Rua and the Māori Millenium

In the heart of the Urewera ranges in the North Island of New Zealand, there is a great clearing in the forest, and scattered over it the empty houses of a departed people ... these are remains of the once thriving Māori settlement of Maungapōhatu.

Here, at the beginning of this century, the prophet Rua Kenana led his people to found a New Jerusalem in the wilderness. In the shadow of a sacred mountain, over a thousand of Rua's followers sought to escape the European settlers and live free from the domination of an alien race.