The Maori party has gone from parliament, but it's Parihaka Day bill lives on.

Green MP Marama Davidson said she is putting the draft for Te Rā o Parihaka Bill back in the ballot box, with the blessing of Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox.

"I had to disturb her on holiday in Rarotonga to ask for her permission and her support but also to get her copy of the drafted bill."

The bill, which would establish a national day of commemoration, was previously entered in the name of Fox but never drawn.

Today is the 136th anniversary of the day the pacifist settlement of Parihaka in Taranaki was taken by government troops in 1881.

Davidson said New Zealand can't just let Parihaka be forgotten.

"I've only learnt about Parihaka as an adult, it's a shame that all of our children haven't about the significance of owning up to our injustices of the past."

Parihaka was founded in the 1860s and its population grew to more than 2000, attracting Maori who had been dispossessed of their land.

Auckland Peace Action member Te Ao Pritchard said an influx of European settlers in the Taranaki region eventually led to the invasion of Parihaka, despite the peaceful resistance of its inhabitants.

"They did not fight back, they didn't use arms and so that legacy of passive resistance is well known throughout Aotearoa and the world."

She said the day is an important reminder that the use of military force should always be questioned in relation to whether what it is trying to achieve is right.

"In Parihaka for example that did not happen...1500 people went in and removed people from their own land and it was unjust, unfair, illegal and violent and I think we need to remember that.