Hongi Hika
Encyclopedia
Hongi Hika was a New Zealand
Māori rangatira
(chief) and war leader of the Ngāpuhi
iwi
(tribe).
Hongi Hika used European weapons to overrun much of northern New Zealand in the first of the Musket Wars
. He also encouraged Pākehā
(European) settlement, patronised New Zealand's first missionaries, introduced Māori to Western agriculture and helped put Te Reo (the Māori language
) into writing. He travelled to England
and met King George IV. Hongi Hika's military campaigns, and the other Musket Wars
were one of the most important stimuli for the British annexation of New Zealand and subsequent Treaty of Waitangi
with Ngāpuhi and many other iwi
. He was a pivotal figure in the period when Māori history emerged from myth and oral tradition and Pākehā began to settle rather than just visit.
into one of the chiefly families of the Ngāpuhi, being a son of rangatira Te Hotete. Hongi Hika once said he was born in the year explorer Marion du Fresne was killed by Māori—in 1772—though other sources place his birth around 1780. His name can mean fish smell (this does not have an offensive connotation in Māori).
campaign, led by Pokaia
, against the Te Roroa
hapu
of Ngāti Whātua
iwi in 1806–1808. In over 150 years since the Maori first begun sporadic contact with Europeans, firearms had not entered into widespread use. Ngāpuhi fought with small numbers of them in 1808, and Hongi Hika was present later that same year on the first occasion that muskets were used in action by Māori. This was at the battle of Moremonui
at which the Ngāpuhi were defeated; the Ngāpuhi were overrun by the opposing Ngāti Whātua
while reloading. Those killed included two of Hongi Hika's brothers and Pokaia, and Hongi Hika and other survivors only escaped by hiding in a swamp until Ngāti Whātua called off the pursuit as an act of mercy.
Hongi Hika became the war leader of the Ngāpuhi, and in 1812 he led a large taua
(war party) to the Hokianga
against Ngāti Pou. Despite his earlier experiences he seems to have become convinced of the value of muskets which were used during this campaign. In 1825 Hongi avenged the earlier defeat of Moremonui
in the battle of Te Ika-a-Ranganui, although both sides suffered heavy losses.
, the first point of contact for most Europeans visiting New Zealand in the early 19th century. Hongi Hika protected early missionaries and European seamen and settlers, arguing the benefits of trade. He befriended Thomas Kendall
—one of three lay preachers sent by the Church Missionary Society to establish a Christian
toehold in New Zealand.
In 1814 Hongi Hika and his uncle Ruatara
, the then-leader of the Ngāpuhi, visited Sydney
, Australia
, with Kendall and met the local head of the Church Missionary Society Samuel Marsden
. Ruatara and Hongi Hika invited Marsden to establish the first Anglican mission to New Zealand in Ngapuhi
territory. Ruatara died the following year, leaving Hongi Hika as protector of the mission. In 1819 he sold land at Kerikeri
to the Church Missionary Society. He personally assisted the missionaries developing a written form of te reo. Hongi Hika himself never converted. In later life, in exasperation with teachings of humility and non-violence, he described Christianity as “a religion fit only for slaves”. He protected the Pākehā Māori
Thomas Kendall when he effectively “went native”, taking Māori wives and participating in Māori religious ceremonies. Though Hongi Hika encouraged the first missions to New Zealand, virtually no Māori converted to Christianity for a decade; large scale conversion of northern Māori only occurred after his death.
While in Australia Hongi Hika studied European military and agricultural techniques and purchased muskets and ammunition. From 1818 he introduced European agricultural implements and the potato
, using slave labour to produce crops for trade.
against East Cape and Bay of Plenty
iwi Ngāti Porou
and Ngaiterangi. The taua
returned in 1819 carrying nearly 2,000 captured slaves.
ship New Zealander. He spent 5 months in London
and Cambridge
where his facial tattoos
made him something of a sensation. During the trip he met King George IV who presented him with a suit of armour. He continued his linguistic work, assisting professor Samuel Lee who was writing the first Māori–English dictionary. Written Māori maintains a northern feel to this day as a result—for example the sound usually pronounced "f" in Māori is written "wh" because of Hongi Hika's soft aspirated
northern dialect
.
, 300 muskets and other weapons for his iwi. Using these within months of his return he led a force of 2,000 men to attack a pa
(Māori fort) at Tamaki
, killing 2,000 warriors and their women and children. Deaths in this one action during the Musket Wars
outnumber all deaths in 25 years of the sporadic New Zealand Wars.
In early 1822 he led his force up the Waikato River
where after initial success he was defeated by Te Wherowhero
, before gaining another victory at Orongokoekoe. Te Wherowhero ambushed the Ngāpuhi carrying Ngāti Mahuta
women captives and freed them. In 1823 he made peace with the Waikato
iwi and invaded Te Arawa
territory in Rotorua
. In 1824–5 Hongi Hika attacked Ngāti Whātua again, losing 70 men, including his eldest son Hare Hongi, in the battle of Te Ika a Ranganui. According to some accounts Ngāti Whātua lost 1,000 men—although Hongi Hika himself, downplaying the tragedy, put the number as 100. In any event the defeat was a catastrophe for Ngāti Whātua—the survivors retreated south.
They left behind the fertile region of Tamaki Makaurau
with its vast natural harbours at Waitemata
and Manukau
—land which had belonged to Ngāti Whātua since they won it by conquest over a hundred years before. Hongi Hika left Tamaki Makaurau almost uninhabited as a southern buffer zone. Fifteen years later when Lt. Governor William Hobson
wished to remove his fledging colonial administration from settler and Ngāpuhi influence in the Bay of Islands
, he was able to purchase this land cheaply from Ngāti Whātua, to build Auckland
, a settlement that has become New Zealand’s principal city.
Although Māori population had always been, to some extent, mobile in the face of conquests of land, during the Musket Wars
Hongi Hika altered the balance of power not only in the Waitemata but also the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga, Coromandel, Rotorua and Waikato to an extent which seems unprecedented within the memory of his contemporaries. Although he did not usually occupy conquered territory his campaigns and those of other musket warriors triggered a series of migrations, claims and counter claims which in the late 20th century would add to the disputes over land sales in the Waitangi Tribunal
—not least Ngāti Whātua
's occupation of Bastion Point
.
and found a new settlement. In part this was to punish Ngāti Uru and Ngāti Pou—who Hongi Hika displaced—for burning the ship Mercury and sacking Wesleydale, the Wesleyan mission at Whangaroa
. However this shift soon split his followers into two factions, those who stayed in Waimate quarrelling with the colonists at Whangaroa
.
.
Hongi Hika’s death appears to be a turning point in Māori society. In contrast to the traditional conduct that followed the death of an important rangatira
(chief), no attack was made by neighbouring tribes by way of muru (attach made in respect of the death) of Hongi Hika. On his death bed, Hongi Hika spoke against sacrifices following his death. F. E. Manning later published account has Hika warning that if the ‘red coat’ soldiers should landed in Aotearoa; “when you see them make war against them”. James Stack, Wesleyan Missionary at Whangaroa
, records a conversation with Eruera Maihi Patuone
on 12 March 1828. The report of that conversation is that Hongi Hika exhorted his followers to oppose against any force that came against them and that Hongi Hika’s dying words were ‘Kia toa – kia toa’ [“Be courageous – be courageous’].
Hongi Hika was survived by 5 children.
iwi recognised a Māori king
. That king was Te Wherowhero, a man who built his mana
defending the Waikato
against Hongi Hika.
Hongi Hika never attempted to establish any form of long term government over iwi he conquered and most often did not attempt to permanently occupy territory. It is likely his aims were opportunistic, based on increasing the mana Māori accorded to great warriors.
Hongi Hika is mostly remembered as a warrior and leader during the Musket Wars
. History has generally attributed Hongi Hika’s military success to his acquisition of muskets, comparing his military skills poorly with the other major Māori war leader of the period, Te Rauparaha
. However Hongi Hika had the foresight to acquire European weapons and evolve the design of the Māori war pā and Māori warfare tactics; something which was a nasty surprise to British and colonial forces in later years during his nephew Hone Heke
's Rebellion
in 1845-46. Hongi Hika's military conquests may not have endured, but his importance lies not only in his campaigns and the social upheaval they caused, but also his encouragement of early European settlement, agricultural improvements and the development of a written version of Māori.
Hongi Hika's whānau
would continue to have a say in both settlement and warfare. Twelve years after Hongi Hika’s death, his nephew Hone Heke
placed the first signature on the Treaty of Waitangi
, legitimating British annexation. Five years later the New Zealand Northern War
began on Tuesday 11th March 1845 when Heke cut down the flagpole at Kororareka and with a force of about 600 Māori armed with muskets, double-barrelled guns and also tomahawks attacked Kororareka.
Frederick Edward Maning
, a Pākehā Māori
, who lived at Hokianga
, wrote a near contemporaneous account of Hongi Hika in A history of the war in the north of New Zealand against the chief Heke. Its accuracy is questioned on the basis that it was written with an aim to entertain, rather than with an eye to historical accuracy. In this book, Manning published an account of the death-bed speech of Hongi Hika, which account which is attributed to a Ngāpuhi
chief. The account has Hongi Hika saying, ‘Children and friends, pay attention to my last words. After I am gone be kind to the missionaries, be kind also to the other Europeans; welcome them to the shore, trade with them, protect them, and live with them as one people; but if there should land on this shore a people who wear red garments, who do no work, who neither buy or sell, and who always have arms in their hands, then be aware that these are people called soldiers, a dangerous people, whose only occupation is war. When you see them make war against them. Then O my children, be brave! Then, O my friends be strong! Be brave that you may not be enslaved, and that your country may not become the possession of strangers.”
(2004) - Letters from the Bay of Islands, Sutton Publishing Limited, United Kingdom; ISBN 0-7509-3696-7 (Hardcover). Penguin Books, New Zealand, (Paperback) ISBN 0-14-301929-5
(2011) - Te Wiremu - Henry Williams: Early Years in the North, Huia Press, New Zealand, (Paperback) ISBN 978-1-86969-439-5
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...
Māori rangatira
Rangatira
Rangatira are the hereditary Māori leaders of hapū, and were described by ethnologists such as Elsdon Best as chieftains . Ideally, rangatira were people of great practical wisdom who held authority on behalf of the tribe and maintained boundaries between a tribe's land and that of other tribes...
(chief) and war leader of the Ngāpuhi
Ngapuhi
Ngāpuhi is a Māori iwi located in the Northland region of New Zealand, and centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands and Whāngārei.Ngāpuhi has the largest affiliation of any New Zealand iwi, with 122,214 people registered , and formed from 150 hapu, with 55 marae.-Foundations:The founding...
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,...
(tribe).
Hongi Hika used European weapons to overrun much of northern New Zealand in the first of the Musket Wars
Musket Wars
The Musket Wars were a series of five hundred or more battles mainly fought between various hapū , sometimes alliances of pan-hapū groups and less often larger iwi of Māori between 1807 and 1842, in New Zealand.Northern tribes such as the rivals Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua were the first to obtain...
. He also encouraged Pākehā
Pakeha
Pākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
(European) settlement, patronised New Zealand's first missionaries, introduced Māori to Western agriculture and helped put Te Reo (the Māori language
Maori language
Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...
) into writing. He travelled to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and met King George IV. Hongi Hika's military campaigns, and the other Musket Wars
Musket Wars
The Musket Wars were a series of five hundred or more battles mainly fought between various hapū , sometimes alliances of pan-hapū groups and less often larger iwi of Māori between 1807 and 1842, in New Zealand.Northern tribes such as the rivals Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua were the first to obtain...
were one of the most important stimuli for the British annexation of New Zealand and subsequent Treaty of Waitangi
Treaty of Waitangi
The Treaty of Waitangi is a treaty first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand....
with Ngāpuhi and many other 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,...
. He was a pivotal figure in the period when Māori history emerged from myth and oral tradition and Pākehā began to settle rather than just visit.
Birth
Hongi Hika was born at KaikoheKaikohe
Kaikohe is the central service area for the Far North District of New Zealand, about 260 km from Auckland, situated on State Highway 12 at...
into one of the chiefly families of the Ngāpuhi, being a son of rangatira Te Hotete. Hongi Hika once said he was born in the year explorer Marion du Fresne was killed by Māori—in 1772—though other sources place his birth around 1780. His name can mean fish smell (this does not have an offensive connotation in Māori).
Early campaigns, 1806–1814
Hongi Hika rose to prominence as a military leader in the NgāpuhiNgapuhi
Ngāpuhi is a Māori iwi located in the Northland region of New Zealand, and centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands and Whāngārei.Ngāpuhi has the largest affiliation of any New Zealand iwi, with 122,214 people registered , and formed from 150 hapu, with 55 marae.-Foundations:The founding...
campaign, led by Pokaia
Pokaia
Pokaia was a Ngā Puhi chief, father of the rangatira Hone Heke, from Northland, New Zealand. He was killed at the battle of Moremonui in an ambush by the Ngāti Whātua....
, against the Te Roroa
Te Roroa
Te Roroa is a Māori iwi from Northland, New Zealand....
hapu
Hapu
A hapū is sometimes described as "the basic political unit within Maori society".A named division of a Māori iwi , membership is determined by genealogical descent; a hapū is made up of a number of whānau groups. Generally hapū range in size from 150-200 although there is no upper limit...
of Ngāti Whātua
Ngati Whatua
Ngāti Whātua is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. It consists of four hapu : Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa, Te Taoū, and Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei....
iwi in 1806–1808. In over 150 years since the Maori first begun sporadic contact with Europeans, firearms had not entered into widespread use. Ngāpuhi fought with small numbers of them in 1808, and Hongi Hika was present later that same year on the first occasion that muskets were used in action by Māori. This was at the battle of Moremonui
Moremonui
Moremonui or Moremunui is a location in the Northland Region of New Zealand, 12 miles south of Maunganui Bluff. It is known principally as the site of a Māori battle fought in either 1807 or 1808 between the Kaipara branches of the Ngāti Whātua, Te-Uri-o-Hau and Te Roroa iwi on one side and the...
at which the Ngāpuhi were defeated; the Ngāpuhi were overrun by the opposing Ngāti Whātua
Ngati Whatua
Ngāti Whātua is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. It consists of four hapu : Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa, Te Taoū, and Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei....
while reloading. Those killed included two of Hongi Hika's brothers and Pokaia, and Hongi Hika and other survivors only escaped by hiding in a swamp until Ngāti Whātua called off the pursuit as an act of mercy.
Hongi Hika became the war leader of the Ngāpuhi, and in 1812 he led a large taua
Taua
A taua is a war party in the tradition of the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. Contemporary knowledge of taua is gleaned from missionary observations and writings during the Musket Wars of the early 19th century and the later New Zealand wars....
(war party) to the Hokianga
Hokianga
Hokianga is an area surrounding the Hokianga Harbour, also known as The Hokianga River, a long estuarine drowned valley on the west coast in the north of the North Island of New Zealand....
against Ngāti Pou. Despite his earlier experiences he seems to have become convinced of the value of muskets which were used during this campaign. In 1825 Hongi avenged the earlier defeat of Moremonui
Moremonui
Moremonui or Moremunui is a location in the Northland Region of New Zealand, 12 miles south of Maunganui Bluff. It is known principally as the site of a Māori battle fought in either 1807 or 1808 between the Kaipara branches of the Ngāti Whātua, Te-Uri-o-Hau and Te Roroa iwi on one side and the...
in the battle of Te Ika-a-Ranganui, although both sides suffered heavy losses.
Contact with Europeans and journey to Australia, 1814–1818
Ngāpuhi controlled the Bay of IslandsBay of Islands
The Bay of Islands is an area in the Northland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Located 60 km north-west of Whangarei, it is close to the northern tip of the country....
, the first point of contact for most Europeans visiting New Zealand in the early 19th century. Hongi Hika protected early missionaries and European seamen and settlers, arguing the benefits of trade. He befriended Thomas Kendall
Thomas Kendall
Thomas Kendall was a New Zealand lapsed missionary, recorder of the Māori language, schoolmaster, arms dealer, and Pākehā Māori.-Early life: Lincolnshire and London, 1778-1813:...
—one of three lay preachers sent by the Church Missionary Society to establish a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
toehold in New Zealand.
In 1814 Hongi Hika and his uncle Ruatara
Ruatara (chief)
Ruatara, was a chief of the Ngāpuhi iwi in New Zealand. He introduced European crops to New Zealand and was host to the first Christian missionary, Samuel Marsden....
, the then-leader of the Ngāpuhi, visited Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, with Kendall and met the local head of the Church Missionary Society Samuel Marsden
Samuel Marsden
Samuel Marsden was an English born Anglican cleric and a prominent member of the Church Missionary Society, believed to have introduced Christianity to New Zealand...
. Ruatara and Hongi Hika invited Marsden to establish the first Anglican mission to New Zealand in Ngapuhi
Ngapuhi
Ngāpuhi is a Māori iwi located in the Northland region of New Zealand, and centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands and Whāngārei.Ngāpuhi has the largest affiliation of any New Zealand iwi, with 122,214 people registered , and formed from 150 hapu, with 55 marae.-Foundations:The founding...
territory. Ruatara died the following year, leaving Hongi Hika as protector of the mission. In 1819 he sold land at Kerikeri
Kerikeri
Kerikeri, the largest town in the Northland Region of New Zealand, is a popular tourist destination about three hours drive north of Auckland, and 80 km north of Whangarei...
to the Church Missionary Society. He personally assisted the missionaries developing a written form of te reo. Hongi Hika himself never converted. In later life, in exasperation with teachings of humility and non-violence, he described Christianity as “a religion fit only for slaves”. He protected the Pākehā Māori
Pakeha Maori
Pākehā Māori is a term used to describe early European settlers in New Zealand who lived among the Māori. Some were kept by the Māori as slaves, while others settled in Māori communities by choice, many being runaway seamen or escaped convicts...
Thomas Kendall when he effectively “went native”, taking Māori wives and participating in Māori religious ceremonies. Though Hongi Hika encouraged the first missions to New Zealand, virtually no Māori converted to Christianity for a decade; large scale conversion of northern Māori only occurred after his death.
While in Australia Hongi Hika studied European military and agricultural techniques and purchased muskets and ammunition. From 1818 he introduced European agricultural implements and the potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
, using slave labour to produce crops for trade.
Wives
Hongi married the famous, blind Turikatuku, who was an important military advisor for him. He later took her sister Tangiwhare as additional wife. Both bore at least one son and daughter by him. It is uncertain if he had other wives.Bay of Plenty campaign, 1818–1819
In 1818 Hongi Hika led one of two Ngāpuhi tauaTaua
A taua is a war party in the tradition of the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. Contemporary knowledge of taua is gleaned from missionary observations and writings during the Musket Wars of the early 19th century and the later New Zealand wars....
against East Cape and Bay of Plenty
Bay of Plenty
The Bay of Plenty , often abbreviated to BOP, is a region in the North Island of New Zealand situated around the body of water of the same name...
iwi Ngāti Porou
Ngati Porou
Ngāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions of the North Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Porou has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi in New Zealand, with 71,910 registered members in 2006...
and Ngaiterangi. The taua
Taua
A taua is a war party in the tradition of the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. Contemporary knowledge of taua is gleaned from missionary observations and writings during the Musket Wars of the early 19th century and the later New Zealand wars....
returned in 1819 carrying nearly 2,000 captured slaves.
Journey to England, 1819–1821
In 1820 Hongi Hika travelled to England on board the whalingWhaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
ship New Zealander. He spent 5 months in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
where his facial tattoos
Ta moko
Tā moko is the permanent body and face marking by Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. Traditionally it is distinct from tattoo and tatau in that the skin was carved by rather than punctured...
made him something of a sensation. During the trip he met King George IV who presented him with a suit of armour. He continued his linguistic work, assisting professor Samuel Lee who was writing the first Māori–English dictionary. Written Māori maintains a northern feel to this day as a result—for example the sound usually pronounced "f" in Māori is written "wh" because of Hongi Hika's soft aspirated
Aspiration (phonetics)
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
northern dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
.
Campaigns against Ngāti Whātua, Waikato and Rotorua, 1821–1825
Hongi Hika returned to the Bay of Islands in July 1821. En route he sold the gifts he was given in England and used the money to purchase gunpowderGunpowder
Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...
, 300 muskets and other weapons for his iwi. Using these within months of his return he led a force of 2,000 men to attack a pa
Pa (Maori)
The word pā can refer to any Māori village or settlement, but in traditional use it referred to hillforts fortified with palisades and defensive terraces and also to fortified villages. They first came into being about 1450. They are located mainly in the North Island north of lake Taupo...
(Māori fort) at Tamaki
Tamaki, New Zealand
Tamaki is a small suburb of the city of Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located in the east of the city, 11 kilometres from the city centre, by the banks of the estuarial Tamaki River, which is a southern arm of the Hauraki Gulf...
, killing 2,000 warriors and their women and children. Deaths in this one action during the Musket Wars
Musket Wars
The Musket Wars were a series of five hundred or more battles mainly fought between various hapū , sometimes alliances of pan-hapū groups and less often larger iwi of Māori between 1807 and 1842, in New Zealand.Northern tribes such as the rivals Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua were the first to obtain...
outnumber all deaths in 25 years of the sporadic New Zealand Wars.
In early 1822 he led his force up the Waikato River
Waikato River
The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand. In the North Island, it runs for 425 kilometres from the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and emptying into Lake Taupo, New Zealand's largest lake. It drains Taupo at the lake's northeastern edge, creates the...
where after initial success he was defeated by Te Wherowhero
Potatau Te Wherowhero
Pōtatau I, Māori King was a Māori warrior, leader of the Waikato tribes, the first Māori King and founder of the Te Wherowhero royal dynasty. He was first known as simply Te Wherowhero and took the name Pōtatau after he became king...
, before gaining another victory at Orongokoekoe. Te Wherowhero ambushed the Ngāpuhi carrying Ngāti Mahuta
Ngati Mahuta
Ngāti Mahuta is a sub-tribe of the Waikato tribe of Māori in the North Island of New Zealand ....
women captives and freed them. In 1823 he made peace with the Waikato
Waikato
The Waikato Region is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato, Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the northern King Country, much of the Taupo District, and parts of Rotorua District...
iwi and invaded Te Arawa
Te Arawa
Te Arawa is a confederation of Māori iwi and hapu based in the Rotorua and Bay of Plenty areas of New Zealand, with a population of around 40,000.The history of the Te Arawa people is inextricably linked to the Arawa canoe...
territory in Rotorua
Rotorua
Rotorua is a city on the southern shores of the lake of the same name, in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand. The city is the seat of the Rotorua District, a territorial authority encompassing the city and several other nearby towns...
. In 1824–5 Hongi Hika attacked Ngāti Whātua again, losing 70 men, including his eldest son Hare Hongi, in the battle of Te Ika a Ranganui. According to some accounts Ngāti Whātua lost 1,000 men—although Hongi Hika himself, downplaying the tragedy, put the number as 100. In any event the defeat was a catastrophe for Ngāti Whātua—the survivors retreated south.
They left behind the fertile region of Tamaki Makaurau
Tamaki Makaurau
Tāmaki Makaurau is a New Zealand Parliamentary Māori electorate returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. From 1999 to 2002 the seat was called Hauraki....
with its vast natural harbours at Waitemata
Waitemata
Waitemata can be:*Waitemata Harbour, a large bay in New Zealand*Waitemata City, a local government body on the shores of Waitemata Harbour, now part of Waitakere....
and Manukau
Manukau
Manukau City was a large territorial authority in Auckland, New Zealand. The city was sometimes referred to as South Auckland, but this term did not possess official recognition and did not encompass areas like East Auckland, which was previously within the official boundaries of Manukau City...
—land which had belonged to Ngāti Whātua since they won it by conquest over a hundred years before. Hongi Hika left Tamaki Makaurau almost uninhabited as a southern buffer zone. Fifteen years later when Lt. Governor William Hobson
William Hobson
Captain William Hobson RN was the first Governor of New Zealand and co-author of the Treaty of Waitangi.-Early life:...
wished to remove his fledging colonial administration from settler and Ngāpuhi influence in the Bay of Islands
Bay of Islands
The Bay of Islands is an area in the Northland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Located 60 km north-west of Whangarei, it is close to the northern tip of the country....
, he was able to purchase this land cheaply from Ngāti Whātua, to build Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, a settlement that has become New Zealand’s principal city.
Although Māori population had always been, to some extent, mobile in the face of conquests of land, during the Musket Wars
Musket Wars
The Musket Wars were a series of five hundred or more battles mainly fought between various hapū , sometimes alliances of pan-hapū groups and less often larger iwi of Māori between 1807 and 1842, in New Zealand.Northern tribes such as the rivals Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua were the first to obtain...
Hongi Hika altered the balance of power not only in the Waitemata but also the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga, Coromandel, Rotorua and Waikato to an extent which seems unprecedented within the memory of his contemporaries. Although he did not usually occupy conquered territory his campaigns and those of other musket warriors triggered a series of migrations, claims and counter claims which in the late 20th century would add to the disputes over land sales in the Waitangi Tribunal
Waitangi Tribunal
The Waitangi Tribunal is a New Zealand permanent commission of inquiry established under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975...
—not least Ngāti Whātua
Ngati Whatua
Ngāti Whātua is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. It consists of four hapu : Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa, Te Taoū, and Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei....
's occupation of Bastion Point
Bastion Point
Bastion Point is a coastal piece of land in Orakei, Auckland, New Zealand, overlooking the Waitemata Harbour. The area has significance in New Zealand history for its role in 1970s Māori protests against forced land alienation by non Māori New Zealanders.-History:The land was occupied by Ngāti...
.
Waimate to Whangaroa, 1826–1827
In 1826 Hongi Hika moved from Waimate to conquer WhangaroaWhangaroa
Whangaroa is a locality on the harbour of the same name in Northland, New Zealand.Whangaroa is 8km north-west from Kaeo and 45km north from Okaihau. The harbour is almost landlocked and is popular both as a fishing spot in its own right and as a base for deep-sea fishing.The harbour was the scene...
and found a new settlement. In part this was to punish Ngāti Uru and Ngāti Pou—who Hongi Hika displaced—for burning the ship Mercury and sacking Wesleydale, the Wesleyan mission at Whangaroa
Whangaroa
Whangaroa is a locality on the harbour of the same name in Northland, New Zealand.Whangaroa is 8km north-west from Kaeo and 45km north from Okaihau. The harbour is almost landlocked and is popular both as a fishing spot in its own right and as a base for deep-sea fishing.The harbour was the scene...
. However this shift soon split his followers into two factions, those who stayed in Waimate quarrelling with the colonists at Whangaroa
Whangaroa
Whangaroa is a locality on the harbour of the same name in Northland, New Zealand.Whangaroa is 8km north-west from Kaeo and 45km north from Okaihau. The harbour is almost landlocked and is popular both as a fishing spot in its own right and as a base for deep-sea fishing.The harbour was the scene...
.
Injury and death, 1827–1828
In January 1827, Hongi Hika was shot in the chest by Maratea during a minor engagement in the Hokianga. He invited those around him to listen to the wind whistle through his lungs and some claimed to have been able to see completely through him. Hongi Hika lingered for 14 months before dying of infection from this wound on 6 March 1828 at WhangaroaWhangaroa
Whangaroa is a locality on the harbour of the same name in Northland, New Zealand.Whangaroa is 8km north-west from Kaeo and 45km north from Okaihau. The harbour is almost landlocked and is popular both as a fishing spot in its own right and as a base for deep-sea fishing.The harbour was the scene...
.
Hongi Hika’s death appears to be a turning point in Māori society. In contrast to the traditional conduct that followed the death of an important rangatira
Rangatira
Rangatira are the hereditary Māori leaders of hapū, and were described by ethnologists such as Elsdon Best as chieftains . Ideally, rangatira were people of great practical wisdom who held authority on behalf of the tribe and maintained boundaries between a tribe's land and that of other tribes...
(chief), no attack was made by neighbouring tribes by way of muru (attach made in respect of the death) of Hongi Hika. On his death bed, Hongi Hika spoke against sacrifices following his death. F. E. Manning later published account has Hika warning that if the ‘red coat’ soldiers should landed in Aotearoa; “when you see them make war against them”. James Stack, Wesleyan Missionary at Whangaroa
Whangaroa
Whangaroa is a locality on the harbour of the same name in Northland, New Zealand.Whangaroa is 8km north-west from Kaeo and 45km north from Okaihau. The harbour is almost landlocked and is popular both as a fishing spot in its own right and as a base for deep-sea fishing.The harbour was the scene...
, records a conversation with Eruera Maihi Patuone
Eruera Maihi Patuone
Eruera Maihi Patuone , was a Māori rangatira, the son of the Ngati Hao chief Tapua and his wife Te Kawehau. His exact birth year is not know, but it is estimated that he was at least 108 years old when he died....
on 12 March 1828. The report of that conversation is that Hongi Hika exhorted his followers to oppose against any force that came against them and that Hongi Hika’s dying words were ‘Kia toa – kia toa’ [“Be courageous – be courageous’].
Hongi Hika was survived by 5 children.
Legacy
The extent of Hongi Hika's plans and ambitions are unknown. Although he said during his visit to England, "There is only one king in England, there shall be only one king in New Zealand", this is likely bravado. In 1828 Māori lacked a national identity, seeing themselves as belonging to separate iwi. It would be 30 years before WaikatoWaikato
The Waikato Region is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato, Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the northern King Country, much of the Taupo District, and parts of Rotorua District...
iwi recognised a Māori king
Maori King Movement
The Māori King Movement or Kīngitanga is a movement that arose among some of the Māori tribes of New Zealand in the central North Island ,in the 1850s, to establish a role similar in status to that of the monarch of the colonising people, the British, as a way of halting the alienation of Māori land...
. That king was Te Wherowhero, a man who built his mana
Mana
Mana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian....
defending the Waikato
Waikato
The Waikato Region is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato, Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the northern King Country, much of the Taupo District, and parts of Rotorua District...
against Hongi Hika.
Hongi Hika never attempted to establish any form of long term government over iwi he conquered and most often did not attempt to permanently occupy territory. It is likely his aims were opportunistic, based on increasing the mana Māori accorded to great warriors.
Hongi Hika is mostly remembered as a warrior and leader during the Musket Wars
Musket Wars
The Musket Wars were a series of five hundred or more battles mainly fought between various hapū , sometimes alliances of pan-hapū groups and less often larger iwi of Māori between 1807 and 1842, in New Zealand.Northern tribes such as the rivals Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua were the first to obtain...
. History has generally attributed Hongi Hika’s military success to his acquisition of muskets, comparing his military skills poorly with the other major Māori war leader of the period, Te Rauparaha
Te Rauparaha
Te Rauparaha was a Māori rangatira and war leader of the Ngāti Toa tribe who took a leading part in the Musket Wars. He was influential in the original sale of conquered Rangitane land to the New Zealand Company and was a participant in the Wairau Incident in Marlborough...
. However Hongi Hika had the foresight to acquire European weapons and evolve the design of the Māori war pā and Māori warfare tactics; something which was a nasty surprise to British and colonial forces in later years during his nephew Hone Heke
Hone Heke
Hone Wiremu Heke Pokai was a Māori rangatira and war leader in Northern New Zealand and a nephew of Hongi Hika, an earlier war leader of the Ngāpuhi iwi. Hone Heke is considered the principal instigator of the Flagstaff War....
's Rebellion
Flagstaff War
The Flagstaff War – also known as Hone Heke's Rebellion, the Northern War and erroneously as the First Māori War – was fought between 11 March 1845 and 11 January 1846 in and around the Bay of Islands, New Zealand...
in 1845-46. Hongi Hika's military conquests may not have endured, but his importance lies not only in his campaigns and the social upheaval they caused, but also his encouragement of early European settlement, agricultural improvements and the development of a written version of Māori.
Hongi Hika's whānau
Whanau
Whānau , is a Māori-language word for extended family, now increasingly entering New Zealand English, particularly in official publications.In Māori society, the whānau is also a political unit, below the level of hapū and iwi, and the word itself also has other meanings: as a verb meaning to give...
would continue to have a say in both settlement and warfare. Twelve years after Hongi Hika’s death, his nephew Hone Heke
Hone Heke
Hone Wiremu Heke Pokai was a Māori rangatira and war leader in Northern New Zealand and a nephew of Hongi Hika, an earlier war leader of the Ngāpuhi iwi. Hone Heke is considered the principal instigator of the Flagstaff War....
placed the first signature on the Treaty of Waitangi
Treaty of Waitangi
The Treaty of Waitangi is a treaty first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand....
, legitimating British annexation. Five years later the New Zealand Northern War
Flagstaff War
The Flagstaff War – also known as Hone Heke's Rebellion, the Northern War and erroneously as the First Māori War – was fought between 11 March 1845 and 11 January 1846 in and around the Bay of Islands, New Zealand...
began on Tuesday 11th March 1845 when Heke cut down the flagpole at Kororareka and with a force of about 600 Māori armed with muskets, double-barrelled guns and also tomahawks attacked Kororareka.
Frederick Edward Maning
Frederick Edward Maning
Frederick Edward Maning was a notable early settler in New Zealand, a writer and judge of the Native Land Court. He published two books under the pseudonym of "a Pakeha Maori."...
, a Pākehā Māori
Pakeha Maori
Pākehā Māori is a term used to describe early European settlers in New Zealand who lived among the Māori. Some were kept by the Māori as slaves, while others settled in Māori communities by choice, many being runaway seamen or escaped convicts...
, who lived at Hokianga
Hokianga
Hokianga is an area surrounding the Hokianga Harbour, also known as The Hokianga River, a long estuarine drowned valley on the west coast in the north of the North Island of New Zealand....
, wrote a near contemporaneous account of Hongi Hika in A history of the war in the north of New Zealand against the chief Heke. Its accuracy is questioned on the basis that it was written with an aim to entertain, rather than with an eye to historical accuracy. In this book, Manning published an account of the death-bed speech of Hongi Hika, which account which is attributed to a Ngāpuhi
Ngapuhi
Ngāpuhi is a Māori iwi located in the Northland region of New Zealand, and centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands and Whāngārei.Ngāpuhi has the largest affiliation of any New Zealand iwi, with 122,214 people registered , and formed from 150 hapu, with 55 marae.-Foundations:The founding...
chief. The account has Hongi Hika saying, ‘Children and friends, pay attention to my last words. After I am gone be kind to the missionaries, be kind also to the other Europeans; welcome them to the shore, trade with them, protect them, and live with them as one people; but if there should land on this shore a people who wear red garments, who do no work, who neither buy or sell, and who always have arms in their hands, then be aware that these are people called soldiers, a dangerous people, whose only occupation is war. When you see them make war against them. Then O my children, be brave! Then, O my friends be strong! Be brave that you may not be enslaved, and that your country may not become the possession of strangers.”
Literature
- Binney, J. The legacy of guilt. Auckland, 1968
- Earle, A. Narrative of a residence in New Zealand. Ed. E. H. McCormick. Oxford, 1966
- Elder, J. R., ed. Marsden's lieutenants. Dunedin, 1934
(2004) - Letters from the Bay of Islands, Sutton Publishing Limited, United Kingdom; ISBN 0-7509-3696-7 (Hardcover). Penguin Books, New Zealand, (Paperback) ISBN 0-14-301929-5
(2011) - Te Wiremu - Henry Williams: Early Years in the North, Huia Press, New Zealand, (Paperback) ISBN 978-1-86969-439-5
External links
- Musket Wars ref. 1
- Musket Wars ref. 2
- Hongi Hika Biography in 1966 An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand from the Dictionary of New Zealand BiographyDictionary of New Zealand BiographyThe Dictionary of New Zealand Biography contains biographies for over 3,000 New Zealanders. It is available in both English and Maori. All volumes of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography are available online....