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The Land of Tara and they who settled it, by Elsdon Best

The coming of the Kahungunu folk. pp. 39-43


Eighteen generations ago some of the Ngai-Tara people crossed the Straits and settled in the South Island, at Rangiura, near Tapuae-nuku (or the Lookers-on-Mountains). In later generations many others followed and settled in the Sounds. This movement was accelerated about three hundred years ago, when the people of the northern part of the East Coast were pressing southward in search of new homes. These people, mixed descendants of Mouriuri aborigines and Polynesian immigrants, were known as the Ngati-Kahu-ngunu tribe, taking their name from a wandering son of Tamatea-ariki-nui, an influential chief of Eastern Polynesia, who came to this land in command of the vessel called ' Takitimu.'

The earliest account we have of the coming of Kahungunu people to the Wai-rarapa district is that of a party under the leadership of Te Rangi-tawhanga. These immigrants arrived in the time of Te Whakamana and Te Rerewa, two Rangitane chiefs who lived twelve generations ago:—

family tree illustration from page 39

This table is of interest as it shows a connection between the Rangitane and Ngati-Ira tribes, and that the strong party of the latter led southward to Wai-rarapa by Te Wha-kumu must have arrived soon after the coming of Te Rangi-tauwhanga; but of the sons of Ira more anon. Some of these southward moving clans attacked the Rangitane tribesmen dwelling in the Napier district, and are said to have pushed them southward, though some of Rangitane held on to their lands about the Seventy Mile Bush (Tamaki-nui-a-Rua) until modern times.

When the Kahungunu migrants arrived at Wai-rarapa under the chiefs Rangi-tawhanga, Mahanga and Hokio, they settled in the southern part of the district. They had brought with them from Turanga (Poverty Bay) a number of canoes, and these, or some of them, they handed over to Rangitane in exchange for lands on which to settle. The vessels so given are named 'Te Ara-o-Tawhaki', 'Potaka', 'Kiriwai', 'Otauiura', and 'Kahutara', and in these Te Rerewa and many others of Rangitane went to the South Island, and there settled. It is a singular thing that there is no tradition of any fighting between the parties prior to this movement to the other island. It is always spoken of as a voluntary action on the part of Rangitane. It is quite possible that Te Rerewa, and others saw that further contingents of the northern tribes were likely to come south, and that they would eventually become too strong to stand against.

Many, however, of the Rangitane folk remained at Wai-rarapa and, after the departure of Te Rerewa and party, fighting commenced between those left behind and the newcomers. These fights do not seem to have continued very long, and eventually the two peoples became practically one through intermarriage. By this time also Rangitane had intermarried with Ngai-Tara, and the influx at Kahungunu and Ngati-Ira caused some to settle in the Wellington district. In like manner, Ngai-Tara, doubtless feeling the pressure, began to break away and settle about Queen Charlotte Sound, where their descendants were found by Captain Cook in the eighteenth century. Those who remained here, probably the bulk of the tribe, intermarried with the Kahungunu migrants, and also with Ngati-Ira, so that all four tribes became so mingled that one scarcely knows what name to apply to them. Some time after the days of Te Whakamana, we find sub-tribes bearing Kahungunu names occupying this district, as Ngati-Rakai-whakairi at the Hutt and Ngati-Rangi at Porirua. In later days, however, the denizens of the Wellington district were known as Ngati-Ira.

A version of the coming of Te Rangi-tawhanga was given by a member of the Hiko family of Wai-rarapa. That ancestor, when living in the Napier district, became engaged in a quarrel over cultivation ground named Te Aho-a-Tawhaki;

lineage illustration page 40in the quarrel his father was killed. Te Rangi then left the district and came down with a party to settle at Southern Wai-rai-apa. His canoe was named "Te Whakaeaeanga-rangi.' He was a nephew of Te Rerewa of Rangitane, and this will account for the lack of quarrels between the two, and the friendly reception accorded to the migrants.

lineage illustration page 41
On arriving at Te Wharau-o-kena, a pa situated near the outlet of the lake, the migrants laid on the plaza a number of gifts, consisting principally of weapons, and asked for a grant of land whereon to settle. Te Rerewa remarked that he declined to part with land for such goods, but would do so for canoes, whereupon Te Rangi and his party proceeded to Pahaua and there hewed out a number of canoes and handed them over to Te Rerewa. The latter then handed over to the new arrivals a block of land, the boundary of which ran from Ahi-raraiki to Tauwhare-nikau, thence to the Tararua range.
After this grant was made, Te Rerewa and a party of Rangitane sailed in five vessels to settle in the South Island. Prior to his departure, he said to Te-Rangi:- "If, after I have gone, Rangitane attack you, I shall take no notice of it, but should you attack them, then I will surely return." Te Rangi, it may be said, was a member of the Rakai-whakairi people.

So Te Rerewa sailed for Arapawa, Te Wai-pounamu, Te Waka-o-Maui, Te Hei-a-Maui, for by all these names has the South Island been known to the Maori. Two of his vessels were ' Whai-to-muri' and ' Te Whakeaeanga-rangi.' As he was leaving his home, the land of his ancestors, even from the days of Tara and of Tautoki, he turned to take a parting look at it, and said:- "Nga, putaanga ki Korero-mai-rangi ka hau raia; nga putaanga ki Te Tawaha nga kaara e rua." This saying is not fully explained, but refers to the famed putaanga at Korero-mai-rangi, a place at Tauwhare-nikau (usually called Tauhere-nikau by Europeans) and to those at Te Tawaha (Bidwill's place) with its two prized kakara, the flavour of fat birds and the fragrance of the mokimoki plant. A putaanga is a place where a track leaves the forest and passes into open country. Possibly the allusion is to the view obtained from such places.

The chief Pouri accompanied Te Rerewa to the South Island. After their departure a quarrel broke out between Rangitane aud Kahungunu and the land folk are said to have attacked the new comers, who, in revenge, slew Te Rangi-kau-moana, a Rangitane chief, at Okahu pa, near Greytown. The body of this man is said, in local myth, to have been carried by atua (gods or demons) to the place called Pahi-atua. These new comers gradually obtained an ascendency over the original settlers, and extended the bounds of their lands to Wai-ngawa. At this time a number of Rangitane were living at the Harbour of Tara, and they had a fortified village on Somes Island. The Wai-rarapa quarrel had the effect of making matters unpleasant for these people. Their settlements at Orongorongo and Para-ngarehu (Pencarrow Head), whose chiefs were Te Au and Manga-whero, were attacked, and the immigrants so extended their sway.

Te Rangi-tawhanga settled two of his sons, Turanga-nui and Kutikuti-rau, at the Harbour of Tara, and another, Nga Tangaroa at Para-ngarehu. His sons by his second wife were Te Toenga and Te Umu-tahi; the former he settled at Pahaua, and the latter in the Wai-rarapa valley. About this time many of Rangitane left the district and joined their tribesmen in the South Island, where their descendants are found, among Ngati-Kuia, of Pelorus Sound.

Te Rangi-irokia, a descendant of Nga Tangaroa, lived at the Okiwi-nui pa, on the eastern shore of the harbour.

Te Hiha, grandson of Te Umu-tahi, was a famous Kahungunu chief of this district. He it was who built the Orua-motoro pa at Day's Bay. He was visited on one occasion by Te Rangi-ka-ng-ungu, who came to him for instruction in the noble art of war. That instruction they received in the form of initiation into the three modes of fighting known as the rua-tapuke, the kura-takai-puni, and the koau-maro. At the same time they received gifts of valuable greenstone.

At one time Te Hiha was attacked by the clan Ngati-Rongomiaiaia, and seems to have been defeated. He proposed to Whati-pu that they should seek a refuge at, Manawa-tu, but the latter replied: - " No ; when I bathe, let it be in the waters of Rua-mahanga." So he remained and was slain in a subsequent fight, and his severed hand sent as a gift to his friend Te Hiha.

Te Hiha was a famous fighter of his generation, and a man of considerable influence. After the death of Nga-oko-i-te-rangi, a force from Te Wairoa and other places further north, under the chief Te Kāpā arrived at Pahaua, and attacked and took the Karaka-nui pa. After this affair Te Ra-ka-tō came and concluded a peace with Te Hiha. To ratify this function the latter presented his visitor with a slab of unworked greenstone (papa pounamu) named Motoi-rua, and a patu (short stone weapon) named Whiti-patato, saying:-" Cease man slaying, let war end ; let us be diligent, in breeding men." Said Te Ra:" How can it be done?" Te Hiha replied:- "By marrying women to their grandfathers and grandchildren, let all intermarry, that offspring may soon be acquired." This remark shows that the clans were bereft of fighting men and in urgent need of them, for such marriages are usually strongly condemned, and are described as 'tail biting,' comparing such with the act of a dog that turns and bites his own tail.

line of descent from Rakai-whakairi illustration from page 43 The Ngati-Kahukura-awhitia sub-tribe of the Kahungunu tribe seems to have occupied a part of the Hutt valley at the same time that the Ngati-Rakai-whakairi clan lived there. The accompanying table shows a line of descent from Rakai-whakairi, the eponymic ancestor of the latter clan. Some of these clan names are of a cumbrous length and were usually abbreviated, but they fall sadly short of a place name near East Cape which bears the following title - Te Koiritanga a nga pirita o te kupenga a Pawa -a trifle of thirty-seven letters.

When the Native Land Court was enquiring into the ownership of lands known as Nga Waka-a-Kupe, at Wai-rarapa, native evidence showed that the boundary of the grant to the Kahungunu migrants ran from Okorewa on the coast of Palliser Bay to the Aorangi range, thence to Rua-kokopu-tuna, to Huanga-rua stream, thence westward to Ahi-rarariki, to Te Tutu, to Te Tawaha, to Tauhere-nikau, to Otauira, then along the breast of Tararua, to Kiriwai, thence eastward and along the coast to close at Okorewa.

All lands outside this block were retained by Rangitane, but when they killed Te Ao-turuki of Kahungunu, they were attacked and defeated at Okahu, Hau-takere-waka and Te Puke-nui, while their pa at Te Iringa, was occupied by the migrants. The Court decided, however, that Rangitane did not lose the mana of their lands outside the grant for some generations after the arrival of the migrants.

descendents of Pouri illustration on page 43
After the fighting was over, Rangitane ransomed one of their chiefs; Turanga-tahi, by handing-over a piece of land in exchange for him.
The marginal table shows a line of descent from Pouri, the chief mentioned in the above narrative.

Some interesting information concerning the history of settlement in southern Wai-rarapa by Rangitane, Ngati-Kahungunu, Te-Tini-o-Awa and Ngati-Ira has been published in Vols. XIII. and XV. of the " Journal of the Polynesian Society." We are here viewing the movements only of those tribes, however, whose coming affected the Wellington district and its people.


The Ngai-Tahu tribe (p. 44)

Ngai Tahu tribal lineage illustration on page 44The eponymous ancestor of this tribe was Tahu-potiki, a younger brother of Porou-rangi, from whom Ngati-Potou derive their tribal name. The line of descent given is to the famous Ropata of Ngati-Porou, a staunch ally of ours during the fighting on the East Coast in the years 1865-71, and whose life has been written by Colonel Porter.

We have no clear account of the movements of the Ngai-Tahu tribe, descendants of Tahu-potiki, but tradition tells us that a number of them marched southward from their homes about the Waiapu district, and settled at Wai-rarapa, where they lived at the Whakawiriwiri pa. In later times some are said to have lived at Hataitai, though probably not under the tribal name of Ngai-Tahu, for there had been much inter-marriage. Eventually these people moved on to the South Island, where their descendants were found by our early voyagers and settlers. A considerable amount of information concerning their adventures there is conserved in Mackay's "South Island Native Affairs." The peopling of the South Island, is not clearly explained in tradition, for accounts given by different tribes do not agree. T. E. Green, of Ngai-Tahu, has stated that a tribe named Hawea occupied that island prior to the arrival of Waitaha, but the Takitumu tribes of the East Coast of the North Island maintain that the Waitaha and Rapuwai clans, who came from Eastern Polynesia in the vessel ' Takitimu,' were the first people to settle there. Te Rapuwai was an offshoot clan from the Waitaha. The former folk were known as Te Tini-o-Te-Rapuwai, but the collective name of all these people in their former home had been Ngati-Kohuwai. The Mamoe aborigines are supposed to have settled in the South Island, after the advent of the above peoples, and Ngai-Tahu followed in still later times. The latter, or a section of them, were also known as Ngai-Tuahu-riri, and another section as Ngati-Kuri.

Part II continued - Ngati-Ira. (p. 45-)

Korero o te Wa I Raraunga I Rauemi I Te Whanganui a Tara I Whakapapa