The Crown confiscated 1.6 million acres of Taranaki land after the Land Wars, violating Te Tiriti. Māori were left landless while settlers moved in.
Te Whiti and Tohu Kākahi led Parihaka village in peaceful resistance. They used passive resistance, removing survey pegs and fences, and refusing to accept Crown authority over their land. They asserted tino rangatiratanga through non-violent political action.
Parihaka's campaign of principled non-violent resistance began in 1869 — decades before Gandhi's satyagraha campaign of 1906 — and shows Māori as sophisticated political leaders using disciplined resistance to defend sovereignty. Whether Parihaka influenced Gandhi is debated: there is evidence he heard of Te Whiti from Irish visitors who had been to Parihaka, but historians differ on how far that shaped his thinking, and no such link to Martin Luther King Jr is established. Ākonga task: find who makes the influence claim and on what evidence, then decide for yourself whether it is proven, possible, or merely appealing — that judgement is the historian's work.
By the time of the 1975 Land March, the great majority of Māori land had passed out of Māori ownership through confiscation, forced sale and Crown purchasing — breaking the connection between Māori and their ancestral whenua. Check the figure before you quote it: the often-cited "95%" depends on which baseline and which date you measure from, so use the dated entries and named sources in the Colonisation Timeline rather than a single round number.
Dame Whina Cooper, aged 79, led a month-long hīkoi from Te Hāpua to Parliament with the message "Not one more acre." The march united Māori from across the country in asserting their ongoing connection to whenua and challenging Crown land policies.
Led to the Waitangi Tribunal (1975) and Treaty settlement process. Showed the power of Māori unity in asserting tino rangatiratanga through political action.
Ngāti Whātua's ancestral land at Takaparawhau (Bastion Point) was gradually taken for military use, then planned for luxury housing development.
Ngāti Whātua and supporters occupied their ancestral land for 506 days, establishing a village and asserting their mana whenua. They used traditional governance structures and tikanga to organise the occupation, demonstrating ongoing tino rangatiratanga.
Though protestors were forcibly removed, the land was eventually returned to Ngāti Whātua in 1988. The occupation showed that Māori would continue to assert their sovereignty and connection to whenua.
Important Understanding: These actions are not "protests" against legitimate authority. They are Māori exercising their tino rangatiratanga and defending their sovereignty as guaranteed by Te Tiriti. From a Māori perspective, these are acts of legitimate political authority defending against colonial occupation.
Purpose: Explore the history of Māori political action including protest movements, legal challenges, and democratic participation.
Students will engage with this resource to build understanding of systems, governance, and civic action in Aotearoa New Zealand, connecting to Te Ao Māori principles.
Differentiation: Provide sentence starters or word banks for students who need scaffold support. Extend capable learners by asking them to find a real-world NZ example connected to this resource. Support ELL students with vocabulary pre-teaching. Adapt for neurodiverse learners by offering choice in how they record their thinking.
Prior knowledge: Best used after the relevant lesson or as an introductory hook. No specialist prior knowledge required.