The Pakakohi Prisoners in Dunedin
Channel: Difficult Histories: The New Zealand Wars
Date: 2021-04-30

In November 1869, 74 men from the Pakakohi tribe in Taranaki were sent to Dunedin to serve hard labour, having previously been convicted of high treason for supporting Titokowaru’s resistance to the confiscation of their lands. 

In 1872 the surviving men were released and allowed to return home. But in the harsh and unfamiliar conditions, 18 of the men – nearly a quarter of the total number – had died in captivity, far from their homes. 

In 2011 a memorial was unveiled in Dunedin’s Southern Cemetery in memory of these men, who had been buried in unmarked graves. In this latest video from our project, Professor Joanna Kidman and Dr Vincent O’Malley visit the memorial.