Te Whiti art

                 Te Whiti o Rongomai,s Biography

Te Whiti o Rongomai was born in 1830 at Ngamotu Taranaki during the Musket wars. He was the son of Hone Kakahi a minor chief of the Te Ati Awa tribe. Te Whiti was educated at Riemenschnider’s Mission School in Warea he excelled in bible studies.  he was identified as a possible prophet or teacher. After Te Whiti left school he opened a flour mill in Warea

By 1870 Parihaka had become the largest village in the country but sadly in 1879 Europeans invaded Parihaka and by 1881 Europeans started taking Maori land and punishing people unfairly. Te Whiti and Tohu were the leaders of the Parihaka movement ,they protested peacefully yet Te Whiti was imprisoned. this is where he learned how to use European technology. While Te Whiti was in prison the guards took two weeks to destroy all of the houses and two months for the guards to destroy all the crops while thousands of animals were slaughtered

            
In 1888 days before Te Whiti’s release from prison his wife died ,but Te Whiti was not allowed to return to Parihaka to attend her funeral. When Te Whiti was released from prison and returned to Parihaka the whole town began to modernise itself with lighting,drainage and running water.

Te Whiti died on the 18th of November 1970. We do not know how he died.

I think Te whiti is an inspirational leader because he did not take up arms and he protested peacefully he was a great leader he did not think violence was the answer

By Jacob Waterworth