Perhaps the Anzac coronavirus lockdown is causing us think more clearly about the real meanings of peace and war, especially here in NZ.

Here is my favourite Peace Hero, Wiremu Tamihana.  He was a statesman and peacemaker of formidable intellect. He worked all his life to promote Maori farming and schooling in the Waikato and to prevent war. He finally joined the war briefly, in protest at Governor Grey’s monstrous decree that all those who refused to sign the Treaty of Waitangi could have their lands confiscated. At the end of the 1860s land wars, Tamihana was publicly discredited and his lands snatched. A year later he died.

Tamihana is going to be on my letter box.