The defenders of Ōrākau
defenders of a fort · New Zealand · 19th century
The Māori who held an earthwork at Ōrākau in the Waikato for three days in 1864. Reeves writes that there were some three hundred of them, with almost no food and no water. Their answer to the offer of surrender has come down to us; it is commonly credited to their leader Rewi Maniapoto.
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1864 · The answer sent back when the British general offered the surrounded garrison an honourable surrender under a flag of truce. Reeves does not say who spoke; he calls it simply their reply. The English is Reeves's; the Māori ends "ake, ake, ake", for ever and ever and ever.
Enough! We fight right on, for ever!
Heoi ano! Ka whawhai tonu, ake, ake, ake.
Words given in Māori in W. P. Reeves, The Long White Cloud (1898)
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