Nightmares Begin with these Numbers…, 1-15 July 2021

Both this canvas and the rear section of the 'Nga Mahi Aroha…' reference the sacking of our Ngāti Manu ancestor Whetoi Pomare II's Pā Otuihu at the entrance of the Taumarere River, Bay of Islands by the 58th and the 96 British Regiments in 1845. The loss of Ōtuihu and the wealth of Ngāti Manu has never been recovered. Each year Ngāti Manu remember the sacking of Ōtuihu. I attended one of these wānanga at our ancestral whare at Karetu, Taumarere 'Bay of Islands' where a local kaumatua advised, kaua e wareware ngā hara 'never forget the injustices of Ōtuihu'. This clearly indicates that it's sacking in 1845 and the repercussions of that colonial act continue to reverberate in the present.