Artwork Information

It is said that Tutoko was in Opotiki in 1865 when Pai Marire prophet Kereopa Te Rau killed German Lutheran missionary Rev. Karl Volkner by hanging then decapitation. Legend has it that Kereopa conducted a service almost immediately afterward displaying Volkner’s head on the pulpit beside him. In a gripping moment, he plucked out the missionary’s eyeballs and swallowed them. The murder created great alarm and the Government captured and executed Kereopa in 1872. Tutoko was accused of being involved in the murder, but later cleared of any connection.