘Parihaka: History of Parihaka’, parihaka.com.

‘Bryce the Bravo’, The Tribune, 1890, cited in Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, 1975, p. 160. Bryce’s ‘With the feet of 20th-century tourists’ was published in The Press, 27 March 1903 and is cited in Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, 1975, p. 6.

Epilogue: Always the Mountain

Opening quote from the King James Bible, Luke 2:14.

Information on the passing of Te Whiti and Tohu is from Dick Scott, Ask That Mountain, 1975, p. 192–95; and ‘Let this be clearly understood’, Taare Waitara’s eulogy, is cited on p. 195.

‘Those who are bent by the wind’ — Tariana Turia, co-leader of the Maori Party, quoted this saying of Te Whiti’s on 18 November 2003, on the occasion of the second reading of the Ngati Tama Claims Settlement Bill.

‘Im Frühling, komm!’ is from Dimitri’s aria in Act 1, Scene 4 of Franz Lehar’s Tatjana.

‘Leb wohl, mein Herz’, for the final time in The Parihaka Woman, ‘Go well, sweetheart’: a mihi aroha to all those descendants of Parihaka.

Na reira, apiti ’ono tatai ’ono, te ’unga mate o te wa, ’aere, ’aere, ’aere. Apiti ’ono tatai ’ono te ’unga ora, katoa, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa.