Remembering Parihaka – Northern Cemetery Memorial

Since 2017 members of Flagstaff Community Church and the community choir have been beautifying and maintaining the Parihaka Memorial and immediately surrounding area within Dunedin’s Northern Cemetery. This on-going work, which involves new plantings, weeding and tree-trimming, is undertaken in consultation with Dunedin City Council, Kāi Tahu, Papakāinga Trust (Taranaki) and the Heritage Rose Society.

The Memorial is a place of great significance for the people of Taranaki—Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Maru and Ngāti Mutunga in the north, Te Atiawa and Taranaki in the west; and Ngā Ruahine, Ngāti Ruanui, and Ngāti Rauru in the south—being a place to visit and remember their whānau.

211 men from Parihaka were transported to Dunedin, in two separate groups, and held without trial: effectively as political prisoners. During their incarceration they were pressed into hard labour, including road and seawall construction at many locations around the city. These include the road from Port Chalmers to Dunedin, Maori Road, the University clock tower and the Andersons Bay causeway.

Over the 25 months that the second group of men spent in Dunedin, 21 died, a number of them from lung conditions such as tuberculosis; no doubt aggravated by damp conditions, living in close quarters, prison food and the spectre of indefinite separation from their families.

The three Parihaka men buried in the Northern Cemetery, each in a pauper’s grave, are Pererangi, Watene Tupuhi and Peteroi. Eighteen others who died while prisoners in Dunedin are buried in the Southern Cemetery.

Before remediation work began the area was overgrown by trees and the Memorial itself was being eroded by overflowing water. The recent work in the urupā supports the original intention: to honour those who died a long way from home.

Now, after years of hard work, native plants dot the area, which is light and bright, clean and tidy. Restoration and beautification work continues at the Memorial, coinciding with annual Parihaka commemorations.

Dunedin/Otago and Parihaka/Taranaki will always have a special, sad connection. We recognise the importance of the Memorial as a place for remembrance, grief, and hope; not to mention its educational value and the message of Parihaka to a world mired in conflict and violence.

In remembering and commemorating Parihaka we continue to uphold the kaupapa of Parihaka, that is, peace. Kia tau te rangimārie.

Related Resources

View our worship resource Peace Sunday – Parihaka.

Read a poem on Parihaka Sunday by Sue Mepham

References