The three-day siege of the Battle of Orakau in 1864, in which 1700 Imperial troops laid siege to a hastily constructed pa sheltering 300 Maori men, women and children, marked the effective end of the Waikato War. Ihimaera tells the history from the point of view of a Moetu, a boy on the side that refused to submit and fought to the end. First-hand accounts and documentary illustrations are included in this book.
>> Read Stella's review.
>> Rewi's Last Stand.
>> Remembering the Tuhoe and Ngati Maniapoto who defended Orakau.
>> A strange computer-generated simulation of the fortifications.
>> Commemorative haka, 150 years later.
>> Hemi Kelly on Radio New Zealand.
>> "Ka whawhai tonu matou, Ake! Ake! Ake!" Rewi Maniapoto continues to fight for Maori land.
>> Vincent O'Malley's The Great War for New Zealand: Waikato, 1800-2000 gives excellent analysis of the wider Waikato War and its contexts.