Quote by Papahurihia: “Reject the foreign customs and return to the sacred practices of our ancestors.”

This directive calls for cultural purity and a return to traditional Māori ways, urging followers to resist assimilation and reaffirm their ancestral heritage in the face of encroaching European influences and Christian missionary efforts.

As missionary influence and colonial settlement expanded, Papahurihia promoted a conscious rejection of European ways and a revitalization of Māori traditional ceremonies and spiritual practices to preserve indigenous identity.

Māori tohupu (religious leader and prophet) active in northern New Zealand in the 1830s who founded the Pai Mārire precursor movement and blended Christian and traditional Māori beliefs into a new religious and political tradition. He was among the earliest Māori voices to articulate a theology of indigenous land sovereignty against European settlement.