The Crown has apologised for the historical injustice at Parihaka, and emotional tributes have been given to those who suffered when colonial forces invaded the Taranaki community.
As part of the reconciliation ceremony on Friday, Parihaka Papakāinga Trust chairman Puna Wano-Bryant gave tribute to the "tūpuna who've gone before us, who lived during a time when Treaty rights were ignored and civil rights deliberately removed".
Attorney-General Chris Finlayson was welcomed onto the marae to deliver an apology on behalf of the Crown, for the treatment of those who were peacefully resisting a Crown land-grab.
"The sense of grievance that arises from that history is anything but historical," said Mr Finlayson.
"It's remembered, it's lived every day, that is why the Crown comes today offering an apology to the people of Parihaka for actions that were committed in its name almost 140 years ago.
"It's also important to recognise that the Crown's response to the challenge of Parihaka deprived the settlement's residents of fundamental legal rights, which applied as much to them as to any other citizen."
"The Colonial Government failed to uphold the rule of law at Parihaka, and I am grateful for the opportunity as the current Attorney General to be able to play a part in helping put right what was a grievous wrong."
Descendants of the armed police who sacked Parihaka in 1881 were among those at the ceremony to witness the apology.
"What happened here at Parihaka is studied and written about by others the world over," said Ms Wano-Bryant.
"Parihaka is synonymous of Taranaki Māori, with passive resistance and the efforts of Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King.
"They were our men, our fathers and husbands from here…the women who were raped and assaulted by Crown troops, those women were our mothers, our grandmothers, from here.
"The impressive art exhibitions that portrayed the loss and prejudice the people of Parihaka have suffered as a result of Crown acts, those events happened here. Our story has been composed by others, written and footnoted by others, exhibited by others, now it is time to tell our story."
The reconciliation package includes a legacy statement, an account of Parihaka tikanga and korero tupuna, a Crown apology to the Parihaka community and development of Parihaka legislation.
In 1881, more than 1000 Government troops invaded Parihaka after years of peaceful resistance to the Crown's land confiscation.
Hundreds of their men were sent to prison in Dunedin, while women, children, and the elderly remained behind in the Mt Taranaki community under military rule.
The apology from the Crown is being named Te Haeata, which means "the new dawn" - a time for the people of Parihaka to move forward, while never forgetting the past.
Newshub.
