Parihaka — the site of peaceful resistance to Taranaki land confiscation in the 19th century — will be remembered in Dunedin with a dawn ceremony on Saturday, November 5.
It will take place at 7am at the Rongo Stone, in Portsmouth Drive near the Anderson’s Bay Inlet.
The stone, unveiled in 1987, commemorates more than 200 Maori prisoners sent from Taranaki between 1869 and 1881 after they resisted the seizure of their land.
Held at Dunedin prison, the men were forced to labour on city projects, including Anderson’s Bay, where a cave was used as a makeshift cell. Twenty-one Taranaki men died in Dunedin and were buried in unmarked graves in the Northern Cemetery.
The Rongo stone memorial is on the grass reserve next to the cliff beside the Anderson’s Bay inlet.
On Sunday, November 6, a 9.30am service, "Remembering Parihaka", will be held at Flagstaff Community Church, Centennial Ave, and at 7pm that evening, a Parihaka memorial vigil will be held at Knox Church, George St.
