Ngāti Ruanui : a history / Tony Sole.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"The history of the South Taranaki iwi Ngati Ruanui is of great significance to iwi members and other Taranaki Maori. General readers too will find this history fascinating, at times chilling, and ultimately inspiring. Numerous whakapapa charts, waiata and whakatauki (genealogical tables, songs and proverbs) appear along with maps and photographs and add depth and relish to this remarkable work. Tony Sole (Ngati Ruanui, Nga Ruahine) begins with a story of nineteenth-century resistance, then travels back in time to a South Taranaki account of the origin of the universe. The Asia-Pacific origins of Ngati Ruanui are explored as the story told by contemporary DNA sequencing technology is placed alongside Maori traditions of the ancestral journey from the Pacific which ended in Taranaki. Battles and alliances and love stories over the centuries link Ngati Ruanui in many ways with other iwi. The story of Ngati Ruanui in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is one of a drive for autonomy. Figures such as the rangatira Te Rei Te Hanataua lead resistance to outside incursions, whether by Maori or Pakeha. Bgati Ruanui pick up the sword as fighters alongside Te Ua Haumene and Titokowaru in the Taranaki wars. They also pick up the ploughshare as followers of the passive resistance teachings of Te Whiti and Tohu at Parihaka." "Ngati Ruanui suffered greatly and unjustly from land confiscations following the Taranaki wars, and the first decade of the twenty-first century has seen the successful achievement of the Ngati Ruanui Treaty of Waitangi settlement and the delivery of a Crown apology. Ruanui moves from a story of grievance to one of hope for the future."--BOOK JACKET.