Parihaka - Tim Finn and The Herbs

The main message of this song is to the people of parihaka when they were protesting for the rights to their land, in the song you can hear the man singing look to the sky for Te Whiti because Te Whiti is a man who was a spiritual leader to parihaka. Because even though Te Whiti was dead he says he will never be defeated even in it's darkest hour, people looked up to Te Whiti because he used his language of the spirit then stood accused. So the main message is what the British did was wrong and if you are ever in a dark place look to Te Whiti for help.

This affected the people back then very hard and it still affects people to this day even though some of them people might not be there at that time. People family members like their grandparents might have been affected so many people have affected by what the British have done to them it may not be happening today but it can still affect people. Even though parihaka happened a long time ago a lot of people are affected today even though they weren't there at the time but people are affected today by there culture.

Parihaka significant to New Zealand because parihaka was the site of New Zealand's most visible episodes of peaceful protests when the two maori leaders, Te Whiti and Tohu Kakahi used passive resistance methods to occupy maori land that the colonial government had confiscated. In the song he is passive when he says they know that they have been beaten but just pray to Te Whiti instead of fighting back because telling them to passive. They showed so much determination by not giving up on what they were fighting for even though they got arrested they still fought for what was right.

In the song when he says you can't pull out the roots it's because they try to forget about it or they tried to change how the people of parihaka acted. So he is saying that even though they try to change the people of parihaka they can never pull out the roots. This song is significance to New Zealand because it talks about something special to New Zealand parihaka and it also speaks the truth and has hidden meanings to it's lyrics. This affected people around parihaka the most because it was their land they were trying to take and they were fight for their land but other people around New Zealand were also affected because British people tried taking over New Zealand.