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How might you get people who are enemies talkingto one another?

Tamihana Te Rauparaha

A long time ago there lived a man called Te Rauparaha. Hewas the chief of a Māori tribe called Ngāti Toa, which lived

in the North Island of New Zealand. Te Rauparaha lead histribe to attack other tribe, especially the South Island tribe of 

 Ngāi Tahu. The people of Ngāi Tahu became very scared of Te Rauparaha and the Ngāti Toa tribe.

Te Rauparaha had a son

called Tamihana, who oftenwent to war with his father against Ngāi Tahu. While

Tamihana was growing up amissionary came to hisvillage and told him about aman called Jesus. He told

him that Jesus loved peopleand wanted them not to fightwith each other, but to loveeach other too, even to love

their enemies! He toldTamihana that people who

loved Jesus and lived the way that he wanted them to wouldgo to heaven when they died. Tamihana decided that he

wanted to live the way that Jesus wanted him to.

Tamihana Te Rauparaha

Tamihana wanted other people to knowabout Jesus and God.

He wanted them to know that God offered

us peace.

Tamihana spent a whole year walking

around the South Island, so that all the

Maori people could hear this message.What are the things that you would

like others to know about Jesus/God?

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For Tamihana to live as Jesus wanted him to he had to startloving the Ngāi Tahu people, and stop fighting with them.

In fact, Tamihana thought that to show the people of NgāiTahu that he wanted to be friends with them, he decided togo and tell them about Jesus, so that they would be able togo to heaven.

So Tamihana set out on a triparound the south of the SouthIsland with his cousin Matene

Whiwhi. and a man calledBishop Selwyn. They visitedlots of places near here,including Waikouaiti,

Invercargill. Ste wart IslandMoeraki, Otago Peninsula,Otago, Southland.  Their triptook about a year, as they had

to walk everywhere.

Everywhere that Tamihana went the Ngāi Tahu people werescared because they thought that he was coming to fight

them again. But Tamihana said, "We have stopped fighting people, we want to be friends. We are here to tell you aboutJesus. He doesn’t want us to fight; he wants us to be friends.

If we love him and live the way he wants us to live, we willgo to heaven when we die." The Ngāi Tahu people believed

Tamihana and many of them became Christians. The tribesof Ngāti Toa and Ngāi Tahu became friends and didn’t fightanymore.

Prayer:

Dear Jesus, please help us not to fight with

other people, but to be friends with theminstead. Help us to tell people about you like

Tamihana did. Amen.

Christchurch Cathedral High Altar

The six carved figures represent men who established the Anglican

Church in New Zealand. The first on the left is that of Samuel

Marsden, the middle figure on the left being that of Archdeacon Henry

Williams, and the lowest figure that of Tamihana te Rauparaha, son of 

a famous warrior chief and a Maori leader who was baptised by BishopSelwyn in 1843 and in the same year accompanied another Christian

Maori to the South Island to bring the message of Christianity.

Matene Te Whiwhi