Many Maori Prophets

Te Ao Hou, March 1963, Page 34

Many Maori Prophets There have been very many such prophets among the Maori; the best known ones were Te Kooti, the founder of the Ringatu Church, and Te Whiti of Taranaki, who also founded a religious movement which still survives. In Taranaki at the turn of the century, Te Whiti and his disciple Tohu were still alive.

When they died, T. W. Ratana is believed to have grown into their ‘power’. Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana was born in 1873 at Parewanui Pa, towards the mouth of the Rangitikei River. He was the son of a prosperous ‘gentleman farmer’ of aristocratic descent. He is reported to have been moody, impulsive and wild as a lad; he rode horses furiously, and drank heavily. But when he was in the mood for work, there was no ploughman or stacker in the district to equal him. When Ratana was a boy, his aunt Mere Rikiriki, a locally known prophetess and faith-healer, made a prophecy that he was the one, spoken of by Te Whiti and other prophets, who would arise to lead his people. He visited his aunt often, gaining some knowledge of the psychology of faith-healing and, it is said, something of her power. Some other important influences in his life were the Church of England and loyalty to the crown from his father's side, and Methodism, interest in Te Whiti and a bitterness against the Government from his mother and wife.