Millennialism and Violence by Michael Barkun

Author:Michael Barkun [Barkun, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780714642505
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 1996-04-30T00:00:00+00:00

Manifestations of Peace, Violence, and Activism in the Pai Marire Tradition

On 5 September 1862 the 'angel of god' appeared to a former slave, Te Ua Haumene.40 Speaking for 'Peaceable God', the angel Gabriel Rura41 promised Te Ua that the North Island would be restored to the Maori. Peaceable God also announced new rules: the people must cease witchcraft, quarrelling, and land disputes, and 'practice love to seek salvation'.42 Te Ua compared himself to St John of Patmos and composed his own Gospel of Peace, which proclaimed that the same 'Ruler'43 revealed in Revelation had appeared to him in order 'that salvation be revealed to this generation'.

It is clear from Te Ua's gospel that he expected imminent liberation of the Maori by Peaceable God. However, he did not employ the terrifying language of world-destruction found in Revelation, which Carl Jung branded 'A veritable orgy of hatred, wrath, vindictiveness, and blind destructive fury'.44 Te Ua's homage to the apocalyptic angel, his adoption of Jewish salvation history, and his assumption of the role of St John of Patmos as prophet of the Eschaton mark his religion as millenarian. What is significant is that he did not foretell a final war, but proclaimed the advent of a golden age when Canaan would belong once again to the indigenous people. His millenarianism conforms more to the Melanesian myths of the return of a savior,45 than it does to the Jewish myth of Armageddon.

The angel of God, Gabriel Rura, directed Te Ua to set up a mast of a wrecked European ship - called a niu pole - and to instruct worshipers to march46 around it singing prayers to the Holy Trinity and calling down the divine winds - hau 47 - that would bring them sacred knowledge48 and the power to resist bullets. In his gospel, Te Ua had admonished 'every minister living in the island' to 'go back to the other side of the sea in Goodness and Peace', for God would restore the land to the Maori.49

In 1864 Te Ua commissioned apostles to spread his gospel and niu rite to other North Island tribes. In keeping with Rapoport's thesis, the Pai Marire period of active proselytization between 1864 and 1867 escalated the divisive violence of the land wars. The uneasy truce with the government broke when Pai Marire disciples advanced on British garrisons, holding up their hands in the sacred gesture to ward off bullets. The new movement struck terror in the hearts of Europeans after Pai Marire warriors ambushed a band of soldiers and took their heads as trophies. Te Ua regarded the heads as mediums for Gabriel Rura, and sent them with two apostles to the East Coast where they 'testified' that Gabriel Rura was coming with a sword to cleanse the North Island of the Europeans.50

Millennial fervor reached a fever pitch in the East at Tauranga, where local prophets predicted that the day of salvation would arrive on 26 December 1864, The faithful remnant fled to a refuge in the

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