Te Rangihaeata
Encyclopedia
Te Rangihaeata was a Ngāti Toa
chief, nephew of Te Rauparaha
. He had a leading part in the Wairau Affray
and the Hutt Valley Campaign
.
, he was born at Kawhia
around 1780. His father, Te Rakaherea, was a war leader of his people and died at the Battle of Hingakaka
fighting the Waikato
and Ngāti Maniapoto
iwi
. His mother was the elder sister of Te Rauparaha
and an important ariki in her own right. Te Rangihaeata grew up in Te Rauparaha's shadow and became his trusted ally. Te Rauparaha was the strategist and negotiator while Te Rangihaeata tended to be the blunt instrument, and they were a good team.
. In 1819 while returning from a raid in the Cook Strait
area the Ngati Toa clashed with the Ngatiapa around Turakina, near Bulls
. During the subsequent fighting Te Rangihaeata captured and then married the chief's daughter. This was the beginning of a long-term association between the two tribes, fortunately, as the Ngati Toa were soon forced to return the area.
Arriving back in their own tribal territories the war party found that the Waikato
and Ngati Maniopoto Māori had decided the Ngati Toa were undesirable neighbours and were practicing ethnic cleansing. Although greatly outnumbered and outgunned, Te Rangihaeata conducted a successful defence until Te Rauparaha was able to use his diplomatic skills to extricate the tribe. This was the beginning of their migration down to the Paraparaumu
and Kapiti Coast
area. They subsequently conquered most of that region and the upper parts of the South Island
, occupying and claiming ownership of the land.
This forcible change of ownership was to be a source of much confusion and conflict when the Pākehā settlers
arrived and began buying land. There were often at least two sets of putative owners, and the ones who felt they had been dispossessed were often more than willing to sell land they owned but could not occupy.
Te Rangihaeata was not anti-Pākehā
. He encouraged the whalers and the traders and was prepared to tolerate the missionaries. He valued them for the technology they introduced and the trade goods they were offering. But he quickly recognised that permanent settlers were a different matter, posing a serious threat to the Māori and their traditional ways. Despite that he tried to avoid conflict.
and the Nelson
settlers were claiming the Wairau Plain, chiefs Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata visited Nelson and made their position very clear. Te Ranghaeata promised that he would kill any settlers who tried to take his land from him. Despite this they were prepared to follow the Pākehā legal procedures and await the decision of the Land Commissioner, William Spain. It was the Nelson settlers who jumped the gun and sent surveyors to the disputed land. Te Rangihaeata had his men firmly but nonviolently remove them, being scrupulously careful to return to them all their surveying equipment and personal possessions, but burning their thatch huts.
The Nelson settlers sent out a party to arrest the two chiefs on a charge of arson. The accidental discharge of a musket precipitated a brief battle, and about a dozen of the settlers were shot down. The rest either fled or surrendered to the Māori. Among those captured were Arthur Wakefield and Henry Thompson, the two leaders of the arresting party. Several Māori had also been killed, including one of Te Ranghaeata's wives who was also Te Rauparaha's daughter, and therefore this wife of Te Rangihaeta's was also his cousin. The captured settlers were promptly executed in accordance with Māori law and custom. However it was Te Rangihaeata who insisted on it.
This incident became known as the Wairau Massacre. The subsequent Government enquiry exonerated the Māori and decided that the settlers had acted illegally.
. The settlers were pushing forward aggressively and occupying land that had disputed ownership. Several years of active immigration and the arrival of British Imperial Troops had put the settlers in a much stronger position and much less inclined to tolerate either Māori claims or legal challenges to their occupation of the land.
Once again Te Rangihaeata became involved in the resistance, destroying the farms and the possessions of the settlers on disputed land, but not injuring anyone. However, the settlers did not recognise the warning and very soon open warfare broke out: the Hutt Valley Campaign
.
Had the Māori Tribes been united, the subsequent history of New Zealand could have been different. Te Rangihaeata fought the British to a stalemate until the British were able to mobilise the Te Atiawa and other Māori Tribes to oppose him. Additionally, the abduction and dubious arrest of Te Rauparaha did a lot to discourage the Ngati Toa. They built a strong pa near Porirua and successfully withstood a British attack. They then retreated to swamps of Poroutawhao, out of reach of the government, and the war was over.
in 1855. There are conflicting stories about this period, that he fiercely resisted any Pākehā penetration into the area and, alternatively, that he made his peace with Governor Grey
. In his old age he took charge of the government funded construction of roads in his rohe.
Ngati Toa
Ngāti Toa , an iwi , traces its descent from the eponymous ancestor Toarangatira. The Ngāti Toa region extends from Miria-te-kakara at Rangitikei to Wellington, and across Cook Strait to Wairau and Nelson....
chief, nephew of 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...
. He had a leading part in the Wairau Affray
Wairau Affray
In New Zealand history, the Wairau Affray on 17 June 1843 was the first serious clash of arms between Māori and the British settlers after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and the only one to take place in the South Island...
and the Hutt Valley Campaign
Hutt Valley Campaign
The Hutt Valley Campaign of 1846 during the New Zealand land wars could almost be seen as a sequel to the Wairau Affray. The causes were similar and the protagonists almost the same...
.
Early life
A member of the Ngāti ToaNgati Toa
Ngāti Toa , an iwi , traces its descent from the eponymous ancestor Toarangatira. The Ngāti Toa region extends from Miria-te-kakara at Rangitikei to Wellington, and across Cook Strait to Wairau and Nelson....
, he was born at Kawhia
Kawhia Harbour
Kawhia Harbour is one of three large natural inlets in the Tasman Sea coast of the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located to the south of Raglan Harbour, Ruapuke and Aotea Harbour, 40 kilometres southwest of Hamilton...
around 1780. His father, Te Rakaherea, was a war leader of his people and died at the Battle of Hingakaka
Battle of Hingakaka
The Battle of Hingakaka was reputedly "the largest battle ever fought on New Zealand soil".A force of 7,000 to 10,000 warriors, led by a Ngāti Toa chief Pikauterangi, from the Marokopa district of the lower North Island invaded the Waipa District, to restore honour. He was aggrieved over the poor...
fighting the Waikato
Waikato (iwi)
Waikato is a Māori iwi from the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. Actually a confederation of smaller tribes, it is also part of the larger confederation of Tainui, consisting of tribes descended from Polynesian migrants who arrived in New Zealand on the Tainui canoe...
and Ngāti Maniapoto
Ngati Maniapoto
Ngāti Maniapoto is an iwi based in the Waikato-Waitomo region of New Zealand's North Island. It is part of the Tainui confederation, the members of which trace their whakapapa back to people who arrived in New Zealand on the waka Tainui...
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,...
. His mother was the elder sister of 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...
and an important ariki in her own right. Te Rangihaeata grew up in Te Rauparaha's shadow and became his trusted ally. Te Rauparaha was the strategist and negotiator while Te Rangihaeata tended to be the blunt instrument, and they were a good team.
Musket wars
Te Rangihaeata rose to prominence during the period of inter-tribal fighting now known as the Musket WarsMusket 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...
. In 1819 while returning from a raid in the Cook Strait
Cook Strait
Cook Strait is the strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. It connects the Tasman Sea on the west with the South Pacific Ocean on the east....
area the Ngati Toa clashed with the Ngatiapa around Turakina, near Bulls
Bulls, New Zealand
Bulls is a small town near Palmerston North on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is in a thriving farming area in the Rangitikei District at the junction of State Highways 1 and 3 about 160 kilometres north of Wellington...
. During the subsequent fighting Te Rangihaeata captured and then married the chief's daughter. This was the beginning of a long-term association between the two tribes, fortunately, as the Ngati Toa were soon forced to return the area.
Arriving back in their own tribal territories the war party found that the Waikato
Waikato (iwi)
Waikato is a Māori iwi from the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. Actually a confederation of smaller tribes, it is also part of the larger confederation of Tainui, consisting of tribes descended from Polynesian migrants who arrived in New Zealand on the Tainui canoe...
and Ngati Maniopoto Māori had decided the Ngati Toa were undesirable neighbours and were practicing ethnic cleansing. Although greatly outnumbered and outgunned, Te Rangihaeata conducted a successful defence until Te Rauparaha was able to use his diplomatic skills to extricate the tribe. This was the beginning of their migration down to the Paraparaumu
Paraparaumu
Paraparaumu is a town in the south-western North Island of New Zealand. It lies in the Kapiti Coast, 50 kilometres north of the nation's capital city, Wellington....
and Kapiti Coast
Kapiti Coast
The Kapiti Coast is the name of the section of the coast of the south-western North Island of New Zealand that is north of Wellington and opposite Kapiti Island. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Wellington Regional Council...
area. They subsequently conquered most of that region and the upper parts of the South Island
South Island
The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...
, occupying and claiming ownership of the land.
This forcible change of ownership was to be a source of much confusion and conflict when the Pākehā settlers
Pakeha settlers
Pākehā settlers were European emigrants who journeyed to New Zealand, and more specifically to Auckland, the Wellington/Hawkes Bay region, Canterbury and Otago during the 19th century...
arrived and began buying land. There were often at least two sets of putative owners, and the ones who felt they had been dispossessed were often more than willing to sell land they owned but could not occupy.
Te Rangihaeata was not anti-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...
. He encouraged the whalers and the traders and was prepared to tolerate the missionaries. He valued them for the technology they introduced and the trade goods they were offering. But he quickly recognised that permanent settlers were a different matter, posing a serious threat to the Māori and their traditional ways. Despite that he tried to avoid conflict.
The Wairau
When in 1843 Arthur WakefieldArthur Wakefield
Captain Arthur Wakefield served with the Royal Navy, before joining his brother, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, in founding the new settlement at Nelson, New Zealand.-Royal Navy:...
and the Nelson
Nelson, New Zealand
Nelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson-Tasman region. Established in 1841, it is the second oldest settled city in New Zealand and the oldest in the South Island....
settlers were claiming the Wairau Plain, chiefs Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata visited Nelson and made their position very clear. Te Ranghaeata promised that he would kill any settlers who tried to take his land from him. Despite this they were prepared to follow the Pākehā legal procedures and await the decision of the Land Commissioner, William Spain. It was the Nelson settlers who jumped the gun and sent surveyors to the disputed land. Te Rangihaeata had his men firmly but nonviolently remove them, being scrupulously careful to return to them all their surveying equipment and personal possessions, but burning their thatch huts.
The Nelson settlers sent out a party to arrest the two chiefs on a charge of arson. The accidental discharge of a musket precipitated a brief battle, and about a dozen of the settlers were shot down. The rest either fled or surrendered to the Māori. Among those captured were Arthur Wakefield and Henry Thompson, the two leaders of the arresting party. Several Māori had also been killed, including one of Te Ranghaeata's wives who was also Te Rauparaha's daughter, and therefore this wife of Te Rangihaeta's was also his cousin. The captured settlers were promptly executed in accordance with Māori law and custom. However it was Te Rangihaeata who insisted on it.
This incident became known as the Wairau Massacre. The subsequent Government enquiry exonerated the Māori and decided that the settlers had acted illegally.
The Hutt Valley
A similar situation arose about three years later in the Hutt Valley near WellingtonWellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
. The settlers were pushing forward aggressively and occupying land that had disputed ownership. Several years of active immigration and the arrival of British Imperial Troops had put the settlers in a much stronger position and much less inclined to tolerate either Māori claims or legal challenges to their occupation of the land.
Once again Te Rangihaeata became involved in the resistance, destroying the farms and the possessions of the settlers on disputed land, but not injuring anyone. However, the settlers did not recognise the warning and very soon open warfare broke out: the Hutt Valley Campaign
Hutt Valley Campaign
The Hutt Valley Campaign of 1846 during the New Zealand land wars could almost be seen as a sequel to the Wairau Affray. The causes were similar and the protagonists almost the same...
.
Had the Māori Tribes been united, the subsequent history of New Zealand could have been different. Te Rangihaeata fought the British to a stalemate until the British were able to mobilise the Te Atiawa and other Māori Tribes to oppose him. Additionally, the abduction and dubious arrest of Te Rauparaha did a lot to discourage the Ngati Toa. They built a strong pa near Porirua and successfully withstood a British attack. They then retreated to swamps of Poroutawhao, out of reach of the government, and the war was over.
Later life
Te Ranghaeata remained there until his death from measlesMeasles
Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...
in 1855. There are conflicting stories about this period, that he fiercely resisted any Pākehā penetration into the area and, alternatively, that he made his peace with Governor Grey
George Edward Grey
Sir George Grey, KCB was a soldier, explorer, Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony , the 11th Premier of New Zealand and a writer.-Early life and exploration:...
. In his old age he took charge of the government funded construction of roads in his rohe.