Dates: c1823-88

A brave and resourceful Maori commander, Titokowaru resisted the British during the New Zealand Land Wars of the 19th century.

The online voting has reached its deadline and is now closed. However, the comments section below remains open.

The introduction of muskets to New Zealand in the early 19th century had a profound effect on Māori society. The already warlike Polynesians readily took to the new weapons, first in inter-tribal warfare known as the Musket Wars (1807-42), and following the enactment of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, in a second more co-ordinated phase known as the New Zealand Land Wars in which they focused their aggression on the ‘Pākehā’, or Europeans.

The Musket Wars allowed the Māori to develop tactics suited to the unique environment of New Zealand. By the time of the Land Wars, several skilled Māori commanders had honed their martial skills. For the British they provided a dangerous enemy, utilising their superior knowledge of the local environment, adapting their tactics in response to those of the British, and constructing elaborate defensive hill fortifications known as ‘Pā’.

One such commander was Riwha Titokowaru of the Ngāti Ruanui tribe from the Taranaki region. He was strongly influenced by the inter-tribal warfare in the Musket Wars, and grew to believe in the use of force to resolve disputes. Titokowaru foresaw a need for Māori unity in response to British incursions into Māori land, and mediated towards a unified response. He became a skilled soldier fighting for the ‘King Movement’ in the First Taranaki War (1860-61), which ended indecisively.

1863 saw the proclamation of the New Zealand Settlements Act, allowing for the confiscation of Māori land by British settlers. This declaration erupted into the Second Taranaki War, with coinciding hostilities in the Waikato and Tauranga. In the first war the Māori had generally challenged the British to open confrontation, but the arrival of more British troops and the introduction of heavy artillery, forced the Māori to conduct surprise attacks and wage a guerrilla war.

The British conducted a campaign of confiscation over the next few years, destroying the villages of Māori who resisted. Huge numbers of men volunteered from New Zealand and the Australian colonies. Titokowaru tried to mediate a year of peace in 1867, but continued acts of aggression by the British forced his hand. In 1868 he declared war, successfully destroying a colonial blockhouse at Turuturumokai, and inflicting heavy casualties upon the force sent in response. In action at Te Ngutu o Te Manu, Titokowaru’s army killed the famous Prussian adventurer-journalist Gustav von Tempsky, who had been fighting with the Armed Constabulary.

Titokowaru followed his first success by destroying the British force at Moturoa. His followers then constructed an intricate defensive fortress at Tauranga Ika to consolidate their success. It featured an elaborate maze-like entrance with enfiladed killing zones. The British never attacked his fortress though, and many of his followers, disillusioned by the lack of action, began to drift away.

Titokowaru knew the British were just consolidating their position, and would again attempt to force the Māori into submission. He took advantage of Te Kooti’s war on the East Coast, to launch a second campaign, which came to be known as Titokowaru’s War. In order to invoke a unified driving force behind Māori resistance he turned to mythology, reviving long-abandoned practices such as cannibalism, and propitiation of the Polynesian gods with the sacrifice of human hearts torn from the dead.

He began his campaign with a surprise dawn raid on the Turuturu-Mokai redoubt, killing or wounding the entire garrison. The British responded by forming a column with most of the forces they could raise. Attacking Titokowaru’s men at Te Ngutu o Te Manu, they were surprised by the rapid appearance of a new defensive palisade.

In July and September of 1868 Titokowaru conducted several raids and skirmishes trying to bait the British into an outright attack. They eventually attacked at Moturoa, but it was a disastrous failure. Colonel Gudgeon reported it ‘the most desperate engagement fought in the Māori War’. One British soldier was even later found missing his heart and half-cooked. Despite being outnumbered, Titokowaru’s men were emboldened by the fear they now invoked, and desertion became widespread amongst the British militias. Soon Titokowaru controlled an area from New Plymouth to Wanganui - most of the South Taranaki.

But whilst the British diverted forces to deal with Te Kooti first, intending to return to confront Titokowaru afterwards, Titokowaru’s support began to evaporate and his men dispersed. At the time, no one was sure why they abandoned him, but years later a former slave told of how Titokowaru had lost his ‘Mana tapu’, or Sacred Powers, after committing adultery with another chief’s wife.

Increasingly afflicted by invasion, isolation and political subjugation, the Māori were forced to defend themselves, but British propaganda portrayed them as hostile savages. Titokowaru quickly realised the need for mediation with the Europeans and began to campaign for a peaceful union through diplomacy. In 1886 he was arrested for an illegal but peaceful occupation of land near Manaia, and was tried after nearly three months of imprisonment. He was found guilty and died in prison shortly after his trial.