Dunedin residents from all walks of life made time to gather together and remember a "dark day" in New Zealand history.
"Yesterday, we talked about the positive parts of it, that the community were prepared and they met them with the children singing and the village baked over 500 loaves of bread to offer to the soldiers."
Yesterday, about 80 people gathered at the Rongo Stone Memorial in Andersons Bay, which commemorates the Māori prisoners transported to Dunedin between 1869 and 1879, for the Parihaka dawn commemoration service.
The group met for speeches, songs and remembrance.
Memorial co-organiser Sue Mepham said on the day they commemorated 1500 soldiers and armed men were surrounding the village.
Memorial co-organiser Sue Mepham next to the Rongo Stone Memorial during the Parihaka remembrance ceremony. Photo: Peter Dowden
On November 5, 1881, about 1600 troops invaded Parihaka, which had become a centre for peaceful resistance to the confiscation of Māori land by European settlers. They were met with passive resistance.
Four hundred and five residents were imprisoned.
A total of 94 Parihaka residents were sent to Dunedin for hard labour, which included building roads and seawalls.
