The Tuhoe people of the Urewera region have suffered since a Crown invasion and persecution from the 1860's. It is January 16th 2005 Sunday in the Ruatoki valley. A Waitangi Tribunal hearing has been called. Tuhoe are waiting to meet the visitors many are on horseback. Determined to remind the Crown of these many wrongdoings, Tuhoe have come out in force.

A young Tuhoe tribesman, tino rangatiratanga flag in hand, riding a horse bareback, gallops down the valley to where the Crown is waiting reminiscent of times of when prophet-warrior Te Kooti rode thru these tribal lands during his armed-guerilla campaign to save Maori lands from an increasingly greedy British settler population. The flag flutters a symbol of resistance against colonisation and the Crown sponsored theft of indigenous lands.

Dozens of Tuhoe on horses follow behind him.