Rise of Te Kooti
Te Kooti was born in 1832. He had a troublesome childhood and upbringing with his boisterous and wild behavior causing him to gain enemies among Europeans and even some of his own people as well. Te Kooti first became famous in 1865 when he refused to convert to the Pai Marere religion which was against the sale of their land to Europeans. Because of this, Te Kooti joined the Government forces to fit back against the Pai Marere rebels at Gisborne in November 1865. Problems for Te Kooti arose when he tried to contact his brother, who was fighting for Pai Marere, and was arrested on suspicion of being a Hauhau spy. there were accusations of Te Kooti supplying the Pai Marere rebels with guns and supplies and then when in combat against them firing blank bullets so that he didn’t have to kill any of them. Te Kooti pleaded for a fair trial but was not given one and because of that he was put in jail and sent to the Chatham Islands.
The Schooner Rifleman – A sketch by Arthur Messenger
While in jail Te Kooti became a changed person when he started to have religious visions which turned into him creating his own faith called Ringatu. The new faith spread quickly around the Chatham’s and Te Kooti had gained many followers in a short space of time. Te Kooti had been hit with tuberculosis and was not expected to survive it, however when he did, many of the prisoners believed that he had been blessed and they were destined to follow him and his faith. There was an eye-witness account from Captain. E. Tuke, who was commander of the Chatham Islands and also in charge of the prisoners, written on 1 October 1869 about Te Kooti and his time in prison. It said, “Te Kooti suddenly became ill, the doctor returning on the sick report as consumptive (meaning, affected with a wasting disease). The natives, thinking that he was going to die, asked for leave to remove him to a small whare in the bush; in fact he was put there to die. It was there that he dreamt a dream that he should be the founder of a new religion, which was a mixture of Judaism, Christianity and Hauhauism; Te Kooti, like all founders of new doctrines, gaining many converts, but most of the chiefs holding aloof. He was looked upon as a man risen from the dead, for when natives are put into whares by themselves to die they seldom recover”. This account shows that Te Kooti was looked upon as risen from the dead and a spiritual leader after his visions. By this time, Te Kooti had well over 100 followers just among the other inmates themselves.
Te Kooti’s notebook where he wrote about his visions and beliefs while in captivity on the Chatham Islands
It would be under Te Kooti’s guidance and his followers loyalty to him that he was able to conjure an escape from the Chatham’s. Te Kooti began holding religious services to ‘represent God’ as he wrote in his personal diary in June 1868 and because of this was thrown in solitary confinement. On 4 July 1868, Te Kooti put his plans into action when he lead the escape of 168 men, 64 women and 71 children. They took control of the supply ship ‘The Rifleman’ and set sail for the East Coast of the North Island and his old home.