Monday's Warriors is a 1990 historical novel by New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 author Maurice Shadbolt

Maurice Shadbolt

Maurice Francis Richard Shadbolt CBE was a New Zealand writer and playwright. He was born in Auckland, and educated at Te Kuiti High School, Avondale College and Auckland University College...

. Part two of his New Zealand Wars trilogy.

Set in mid-nineteenth century New Zealand, the story is a semi-fictionalized account of Titokowaru's War

Titokowaru's War

-Cause and background of the war:The immediate cause of the war was the confiscation of vast areas of Māori land in Taranaki by the Government under the powers of the punitive New Zealand Settlements Act 1863...

, told from the perspective of Kimball Bent

Kimball Bent

Kimball Bent , also known as "Kimble Bent", was a soldier and adventurer.At some stage Kimball Bent made his way to Liverpool, England and on 18 October 1859 enlisted in the 57th Regiment of Foot in the British Army. He served in India and his unit was posted to New Zealand in 1861...

. Bent was an historical individual born in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, but had enlisted in the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 army

Army

An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...

, where he was eventually posted to the Taranaki region of colonial New Zealand. Bent deserted

Desertion

In military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning...

 and joined up with a local Māori chief of the Ngāti Ruanui

Ngati Ruanui

Ngāti Ruanui is a Māori iwi traditionally based in the Taranaki region of New Zealand. In the 2006 census, 7,035 people claimed affiliation to the iwi. However, most members now live outside the traditional areas of the iwi.-Early history:...

 iwi

Iwi

In New Zealand society, iwi form the largest everyday social units in Māori culture. The word iwi means "'peoples' or 'nations'. In "the work of European writers which treat iwi and hapū as parts of a hierarchical structure", it has been used to mean "tribe" , or confederation of tribes,...

, where he became accepted as a member of the local tribe. In 1867, Bent joined other Ngāti Ruanui led by Titokowaru

Titokowaru

Riwha Titokowaru became a Māori leader in the Taranaki region and one of the most successful opponents of British colonisation anywhere....

in their war against the colonists in Taranaki.