page_title: Tītokowaru's War
section_title: Turuturu-Mokai Redoubt
hierarchical_section_title: Tītokowaru's War / Engagements / Turuturu-Mokai Redoubt
caption_attribution_description: English: Major Thomas McDonnell.
context_page_description: Tītokowaru's War was a military conflict that took place in the South Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island from June 1868 to March 1869 between the Ngāti Ruanui Māori tribe and the New Zealand Government. The conflict, near the conclusion of the New Zealand wars, was a revival of hostilities of the Second Taranaki War as Riwha Tītokowaru, chief of the Ngāti Ruanui's Ngaruahine hapu, responded to the continued surveying and settlement of confiscated land with well-planned and effective attacks on settlers and government troops in an effort to block the occupation of Māori land.
  The war, coinciding with a violent raid on a European settlement on the East Coast by fugitive guerrilla fighter Te Kooti, shattered what European colonists regarded as a new era of peace and prosperity, creating fears of a "general uprising of hostile Māoris", but once Tītokowaru was defeated and the East Coast threat minimised, the alienation of Māori land, as well as the political subjugation of Māori, continued at an even more rapid pace.
  Tītokowaru, who had fought in the Second Taranaki War, was a most skilful West Coast Māori warrior.
context_section_description: Tītokowaru's first major clash with the colonial forces occurred on 12 July 1868 and, in a portent of things to come, it proved disastrous for his enemy. In a move Belich claims was designed to provoke McDonnell and lure him to a battle at a place of Tītokowaru's choosing, 60 warriors from the  Ngaruahine hapu, along with Imperial Army deserter Charles Kane, launched a pre-dawn raid on the dilapidated Turuturu-Mokai Redoubt, 2.5 km north of Hawera and 5 km from the main army camp at Waihi Redoubt, killing 10 and wounding six of the 25 Armed Constabulary garrisoned there. Tītokowaru remained at Te Ngutu o Te Manu during the battle. The redoubt was small, about 20 metres square, built on low ground and was protected by crumbling parapets only 1.5 metres high and a trench 1.8m deep. The hearts of two of the Constabulary soldiers were cut from their bodies by Māori warriors, prompting McDonnell to make the dramatic gesture of kissing the blade of his sword and vowing, "I shall have revenge for this."
caption: Major Thomas McDonnell
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