About this Book

Rua Kenana was one of many Maori prophetic leaders of the 19th and 20th centuries. He called himself Te Mihaia hou, the new messiah, and was the leader of a section of the Tuhoe at a time when their land, the Urewera country, was threatened by possible prospecting and milling. Withdrawing to Maungapohatu, in the heart of Urewera, he established a community. This work is a history of Rua and his people, of the destruction of the community, by the government during World War I, and the struggle to start all over again.