Series Classification: PG (Parental Guidance)
This episode contains descriptions of graphic violence. Viewer discretion is advised.
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Meet one of Aotearoa's most compelling and misunderstood historical figures - Te Whakatōhea Chief Mokomoko.
In episode three, Colonel George Grey's militia bombard Ōpōtiki, Chief Mokomoko surrenders and is then wrongfully executed for the crime.
Colonel Grey had declared martial law and requested that Māori tribespeople assist in the arrest of the killers or their land would be confiscated.
When Grey's men arrived at Ōpōtiki they shot at the Māori, forcing them to retreat into nearby bushes.
Rather than pursue them, the Crown troops looted the pā then burnt it to the ground.
Chief Mokomoko, unaware he was the prime suspect for Völkner's murder, surrendered to the Crown on the condition their tribe would suffer no further punishment.
He and four other men was arrested for murder, trialled in Auckland and evidence of the rope used to hang Völkner was deemed sufficient for them to be sentenced to death.
Mokomoko proclaimed his innocence yet he and the other men were executed in May 1866. One hundred and thirty-seven years later, his remains were exhumed from Auckland's Mount Eden prison and returned to Ōpōtiki.
Te Māngai Pāho Photo: Te Māngai Pāho
