Memorial stone - Memorial stone 16 Richards Drive

Lovely memorial stone with some interesting historical tidbits

Moving memorial to the many Māori who were imprisoned for resistance to illegal land confiscation by Pākehā settlers. Many died and were buried in unmarked graves. On Hospital Hill Road in the grounds of the former Seaview Lunatic Asylum at the north end of Hokitika. Well worth a visit and a moment of reflection.

I originally came looking to view the Lighthouse but instead was drawn to the memorial stone, like it was speaking to me. I know more about the history of other cultures and countries than I do of my own. The way a totalitarian society maintains and holds onto power is to keep people ignorant, a system that neutralizes all those who might think and question. It is inconceivable that if you are from India, you would not know about Gandhi, or if you are from the United States, not know about Martin Luther King, or if you are from Russia not know about Leo Tolstoy. Or if you are from South Africa, not know about Nelson Mandela. Mandela referred to Gandhi as his role model and was inspired by Gandhi to lead South Africa's journey to independence. Tolstoy was hugely influential and a proponent of pacifism. His views of pacifism included a rejection of the state as a form of institutionalized violence, expressed through war and internal repression. Gandhi was greatly influenced by Leo Tolstoy, through his book ‘The Kingdom of God is Within You’. A testament to the revolutionary power of nonviolence, Gandhi's approach directly influenced Martin Luther King, Jr., who argued that the Gandhian philosophy was “the only morally and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom”. Ask That Mountain is the definitive New Zealand account of Te Whiti and Parihaka. Te Whiti was a prophet and preached a philosophy of passive and peaceful resistance to the confiscation of Māori land. Mahatma Gandhi apparently read reports of the actions of Te Whiti o Rongomai, the Maori leader of Parihaka, in the Taranaki on the North Island West Coast. About 15 years before Gandhi’s first steps in active non-violence were taken in South Africa, Te Whiti and his close relation, Tohu Kakahi, who mobilised people against confiscation of Maori land by the Government. They employed passive resistance, for example by ploughing the land to prevent the building of roads, and removing survey pegs, and things of that kind.  Eventually, legislation was used to arrest and detain Te Whiti and others without trial, but reports of the Maori ploughing tactics in 1880 and 1881, and mass submission to arrest, reached and influenced the thinking, a decade or so later, of a young lawyer considering non-violent action against practices of the government in South Africa.