Te Rauparaha was the son of Werawera, of Ngati Toa, and his second wife, Parekowhatu (Parekohatu), of Ngati Raukawa. He is said to have been a boy when Captain James Cook was in New Zealand. If so, it is likely that he was born in the 1760s. He was born either at Kawhia or at his mother's home, Maungatautari. He was descended from Hoturoa of the Tainui canoe; both his parents were descended from the founding ancestors of their tribes. Although not of the highest rank, he rose to the leadership of Ngati Toa because of his aggressive defence of his tribe's interests and his skill in battle. He was short in stature but of great muscular strength. In profile, he had aquiline features; when excited his eyes would gleam and his lower lip would curl downwards.
His name is derived from an edible plant called rauparaha. Soon after he was born a Waikato warrior who had killed and eaten a relation of his threatened to eat the child as well, roasted with rauparaha leaves; the child was called Te Rauparaha in defiance of this threat. The other name by which he was known during his childhood was Maui Potiki, because he, like Maui Potiki, was lively and mischievous. Much of his childhood was spent with his mother's people at Maungatautari, but he may have been instructed at the whare wananga at Kawhia.
From the late eighteenth century Ngati Toa and related tribes,
including Ngati Raukawa, were constantly at war with the Waikato tribes
for control of the rich fertile land north of Kawhia. The wars
intensified whenever a major chief was killed or insults and slights
suffered. Te Rauparaha was involved in many of these incidents as
tensions mounted. He led a war party into disputed territory north of
Kawhia and the Waikato chief Te Uira was killed. On another occasion he
led a war party by canoe to Whaingaroa (Raglan Harbour) to avenge the
killing of a group of Ngati Toa; his nieces had been among the victims.
Young warriors gathered around him as he was an aggressive war leader.
As
warfare intensified Ngati Toa killed Te Aho-o-te-rangi, a Waikato
chief, who had led an attack on Kawhia. Te Rau-anga-anga, Te
Aho-o-te-rangi's grandson and father of Te Wherowhero, led a large war
party to avenge his killing. Ngati Toa were driven back to the pa of Te
Totara, at the southern end of Kawhia Harbour, where peace was made,
but it was broken when Te Rauparaha led a fishing party into grounds
claimed by Ngati Maniapoto. Waikato came to the assistance of Ngati
Maniapoto and took the pa of Hikuparoa after a feigned retreat. Te
Rauparaha escaped to Te Totara pa and after much fighting peace was
restored.
Te Rauparaha left Kawhia after this episode but on his
return joined a war party seeking revenge for the death of a prominent
Ngati Toa warrior, Tarapeke, in a duel outside Te Totara. Under Te
Rauparaha's command they went north and killed Te Wharengori of Ngati
Pou. Waikato again invaded Kawhia, and after defeat in several battles
Ngati Toa retreated to Ohaua-te-rangi pa. However, there were relations
of Waitohi, Te Rauparaha's sister, among the attackers, and through
them she negotiated a peaceful settlement.
During times of peace Te
Rauparaha travelled widely to visit tribes friendly to Ngati Toa. He
was at Maungatautari when Ngati Raukawa chief Hape-ki-tu-a-rangi died
and he became his successor by responding to the chief's dying query,
'Who will take my place?' None of Hape's sons or relatives responded.
Te Rauparaha later took Hape's widow, Te Akau, as his fifth wife. He
had previously married Marore, Kahuirangi, Rangi-ta-moana (the sister
of Marore), and Hopenui. Between 1810 and 1815 Te Rauparaha was with
Ngati Maru in the Hauraki Gulf and was given his first musket. He also
visited Ngati Whatua at Kaipara, where he was probably trying to build
a coalition to attack Waikato. It is possible, too, that he was looking
for a place where his tribe could be resettled.
Ngati Toa had
long-standing alliances with the tribes of northern Taranaki, the
southern neighbours of Ngati Maniapoto. In 1816 the marriage
festivities of Nohorua, Te Rauparaha's older half-brother, and a woman
of Ngati Rahiri, turned to disaster when the canoes of Ngati Rahiri
carrying a return feast overturned. In fury Ngati Rahiri attacked Ngati
Toa. Two Ngati Whatua chiefs, Murupaenga and Tuwhare, from north of
present day Auckland, joined Ngati Toa's retaliatory raid into Taranaki
about 1818. However, Ngati Rahiri were old allies and peace was made at
Te Taniwha pa. As part of the peacemaking, muskets were fired for the
first time in Taranaki. Later, Te Rauparaha joined Te Puoho-o-te-rangi
of Ngati Tama in attacks on other Taranaki tribes, before returning to
Kawhia.
In 1819 Te Rauparaha joined a large northern war party,
armed with muskets, led by Tuwhare, Patuone and Nene. This expedition
passed through the lands of Te Ati Awa, Ngati Toa's allies, and
attacked Ngati Maru-whara-nui of central Taranaki. Te Kerikeringa and
other pa fell to them; warriors who had never encountered guns before
became demoralised. In this manner the expedition continued south to
Cook Strait. Ngati Ira successfully held a pa at Pukerua with
traditional weapons but were deceived by a false offer of peace, it is
said from Te Rauparaha. On its return the expedition fought with Ngati
Apa in Rangitikei. Te Rangihaeata, Te Rauparaha's nephew, captured Te
Pikinga of Ngati Apa and made her his wife. On reaching Kawhia Nga Puhi
gave muskets to Ngati Toa and continued on their way north.
Te
Rauparaha probably also took part in the expedition of 1819--20 to find
a new home for his people. Their position at Kawhia was becoming
untenable as war with the Waikato tribes intensified. While at Cook
Strait Te Rauparaha had seen a sailing ship passing through the strait,
probably one of the Russian ships of the Bellingshausen expedition. A
northern chief told him that there were good people on the ships, and
that if he moved south he could become great by trading for guns with
the ships now coming to Cook Strait.
About this time Te Rauparaha's
wife Marore was killed in Waikato while attending a funeral. In revenge
he and her relations killed a Waikato chief on a pathway where
travellers had safe conduct. In 1820 several thousand Waikato and Ngati
Maniapoto warriors invaded Kawhia. Ngati Toa was defeated at Te Kakara,
near Lake Taharoa, and Waikawau pa, south of Tirau Point, was captured.
Te Rauparaha withdrew to Te Arawi pa, near Kawhia Harbour, which was
besieged. Among the besiegers were relations of Ngati Toa who did not
wish to see the tribe exterminated. Ngati Maniapoto leader Te
Rangi-tua-taka secretly supplied food to the pa and advised Te
Rauparaha to take refuge with Te Ati Awa in Taranaki. Te Rauparaha had
considered fleeing east to his Ngati Raukawa relations, but the way was
blocked by hostile forces. Because many were closely related to Waikato
tribes they were allowed to leave Kawhia and begin the first section of
their migration to the south, known as Te Heke Tahu-tahu-ahi.
Te
Rauparaha burned his carved house and recited a lament for Kawhia.
Ngati Toa went a few miles south to Pukeroa pa, where the people were
related to both Ngati Toa and Ngati Maniapoto. Most women and children
and the injured were left there while the warriors went further south
and crossed the Mokau River into the territory of their Ngati Tama
allies. Te Rauparaha went back to Pukeroa with 20 warriors armed with
muskets to bring out those left behind. He knew that Ngati Maniapoto
had come in pursuit so he dressed his people in red cloth and spread a
rumour that a Nga Puhi war party, wearing red, was in the area. Ngati
Maniapoto then kept away from the refugees. At night, while waiting to
cross the Mokau River, Te Rauparaha addressed imaginary groups of
warriors, lit many fires and spread cloaks over bushes, to give the
impression of a large army. Reunited south of the Mokau, about 1,500
Ngati Toa went to Te Kaweka in Taranaki and began cultivating land Te
Ati Awa allowed them to use. A Waikato force, led by Te Wherowhero,
came south but was defeated at the battle of Motunui in late 1821 or
early 1822. It is said that after this battle Te Rauparaha in his turn
helped Waikato by warning them not to retreat north, where a Ngati Tama
force was waiting. This victory freed Ngati Toa from the threat of
pursuit.
Te Rauparaha left Ngati Toa in Taranaki and returned north
to Maungatautari, to try to persuade Ngati Raukawa to join his
migration because he needed more fighting men. But Ngati Raukawa had
other ambitions in Heretaunga (Hawke's Bay). He then went on to Rotorua
and encouraged Te Arawa to attack a Nga Puhi war party, to avenge the
killing by Nga Puhi of his Ngati Maru relations. Some Tuhourangi had
joined the attack on Nga Puhi, and followed Te Rauparaha back to
Taranaki.
By 1822 the section of the migration of Ngati Toa known as
Te Heke Tataramoa, which was to bring them to Kapiti Island, was under
way. Joined by some Te Ati Awa, the migration travelled 250 miles
through enemy land which Te Rauparaha had raided several years before.
The migration was initially peaceful because Te Rauparaha had made
peace and marriage alliances with some tribes. Others retreated from
his path, having learned to fear a war party armed with muskets, and
distrusting his intentions. The Wanganui tribes withdrew upriver, and
in Rangitikei Ngati Apa were at first friendly; they were related to
Ngati Toa by the marriage of Te Pikinga to Te Rangihaeata.
Trouble
began when the migration reached the Manawatu River. Canoes were stolen
when Nohorua led a foraging expedition. In revenge Ngati Toa attacked a
Rangitane settlement and killed several people. The tribes of Manawatu
and Horowhenua began to resist. Toheriri of Muaupoko invited Te
Rauparaha and his family to a feast near Lake Papa-i-tonga; when night
fell Muaupoko began killing them. Te Rauparaha escaped but his son Te
Rangi-hounga-riri and daughter Te Uira, and at least one other of his
children, were killed. He vowed to kill Muaupoko from dawn until dusk.
The lake pa of Muaupoko were taken and they were massacred without
mercy.
While Te Rauparaha was attacking the tribes of Horowhenua, Te
Pehi Kupe, the senior chief of Ngati Toa, surprised Muaupoko on Kapiti
and captured the island. As Ngati Toa were threatened by both Ngati
Kahungunu and Ngati Apa, they moved to Kapiti for security. Fighting
continued on the mainland. Rangitane were slaughtered at Hotuiti, after
a false offer of peace had disarmed them. A great canoe fleet of
southern tribes assembled about 1824, with contingents from Taranaki to
Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington Harbour) in the North Island and from
the South Island. A night attack made on Kapiti at Waiorua was
defeated. This victory established Ngati Toa securely in the south of
the North Island. Allies from Taranaki and from Ngati Raukawa joined Te
Rauparaha in numerous migrations over the next decade and were found
land in the conquered territories.
Whalers and other European ships
had been trading at Kapiti since 1827. Te Rauparaha's power over his
allied tribes rested on his control of the trade in arms and
ammunition. Captives were taken to Kapiti to scrape flax to be traded
for muskets, powder and tobacco. He also wanted to control the supply
of greenstone, and the South Island, where greenstone was to be found,
was open to conquest as the tribes there had not yet acquired guns.
Some of their chiefs had insulted him and some had fought against Ngati
Toa at Waiorua. About 1827 Te Rauparaha took a war party across Cook
Strait to Wairau, where several Rangitane pa were taken. A year or so
later a larger invasion fleet left Kapiti. Te Ati Awa attacked the
territory around Te Ara-a-Paoa (Queen Charlotte Sound), while Te
Rauparaha, with 340 warriors mostly armed with guns, entered Te Hoiere
(Pelorus Sound) and heavily defeated Ngati Kuia at Hikapu. At Kaikoura
many Ngai Tahu were taken by surprise and killed or enslaved.
Te
Rauparaha led part of the war party to the Ngai Tahu stronghold,
Kaiapoi pa. Te Pehi Kupe and seven other Ngati Toa chiefs entered the
pa to trade for greenstone. The people at Kaiapoi knew of the attack on
their relations at Kaikoura and the Ngati Toa chiefs were killed and
eaten. Ngati Toa then unsuccessfully attacked the pa, although killing
about 100 Ngai Tahu prisoners. Te Rauparaha returned to Kapiti. In 1830
the attack on Ngai Tahu was resumed. Captain John Stewart took about
100 Ngati Toa warriors to Akaroa, hidden in the brig Elizabeth. He
lured Ngai Tahu chief Tama-i-hara-nui aboard by offering to trade for
muskets. Tama-i-hara-nui was taken, together with his wife and
daughter, tortured and put to death at Kapiti. On the ship, he
strangled his daughter to prevent her from being enslaved.
Te
Rauparaha went to Sydney in 1830 where he met Samuel Marsden, the
chaplain of New South Wales. The ship that returned him to Kapiti is
said to have taken him and his warriors to Rangitoto (D'Urville
Island), where they captured Ngati Kuia refugees, and to have
transported them to Kapiti. In 1831 Te Rauparaha again besieged Kaiapoi
pa and captured the pa by sapping and by firing the palisades. He
returned to Akaroa and took the pa Onawe, and then returned to Kapiti,
leaving his allies and some of his own people to rule over the enslaved
tribes. Meanwhile the migrant tribes in the south-west of the North
Island, none of which accepted Te Rauparaha's authority, were competing
with each other and with the original inhabitants for land and
resources. Fighting broke out between Ngati Raukawa and Te Ati Awa in
1834; this threatened Te Rauparaha's leadership, as he was allied to
Ngati Raukawa. Other Ngati Toa, led by Te Hiko-o-te-rangi, the son of
Te Pehi Kupe, supported Te Ati Awa and besieged Te Rauparaha at the
Rangiuru Stream. He had to appeal to the Ngati Tuwharetoa leader
Mananui Te Heuheu Tukino II for help. When peace was made Te Rauparaha
at first intended to return to the north with Mananui. But he was
persuaded to stay by Te Rangihaeata and went back to Kapiti. By the mid
1830s Te Rauparaha and his allies had conquered the south-west of the
North Island and most of the northern half of the South Island.
He
now wanted to extend his conquest to the rest of the South Island;
however, Ngai Tahu had obtained guns from the whalers in Otago and were
able to resist him. About 1833 he had been nearly captured by Ngai Tahu
from Otago, at Kapara-te-hau (Lake Grassmere). Inconclusive battles
were fought at Oraumoa-iti and Oraumoa-nui. Te Rauparaha was unable to
prevent Ngai Tahu attacks on whaling stations under his patronage and
when they sent a war party to the Cook Strait area in the late 1830s he
did not confront it.
After Te Rauparaha's sister, Waitohi, the
mother of Te Rangihaeata, died in 1839 war broke out among the tribes
allied to Te Rauparaha. A huge funeral gathering was held. A Rangitane
slave of Te Ati Awa, who had brought tribute from the South Island, was
killed and eaten, against Te Ati Awa's wishes. Quarrelling at the feast
led to renewed fighting between Te Ati Awa and Ngati Raukawa,
culminating in the battle of Te Kuititanga at Waikanae. Te Rauparaha
crossed over from Kapiti to assist Ngati Raukawa, but had to escape in
a whaling boat when they suffered a severe defeat. After the battle
there was no looting of the dead or cannibalism, as Christian
influences had been brought to Te Ati Awa by freed slaves returning
from the Bay of Islands. Ngati Raukawa dead were buried with their
clothing and arms and ammunition.
Later in the same day as the
battle of Te Kuititanga, 16 October 1839, the New Zealand Company ship
Tory arrived at Kapiti. Colonel William Wakefield wanted to buy vast
tracts of land. Negotiations took place and Te Rauparaha accepted guns,
blankets and other goods for the sale of land, the extent of which
later became a matter of dispute. He insisted that he had only sold
Whakatu and Te Taitapu, in the Nelson and Golden Bay areas. All land
sales were declared void by Lieutenant Governor William Hobson after
his arrival in 1840, and a commission was set up to investigate land
claims. On 14 May 1840 Te Rauparaha signed a copy of the Treaty of
Waitangi presented to him by CMS missionary Henry Williams. He believed
that the treaty would guarantee him and his allies the possession of
territories gained by conquest over the previous 18 years. He signed
another copy of the treaty on 19 June, when Major Thomas Bunbury
insisted that he do so.
Te Rauparaha resisted European settlement in
those areas he claimed he had not sold. Disputes occurred over Porirua
and the Hutt Valley. But the major clash came in 1843 when Te Rauparaha
and Te Rangihaeata prevented the survey of the Wairau plains. Arthur
Wakefield led a party of armed settlers from Nelson to try to arrest Te
Rauparaha. Fighting broke out in which Te Rongo, the wife of Te
Rangihaeata, was killed. After the settlers had surrendered, Te
Rangihaeata killed them to avenge his wife's death.
In the crisis
that followed Te Rauparaha stayed on the defensive. There was a
reluctance for war among those influenced by the missionary Octavius
Hadfield at Otaki. Te Rauparaha had much to lose if he attacked the
European settlements. Settlers believed that he intended war and that
he had sent for a Wanganui war party to attack Wellington, as Te Ati
Awa of Waikanae had refused to do so. The crisis was ended on 12
February 1844 when Governor Robert FitzRoy declared at Waikanae that
the settlers had provoked the fighting at Wairau and that although he
deplored the killing of the prisoners no further action would be taken.
During this crisis Te Rauparaha, by avoiding war with the settlers,
contributed greatly to its peaceful resolution.
On 16 May 1846 Te
Mamaku, of Wanganui, who had joined Te Rangihaeata in resisting
settlement, led an attack on the troops stationed at Almon Boulcott's
farm in the Hutt Valley. There were again rumours of an imminent
assault on Wellington. The new governor, George Grey, decided that Te
Rauparaha could not be trusted and must be arrested. He visited him at
his Taupo pa, near Porirua, and then left on the naval vessel Driver.
Two hours before dawn the ship returned and British troops took Te
Rauparaha on board. He was held without charge on another naval vessel,
the Calliope , for 10 months and then allowed to live in Auckland. On
his petition to the governor he was returned to his people at Otaki in
1848. He was accompanied on the return voyage by George and Eliza Grey,
and by numerous Maori, including Potatau Te Wherowhero.
Te Rauparaha
lived at Otaki for the brief remainder of his life, although he visited
Wairau. By the end of his life his influence appears to have declined,
possibly because of the humiliation of his imprisonment. His wives in
the last part of his life were Pipikutia, Kahukino and Kahutaiki. He
had had 8 wives in the course of his life, and 14 children, some of
whom survived him. He did not adopt Christianity, although he attended
church services. Te Rauparaha died on 27 November 1849 and was buried
near the church, Rangiatea, in Otaki. He is believed to have been
reinterred on Kapiti.
Te Rauparaha was a great tribal leader. He
took his tribe from defeat at Kawhia to the conquest of new territories
in central New Zealand. As a war leader he enjoyed great success. The
tribes he defeated attribute his success to Ngati Toa's possession of
muskets rather than to Te Rauparaha's military genius. Without his
leadership, however, it is doubtful if Ngati Toa would have attempted
the great migration and seized the opportunities open to them. Having
done so, they changed the tribal structure of New Zealand for ever.
STEVEN OLIVER
Burns, P. Te Rauparaha. Wellington, 1980
Smith,
S. P. History and traditions of the Maoris of the West Coast, North
Island of New Zealand prior to 1840. New Plymouth, 1910
Te Rauparaha, T. 'Life and times of Te Rauparaha by his son'. fMS. WTU
Oliver, Steven. 'Te Rauparaha ? - 1849'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 22 June 2007
URL: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/
The original version of this biography was published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography Volume One (1769-1869), 1990
© Crown Copyright 1990-2008. Published by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Wellington, New Zealand. All rights reserved.
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