In the 1860s and early 70s, Māori and colonial forces clashed in a series of brutal conflicts across the central North Island. Tensions over land had been growing for 20 years, as numbers of British settlers soared.

Māori staunchly defended their lands and authority, but thousands were killed. The conflicts displaced and impoverished Māori for generations.

This exhibition explores the most explosive and sustained period of conflict in the New Zealand Wars: 1860–72.

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I ngā tau tōmua o 1860, o 1870, ko te papātanga o ngā hōia kāwanatanga ki te Māori i ngā rīriri kino huri noa i te puku o Te Ika-a-Māui. I te nui haere o te tokomaha o ngā manene Pākehā i roto i ngā tau 20, ka tīmata te whakatete, mō te whenua te take.

I whawhai kaha te Māori mō ōna whenua me tōna mana, heoi he manomano anō i hinga. I ngā rīriri ko te peinga o te iwi Māori, ka whakapōhara nei i ngā whakatupuranga maha.

Ko tā tēnei whakaaturanga he tūhura i ngā rīriri tākaha nui i ngā Pakanga o Niu Tireni: 1860–72.

Related links

• ‘How a campaign by school pupils led to a national day marking the NZ Wars’ on Dominion Post
• ‘Ministry of Education refuses to include New Zealand Land Wars in curriculum’ on Stuff
• New Zealand’s 19th-century wars on New Zealand History
• New Zealand wars on Te Ara
• The Stories of Ruapekapeka, a documentary on Radio New Zealand

Header image
William Strutt, View of Mt Egmont, Taranaki, New Zealand, taken from New Plymouth, with Maoris driving off settlers’ cattle, 1861, oil on canvas. Te Papa (2015-0042-1)