The Taranaki Iconoclasm

Abstract

This article proposes that regional iconoclasm occurred in Taranaki (New Zealand) in the 1850s. Like the Polynesian Iconoclasm, the Taranaki Iconoclasm was pursued in the interests of greater centralisation and involved the destruction and/or desecration of tapu ‘sacred’ places and objects, including wāhi tapu ‘sacred groves’, mauri stones ‘stones containing life essences’, god-images and ancestral relics. In its later phases, this iconoclasm was orchestrated by a tohunga matakite ‘seer/prophet’ named Tamati Te Ito who, in 1857, became the inspired leader of a pan-tribal movement whose members called themselves Kaingārara.