 right|thumb|parihaka: the grave of te whiti and the foundations of te raukura, 19 november 2005parihaka is a small community in the taranaki region of new zealand, located between mount taranaki and the tasman sea. in the 1870s and 1880s the settlement, then reputed to be the largest mÄori village in new zealand, became the centre of a major campaign of non-violent resistance to european occupation of confiscated land in the area. the village was founded about 1866 by mÄori chiefs te whiti o rongomai and tohu kakahi on land seized by the government during the post-war land confiscations of the 1860s. the population of the village grew to more than 2000, attracting mÄori who had been dispossessed of their land by confiscations and impressing european visitors with its cleanliness and industry, and its extensive cultivations producing cash crops as well as food sufficient to feed its inhabitants. when an influx of european settlers in taranaki created a demand for farmland that outstripped the availability, the grey government stepped up efforts to secure title to land it had confiscated but subsequently not taken up for settlement. from 1876 some mÄori in taranaki accepted "no fault" payments called takoha compensation, while some hapu, or sub-tribal groups, outside the confiscation zone took the government's payments to allow surveying and settlement. mÄori near parihaka and the waimate plains rejected the payments, however, and the government responded by drawing up plans to take the land by force. in late 1878 the government began surveying the land and offering it for sale. te whiti and tohu responded with a series of non-violent campaigns in which 
History_of_Taranaki New_Zealand_Wars Nonviolent_resistance_movements Populated_places_in_New_Zealand South_Taranaki_District