Parihaka, Mt Egmont and comet

T.S. Muir, Parihaka, Mt Egmont & Comet, October 1882.

This image is both legendary and fictional. The Parihaka leader Te Whiti-o-Rongomai’s name refers to a comet, and at the time this comet was seen he was in exile in the South Island. However, the photograph is almost certainly faked. Retouching of negatives was a common practice, and the comet looks to have been painted on. In fact there are two versions of this image, with different-sized comets. The snow-capped mountain also appears to have been amended post-development.

Rather than detracting from the scene, this retouching actually reinforces it – the eye is drawn through the village to the mountain and then the comet. In her book The Parihaka album, Rachel Buchanan discusses this image at length, concluding that the photograph shows ‘people’s willingness to believe in the magical powers of Parihaka’.