This memorial obelisk commemorates unnamed men who were killed in action or died of wounds received in and around Opotiki during the New Zealand Wars. Six men known to be buried at Kelly Street are commemorated on a memorial tablet.
Pai Marire disciples travelled around the North Island in the mid-1860s. Against a backdrop of war and land confiscations, the founding principle of Pai Marire was often subverted by violent elements.
Of Taranaki and Te Āti Awa descent, Te Ua was born in Waiaua, South Taranaki, in the early 1820s. In 1862 he established a new religion, Hauhau, based on the principle of pai mārire – goodness and peace. But most settlers viewed Hauhau as a fundamentally anti-European religion, synonymous with ‘violence, fanaticism and barbarism’.
On 2 March 1865 Carl Sylvius Völkner, a German-born missionary, was hanged from a willow tree near his church at Opotiki. His death was attributed to the followers of a new religion, Pai Marire, who suspected Völkner of spying for the government.
Rāpata Wahawaha (?–1897) was a chief of the Te Aowera hapu (sub-tribe) of Ngāti Porou. Little is known of his early life, except that he was captured by Rongowhakaata (of Gisborne/Poverty Bay) in an inter-tribal conflict and later released.
Governor George Grey personally led a small force that captured the Pai Mārire (Hauhau) pā at Weraroa, Waitōtara. But this had long lost its strategic significance, and the small garrison had seemed willing to surrender.
The Pai Mārire religion divided Māori. Some supported it, but others mistrusted its political intent. Events on the Whanganui River in 1864 showed the conflict about the faith among Māori.
Pai Marire (goodness and peace) was one of several Maori Christian faiths to emerge in the 19th century. Like many others, it was closely tied to issues of land and politics.
In one of their first military efforts, up to 300 Pai Marire warriors attacked a British redoubt at Te Morere (Sentry Hill) in Taranaki. Scores were killed or wounded.
A British patrol was ambushed by Pai Marire warriors near Oakura. Those killed were decapitated and their heads paraded by Pai Marire disciples to enlist recruits.
The ritual killing by Pai Marire followers of missionary Carl Völkner in 1865 shocked many people. The government used the event as a reason to take harsh action against Pai Marire in general.
