Saturday marks the first ever national day of commemoration for the New Zealand Wars.
Nearly 3000 people died in the conflicts, fought between Māori and the Crown in the mid-1800s.
It's hard to imagine the rolling hills near Ruapekapeka Pā were once bloody battlegrounds. But on Saturday Raa Maumahara was an opportunity to embrace that chequered history.
"We must acknowledge the past; we must live in the present to plan for the future," said Peeni Henare, chairman of Ruapekapeka Trust. "I think it's important that all New Zealanders, not just Māori, but all New Zealanders, remember the deeds of our ancestors, our history, warts and all, and I think we'll be a richer country for it."
Even Irish President Michael Higgins took part in commemorations at Waitangi, supporting the kaupapa of the day remembering our past.
The Battle of Ruapekapeka Pā in Northland is just one of those conflicts. Fought in 1846, it was the final engagement in the Flagstaff War fought between colonial forces and Ngāpuhi - led by Hōne Heke and Te Ruka Kawiti.
"On the one hand you have the Crown's idea, which is based on article one of the English translation of the Treaty, which is that the Crown has full sovereignty over New Zealand after 1840, and that's its expectation," said Vincent O'Malley, a NZ Wars Historian.
"On the other hand, article two of te tiriti where Māori are guaranteed to te tino rangatiratanga over their own affairs."
The pā was the largest and most complex in New Zealand, and was the birthplace of trench warfare, as shown in documentary footage from RNZ.
Mr Henare said the conflict ended with the Crown turning its back on the region, while the rest of the country experienced prosperity.
"Poverty hit our region, poverty that hadn't been experienced given the boom times in the Bay of Islands, so it's had very much a negative impact on our people"
Advocates for the memorial day said the losses sustained by Māori at the hand of the Crown were still very real.
"The impoverishment of our people is exasperating," said Arapeta Hamilton, an iwi historian. "How will our children prosper in this world?"
Mr Henare hoped recognition of the day would become as popular as Anzac Day.
Newshub.
