Ruapani
Encyclopedia
Ruapani was a rangatira
(chief
) of the Māori in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa (the Poverty Bay
-region on the East Coast of New Zealand
) in the 15th and 16th century.
He is said to have been the paramount chief of all the Tūranganui-a-Kiwa tribes around 1525.
His influence was large, it extended into the Ruakituri Valley and the Whakapūnaki district as far as the Huiarau Range
beyond Lake Waikaremoana
.
waka
converged upon Ruapani and his rule was undisputed.
His whakapapa
is shown in two images:
Mackay gives a slightly different version of the history, resuming an address by Captain W. T. Pitt to the Rotary Club of Gisborne in 1934. When “the Tākitimu
waka called in at Nukutaurua (Mahia Peninsula
), her captain (Kiwa) left her and, with a small party, set off overland for Turanga (Poverty Bay). There he met Pāoa, Horouta's captain. To celebrate the occasion they agreed that Kahutuanui (Kiwa's son) should wed Hine-a-Kua (Paoa's daughter).
The descendants of this illustrious couple married with the issue of Paikea
(who was reputed to have journeyed to New Zealand on the back of a whale); with those of Maia (who was said to have crossed the seas on a gourd
), and with the Toi
people. When the seventh generation was reached, the head chief was Ruapani, in whom converged all the lines of Maori greatness.”
Ruapani is also said to be descendant from Hine Hikirirangi, the sister of Pāoa. She was the ancestor who nurtured the kūmara (sweet potato)
she had brought from Hawaiki
in her sacred basket.
, Popoia, near Waituhi
, some 20 km north west of nowadays Gisborne
. He had three wives; in order, Wairau, Uenukukōihu and Rongomaipāpā. When Ruapani died, Tūhourangi took Rongomaipāpā as his wife and founded the Tuhourangi
iwi
in Rotorua
, which is also part of the Te Arawa confederation of tribes.
Popoia is located north of Waituhi and is adjacent to Lavenham Road. The site is still visible today but is located on private farmland.
Mitiri writes extensively about Kahungunu, “one of the most amazing characters in Māori history”, who once visited a pā on Titirangi (nowadays Kaiti Hill
), where “Kahungunu saw the smoke of the fires of a large settlement inland on the opposite side of the Waipaoa River
. On asking who was living there, he was told that the pa was Popoia, owned by Ruapani, the principal chief of the whole district. So to Popoia our hero journeyed, and was so well thought of that Ruapani gave him his daughter Rua-rere-tai as wife. Kahungunu settled in the pa, and doubtless became a useful fellow. Time passed on until Rua-rere-tai was about to give birth to a child and she was desirous of something tasty with which to vary her diet. She asked her husband to procure some birds for her to eat in order to cause the milk to flow for his (as yet unborn) child. On reaching the forest he found a nest of a tieke
in a hollow tree, from which he obtained some young birds. He took them to the village and cooked them, thus fulfilling his wife's desire. Not long after, the child, a girl, was born, and was named Rua-herehere-tieke, thus commemorating the finding of the young birds.”
and Ngāi Tāmanuhiri
— Ruapani’s influence began to wane and he retreated inland to the home of his relations in the Lake Waikaremoana area, where he lived out his days. Upon his death Ruapani was interred in a sacred cave called Kohurau at Whare Kōrero in the Wainui Beach
area. A number of hapū today still identify themselves as Ngāti Ruapani
, including those in the Whakapūnaki area through to Lake Waikaremoana and the people of Ōhako Marae in Manutuke
.
“Ruapani had three wives and, in all, twenty-five children. Among those who could claim descent from him were Te Kani-a-Takirau, Heuheu
, Te Rauparaha
, Tomoana
, Te Kooti
, Wi Pere
, Sir J. Carroll
, Sir Maui Pomare
, Sir A. T. Ngata
, and other prominent Maori leaders”.
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
Tribal chief
A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.In the case of ...
) of the Māori in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa (the Poverty Bay
Poverty Bay
Poverty Bay is the largest of several small bays on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island to the north of Hawkes Bay. It stretches for 10 kilometres from Young Nick's Head in the southwest to Tuaheni Point in the northeast. The city of Gisborne is located on the northern shore of the bay...
-region on the East Coast of 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...
) in the 15th and 16th century.
He is said to have been the paramount chief of all the Tūranganui-a-Kiwa tribes around 1525.
His influence was large, it extended into the Ruakituri Valley and the Whakapūnaki district as far as the Huiarau Range
Huiarau Range
The Huiarau Range is a range of mountains in the northeast of New Zealand's North Island. Part of the spine of mountains that run roughly parallel with the island's east coast, it is a southwestern extension of the Raukumara Range, lying between the end of that range and the North Island Volcanic...
beyond Lake Waikaremoana
Lake Waikaremoana
Lake Waikaremoana is located in Te Urewera National Park in the North Island of New Zealand, 60 kilometres northwest of Wairoa and 80 kilometres southwest of Gisborne. It covers an area of 54 km². From the Maori Waikaremoana translates as 'sea of rippling waters'The lake lies in the heart of Tuhoe...
.
Whakapapa
The aristocratic lines of descent from Pāoa and Kiwa of the HoroutaHorouta
In Māori tradition, the canoe Horouta belonged to Toi. The story goes that Kahukura, a man from Hawaiki, introduced kūmara , to the locals who had never had anything like it before. In order to obtain more kūmara back in Hawaiki Toi gave the canoe to Kahukura...
waka
Waka (canoe)
Waka are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes used for fishing and river travel, to large decorated war canoes up to long...
converged upon Ruapani and his rule was undisputed.
His whakapapa
Whakapapa
Whakapapa , or genealogy, is a fundamental principle that permeates the whole of Māori culture. However, it is more than just a genealogical 'device'...
is shown in two images:
- the first image showing his descent from Pāoa, the captain of the Horouta waka and Kiwa, priest of the Horouta, who is also known as the navigator.
- In the second image his estimated date of birth is shown.
Mackay gives a slightly different version of the history, resuming an address by Captain W. T. Pitt to the Rotary Club of Gisborne in 1934. When “the Tākitimu
Takitimu
In several Māori traditions, the Tākitimu was one of the great Māori migration canoes that brought Polynesian migrants to New Zealand from Hawaiki. It was one of the seven canoes in the "Great Fleet hypothesis" proposed by historian Stephenson Percy Smith .-Māori Traditions:The Tākitimu appears in...
waka called in at Nukutaurua (Mahia Peninsula
Mahia Peninsula
The Mahia Peninsula is located on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, between the cities of Napier and Gisborne.-Geography:The peninsula is long and wide rising to its highest point at Rahuimokairoa reaching about above sea level. Mahia was initially an island which over time, has had...
), her captain (Kiwa) left her and, with a small party, set off overland for Turanga (Poverty Bay). There he met Pāoa, Horouta's captain. To celebrate the occasion they agreed that Kahutuanui (Kiwa's son) should wed Hine-a-Kua (Paoa's daughter).
The descendants of this illustrious couple married with the issue of Paikea
Paikea
According to Māori tradition, Paikea is an ancestor of Ngāti Porou, a Māori tribe of the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. Paikea is the name assumed by Kahutia-te-rangi because he was assisted by humpback whales to survive an attempt on his life by his half-brother Ruatapu.-Ruatapu is...
(who was reputed to have journeyed to New Zealand on the back of a whale); with those of Maia (who was said to have crossed the seas on a gourd
Gourd
A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae. Gourd is occasionally used to describe crops like cucumbers, squash, luffas, and melons. The term 'gourd' however, can more specifically, refer to the plants of the two Cucurbitaceae genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita or also to their hollow dried out shell...
), and with the Toi
Toi (name)
Toi is a fairly common man's name in Māori and other Polynesian languages.The best known men named Toi are the following from Māori legendary history, who are sometimes confused with one another:...
people. When the seventh generation was reached, the head chief was Ruapani, in whom converged all the lines of Maori greatness.”
Ruapani is also said to be descendant from Hine Hikirirangi, the sister of Pāoa. She was the ancestor who nurtured the kūmara (sweet potato)
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
she had brought from Hawaiki
Hawaiki
In Māori mythology, Hawaiki is the homeland of the Māori, the original home of the Māori, before they travelled across the sea to New Zealand...
in her sacred basket.
Popoia
Ruapani lived in his pāPa (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...
, Popoia, near Waituhi
Waituhi
Waituhi is a small settlement in the northeast of New Zealand's North Island. It is located in the Tūranganui-a-Kiwa region, 21 km northwest of the city of Gisborne, on the western bank of the Waipaoa River. It is notable as the historic site of Popoia pā, and as the location for several novels...
, some 20 km north west of nowadays Gisborne
Gisborne, New Zealand
-Economy:The harbour was host to many ships in the past and had developed as a river port to provide a more secure location for shipping compared with the open roadstead of Poverty Bay which can be exposed to southerly swells. A meat works was sited beside the harbour and meat and wool was shipped...
. He had three wives; in order, Wairau, Uenukukōihu and Rongomaipāpā. When Ruapani died, Tūhourangi took Rongomaipāpā as his wife and founded the Tuhourangi
Tuhourangi
Tūhourangi is a Māori iwi of New Zealand with a rohe centered on Lake Tarawera...
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,...
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...
, which is also part of the Te Arawa confederation of tribes.
Popoia is located north of Waituhi and is adjacent to Lavenham Road. The site is still visible today but is located on private farmland.
Mitiri writes extensively about Kahungunu, “one of the most amazing characters in Māori history”, who once visited a pā on Titirangi (nowadays Kaiti Hill
Kaiti Hill
Titirangi is a hill in Gisborne city, New Zealand. It is also known as Kaiti Hill, but this refers to the first ridge overlooking Poverty Bay and Gisborne. The hill is an ancestral site of the Ngati Oneone hapū in Gisborne...
), where “Kahungunu saw the smoke of the fires of a large settlement inland on the opposite side of the Waipaoa River
Waipaoa River
The Waipaoa River is a river of the northeast of New Zealand's North Island. It rises on the eastern slopes of the Raukumara Range, flowing south for 80 kilometres to reach Poverty Bay and the Pacific Ocean just south of Gisborne. For about half of this distance its valley is followed by State...
. On asking who was living there, he was told that the pa was Popoia, owned by Ruapani, the principal chief of the whole district. So to Popoia our hero journeyed, and was so well thought of that Ruapani gave him his daughter Rua-rere-tai as wife. Kahungunu settled in the pa, and doubtless became a useful fellow. Time passed on until Rua-rere-tai was about to give birth to a child and she was desirous of something tasty with which to vary her diet. She asked her husband to procure some birds for her to eat in order to cause the milk to flow for his (as yet unborn) child. On reaching the forest he found a nest of a tieke
Tieke
The Saddleback or Tieke is a previously rare and endangered New Zealand bird of the family Callaeidae. It is glossy black with a chestnut saddle. Its taxonomic family is also known as that of the "wattlebirds" and includes the two subspecies of the Kokako as well as the extinct Huia...
in a hollow tree, from which he obtained some young birds. He took them to the village and cooked them, thus fulfilling his wife's desire. Not long after, the child, a girl, was born, and was named Rua-herehere-tieke, thus commemorating the finding of the young birds.”
Legacy
Ruapani’s legacy is evident in the whakapapa (genealogy) lines of all the tribes in the Tūranganui-a-Kiwa district. With the emergence of these tribes — including, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, RongowhakaataRongowhakaata
-See also:*List of Māori iwi*Official Iwi Website:...
and Ngāi Tāmanuhiri
Ngai Tamanuhiri
Ngāi Tāmanuhiri is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. Their Rohe are located to the south of Poverty Bay in the Gisborne Region of New Zealand...
— Ruapani’s influence began to wane and he retreated inland to the home of his relations in the Lake Waikaremoana area, where he lived out his days. Upon his death Ruapani was interred in a sacred cave called Kohurau at Whare Kōrero in the Wainui Beach
Wainui Beach
Wainui Beach is a small settlement on the coast of New Zealand's North Island, located just to the north of Tuaheni Point, some 8 km to the east of Gisborne, to which it is linked by State Highway 35. As of the 2006 census, Wainui Beach had a usually-resident population of 1,515.The beach is...
area. A number of hapū today still identify themselves as Ngāti Ruapani
Ngati Ruapani
Ngāti Ruapani is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. Ngāti Ruapani take their name from the ancestor Ruapani, who lived at the Popoia pā near Waituhi in the 15th and 16th century....
, including those in the Whakapūnaki area through to Lake Waikaremoana and the people of Ōhako Marae in Manutuke
Manutuke
Manutuke is a settlement in the Gisborne Region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located to the west of the city of Gisborne on State Highway 2, close to the mouth of the Waipaoa River....
.
“Ruapani had three wives and, in all, twenty-five children. Among those who could claim descent from him were Te Kani-a-Takirau, Heuheu
Te Heuheu
Te Heuheu may refer to any of a number of people from the te Heuheu family which has been the family of chiefs of the Māori Ngati Tuwharetoa iwi for approximately 200 years...
, 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...
, Tomoana
Henare Tomoana
Henare Tomoana was a Māori rangatira from the Hawkes Bay area in the North Island, New Zealand, of Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngati Te Whatu-i-Apiti tribal lineage....
, Te Kooti
Te Kooti
Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki was a Māori leader, the founder of the Ringatu religion and guerrilla.While fighting alongside government forces against the Hauhau in 1865, he was accused of spying. Exiled to the Chatham Islands without trial along with captured Hauhau, he experienced visions and...
, Wi Pere
Wi Pere
Wi Pere , born Wiremu Pere, was a Māori Member of Parliament in New Zealand. Pere himself was an outstanding figure amongst the Poverty Bay and East Cape Māori, and one of Poverty Bay's most illustrious sons....
, Sir J. Carroll
James Carroll (New Zealand politician)
Sir James Carroll, KCMG , known to Māori as Timi Kara, was a New Zealand politician of Irish and Ngati Kahungunu descent. Beginning his career as an interpreter and land agent, Carroll was elected to the Eastern Maori seat in 1887. He was Colonial Secretary from 1895...
, Sir Maui Pomare
Maui Pomare
Sir Maui Wiremu Pita Naera Pomare, KBE, CMG was a New Zealand doctor and politician, being counted among the more prominent Māori political figures...
, Sir A. T. Ngata
Apirana Ngata
Sir Apirana Turupa Ngata was a prominent New Zealand politician and lawyer. He has often been described as the foremost Māori politician to have ever served in Parliament, and is also known for his work in promoting and protecting Māori culture and language.-Early life:One of 15 children, Ngata...
, and other prominent Maori leaders”.
Literature
- Mackay, Joseph Angus – Historic Poverty Bay and the East Coast, N.I., N.Z. Gisborne 1949; online available in New Zealand Electronic Text CentreNew Zealand Electronic Text CentreThe New Zealand Electronic Text Centre is a unit of the library at the Victoria University of Wellington which provides a free online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials. The NZETC has an ongoing programme of digitisation and feature additions to the current...
(NZETC) - Mitira, Tikia Hikawera (John Hikawera Mitchell) - Takitimu (1944 / Wellington 1972); online available in NZETCNew Zealand Electronic Text CentreThe New Zealand Electronic Text Centre is a unit of the library at the Victoria University of Wellington which provides a free online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials. The NZETC has an ongoing programme of digitisation and feature additions to the current...
- especially Chapter 2