Muriwhenua Fisheries Claim / SOE Claim

A 2 Appendix 2

IDENTITIES AND INTER-RELATIONSHIPS OF THE CLAIMANT TRIBES

[See 1.5]

This appendix, prepared by Tribunal staff, summarises extensive oral evidence on the origins of the five most northern tribes of Aotearoa, Ngati Kuri, Te Aupouri, Te Rarawa, Ngai Takoto, and Ngati Kahu. It first establishes their separate identities, and then their close relationship.

We are grateful to those many kaumatua and rangatahi who spoke freely on matters of whakapapa (genealogy) and history. Only a fraction of their information is abstracted here. For help in checking staff summaries of traditional evidence we thank Niki Conrad and Viv Gregory, both recently deceased. Haere te koroua o te Muriwhenua, haere te poua o te Murihiku. We also thank Simon Snowden, Mira Szazy, Maori Marsden, Atihana Johns, Waerete Norman, Ross Gregory, Shane Jones, MacCully Matiu, Matiu Rata and Hone Aperahama. We thank also Te Aniwaniwa Hona for help in transcribing tape recordings in Maori. Tena koutou mo o koutou whakaaro pounamu.

A2.1 Ngati Kuri

Ko Maunga Piko te maunga,
Ko Parengarenga te moana
Ko Te Reo Mihi te marae
Ko Ngati Kuri te iwi

The ancestors of Ngati Kuri, they claim, were already occupying the northern tip of Aotearoa before the many migratory waka (canoes) of traditional knowledge came from Polynesia.

Those people were called Te Ngaki. Some elders recited 23 generations of Te Ngaki ancestors before the arrival of Kurahaupo waka. Ngati Kuri emerges from the marriage of the Kurahaupo waka people (Ngati Kaha) with the earlier Te Ngaki inhabitants.

Kurahaupo is generally acknowledged as an ancient and sacred canoe. The sanctity of its origin may account for its name, but Wiremu Paraone recorded his kaumatua's view that 'kura' may have referred to the reddish haze of the sea at sunset or early dawn, or as perhaps recalling the dramatic end to its voyage (from Waerota Island we were told). The elders agreed that on its way to Aotearoa the lashings of Kurahaupo timbers were loosened or damaged and the vessel was nearly wrecked at Rangitahua (Kermadec Islands). Most of the crew were later brought on to Aotearoa by the larger Aotea canoe, but a few men remained to repair Kurahaupo and complete the journey. After much hardship the remnant made landfall and the circumstances of that event are well ingrained in oral tradition. During a storm at night, other elders said, their navigator Pi, saw the shining line of phosphorescence common to waves breaking at the base of cliffs, and knew there was land there; they believed the canoe name refers to that strange light in the darkness. In the attempt to beach in the dark, the canoe was wrecked on a rock (Wakura) but the crew struggled ashore.

Others believed that Po (the Captain) brought the canoe in safely, and tied it to the rock known as Te-wa-o-te-Kura (now shortened to Wakura). The people went ashore to rest and in the morning found their canoe waterlogged. With the aid of Te Ngaki people the canoe was dragged to their main village at the mouth of a stream now known as Waitangi, the first place of that name in New Zealand, signifying the lament (tangi) for the wrecking of that sacred canoe. The event is recalled by the Ngati Kuri whakatauki (proverb) 'Te tomokanga a Kurahaupo i roto i Waitangi' ['the entrance of Kurahaupo into Waitangi'].

At Takapaukura we were shown the rock into which Kurahaupo is transformed, the marks of its timbers still showing on the stone surface. Some Ngati Kuri and Te Aupouri considered, however, that Kurahaupo was actually repaired and later travelled south. That account explains the many tribal connections claimed to the Kurahaupo canoe, including those in Taranaki district and even the Ngati Mamoe and others of Murihiku (Southland) at the far end of Te Waipounamu (the South Island).

The story is detailed here because others of the claimant tribes also descend from Kurahaupo and from Po-hurihanga, the principal man on that canoe. It also accounts for the first appearance of Waitangi as a place name in Aotearoa, which like other important names, was then carried with the people as they migrated, as far afield as the Waitaki (Waitangi) river in Te Waipounamu (South Island). Later, of course, the name was commemorated forever in another northern place where the Treaty was signed.

Po-hurihanga of Kurahaupo married Maieke, a chiefly woman of Te Ngaki, and their daughter was named Muriwhenua. In due time the tribe resulting were known as Ngati Kuri, although that name was adopted much later. Another elder speaking at the Te Hapua hearing claimed Po-hurihanga, Pipi and Muri-te-whenua were the three principal men on Kurahaupo and that from their descendants there emerged the four other Muriwhenua tribes Ngati Kahu, Te Rarawa, Te Aupouri and Ngai Takoto.

It was said the first pa (defended village) of Ngati Kuri was named Mahurangi, the second Whiriwhiri, the third Te Tomokanga (near the mouth of Waitangi river), and the fourth Wharekawa. For each of these pa we were told the special source of fresh water (a vital resource in the region), the related fishing grounds and food gardens and the names of the associated urupa (sacred burial places). Each of these traditional places (and many others) were shown to us during site visits throughout the area of the claim.

Amongst others, the precursors of Ngati Kuri were closely related to a group now known as Ngati Awa. The composite group were almost destroyed in conflict with a section of Ngati Ruanui, later to be known as Te Aupouri. (For convenience we will use the tribal names ultimately taken by Ngati Kuri and Te Aupouri, though those appellations came later). Pakewa, the younger brother of the Ngati Kuri chief Papatahuri, was murdered by Te Aupouri, and a deadly struggle for utu (revenge) followed. Aupouri severely defeated Ngati Kuri, and the survivors withdrew to the valley of Whangape River, at Rotokakahi below Pangaru hills. In time the tribe regenerated its warrior force and Papatahuri sought revenge on Te Aupouri, who had by then a pa at Ahipara named Whangatauatea. To breach this stronghold by direct assault was impossible, but the attackers won victory by a ruse. They sacrificed their precious kuri (a distinctive Polynesian species of dog but now lost through interbreeding with the European dog), though the flesh of the kuri was prized as an alternative meat to fish, and though skins of kuri were used to make the most valuable and rarest kind of cloaks. The skins of their slaughtered kuri were sewn together and stuffed with fern and grass to assume the shape of a whale. When the 'whale' was launched into the sea before dawn, near the pa of Te Aupouri, the inhabitants rushed from their fortifications to seize this apparent gift from the sea. The deceived Te Aupouri were ambushed. Trapped outside their protective works, without weapons, they suffered a terrible slaughter.

In their turn the Aupouri remnants withdrew northwards into what is now known as Te Aupouri Peninsula. Their survivors also regenerated in due time to form the small but vigorous Te Aupouri tribe of today. As for Ngati Kuri, their current name was taken from that famous battle, when they sacrificed their precious dogs.

A2.2 Te Aupouri

Ko Mahuhu-ki-te-rangi te waka
Ko Whakatau te tangata
Nana ko Hau, ko Kae
Ta Kae ko nga tupuna o Ruanui
Ta Ruanui ko Ruatapu
Ka puta ko Te Aupouri

Ko Ruanui te tangata
Ko Mamari te waka
i uu mai ki Ripino

These two sayings, taken together with the story of Pohurihanga and the Kurahaupo canoe, indicate the principal three canoes which give descent lines to Te Aupouri people, Kurahaupo, Mahuhukiterangi and Mamari. As mentioned above, Po-hurihanga was the chief man on Kurahaupo, and on the Mamari canoe the rangatira was Ruanui, while Whakatau was the chief on the Mahuhukiterangi.

Until fairly recently, shortly before the arrival of Captain Cook, the Te Aupouri people lived further south near Whangape harbour. At that time the tribe was known as Ngati Ruanui, and their chiefs were Wheeru and Te Ikanui. The tribe suffered severely through war provoked by the murder of Kupe, Wheeru's sister at Makora pa. They narrowly escaped siege and extinction through a clever tactic in which they burnt piles of scrub and household possessions to destroy their houses and burial places, and make dark dense smoke. By these means they blinded their enemies and made good their escape from the besieged pa. It was from this event that they changed their name to Te Aupouri (signifying 'dark smoke and ash clouds') and migrated north to their stronghold at Whangatauatea near Ahipara. Prolonged strife with Nga puhi and Te Rarawa forced them to move again and again.

It was their dramatic escape by a ruse from the barren island retreat of Murimotu, where they were beseiged by Ngapuhi, that is commemorated now by their famous chant 'Ruia ruia, tahia tahia . . .' recorded at the start of chapter 2. Their leader Tumatahina turned to good account his unusually large feet by having his people step carefully in his outsize footprints as they quietly slipped through enemy lines at night; the sentries saw only a single track in the sand next morning and did not realise Murimotu was abandoned, leaving Te Aupouri time to reach safety. From that time with access to better lands the tribe has been able to recover and flourish, giving extra significance to their chant 'Ruia ruia . . .'.

In time, Te Aupouri married into Ngai Takoto and Ngati Kuri, and made peace with their former enemies of Te Rarawa and Ngapuhi.

A2.3 Ngai Takoto

Ko Tuwhakatere te tangata
Ko Kurahaupo te waka
Ko Rangaunu te moana
Ko Ngai Takoto te iwi

Through the marriage of their ancestor Tuwhakatere, a principal tupuna of Ngai Takoto, to the chiefly woman Tu-te-rangi-a-tohia, the people of Ngai Takoto descend from the Kurahaupo canoe. The chief man of Kurahaupo, Pohurihanga, had a son Whata-kaimarie, and his grandson was Uenuku. The great grandson of Uenuku was Hikiraaiti, and Tuterangiatohia was his daughter. From her marriage with Tuwhakatere there were three grandchildren of whom one was Maui. He in turn gave descent to Popota. Evidence directly recorded from Popota was presented at our Tribunal hearings at Ahipara. From Popota derives the Paatu hapu (sub-tribe) of Ngai Takoto. Several members of that hapu also gave oral evidence in support of the claim.

Tuwhakatere also married Tupoia, an ariki of Ngati Kahu, explaining the close links and territorial extent of these two tribes. His favourite son, Hoka, was killed in battle, causing the deeply berieved Tuwhakatere to pine away and die; hence the tribal name Ngai Takoto. The tribe then lived in the Hokianga region for five generations, returning in the time of Te Aupouri chief Wheeru to live in the Kaitaia, Awanui and Te Kao regions, where the descendants of one main branch are now known as Te Aupouri. Thus those tribes also are very closely related. As Te Aupouri also married into Ngati Kuri, their name became widespread in Muriwhenua by the time they were settled in their present areas, about 1720.

A2.4 Te Rarawa

This tribe originates from three important canoes. From Nga-toki-mata-whao-rua (and from Nukutawhiti the chief man) they have affinity with Nga Puhi. They also descend from Kurahaupo waka, and further relate to the Tinana canoe linking them with Ngati Kahu.

The waka Tinana (later relaunched as Mamaru) landed at Tauroa near Ahipara. The chief man, Tumoana, laid claim to the land between Hokianga and Ahipara, as far inland as the mountains Mangamuka and Maungataniwha. Later Tumoana returned to Hawaiiki, but his daughter Kahutianui and son Tamahotu remained at Tauroa. The canoe eventually returned, adzed a second time and renamed as Mamaru, with Tumoana's nephew Parata on board.

Directly descending from Tumoana was Haupare (his great grandson) who married Paengatai; from them came Taranga. Their descendants were known as Ngati Haupare, who later became the tribe Te Rarawa.

The origins of Te Rarawa were at Hokianga. The famed explorer Kupe came to that harbour and later returned to Hawaiiki. Many placenames in North Cape area record the gardens or actions of Kupe during his time here. His descendant Nukutawhiti returned on Kupe's canoe and his progeny included Ruanui (2nd) and Wheeru already mentioned as an ancestor of Te Aupouri, Ngati Whatua and others. This key figure also descends from Kurahaupo through Pohurihanga and Tohe (for whom 90-mile beach, Te Wharo-oneroa-a-Tohe, is named).

Under the leadership of Tarutaru his family spread to various parts of Muriwhenua, and married well, so that Te Rarawa soon was able to master a sizeable fighting force which proved irresistible. The tribe pushed northwards to take the fertile gardens and swamp land around Ahipara and Pukepoto, and part of 90-mile Beach. (One possible meaning of Te Rarawa refers to swampland, though we heard also it may refer to the ceremonial eating of human flesh to signify the destruction of the mana of those vanquished in battle.) Thus the mana of Te Rarawa extended from Hokianga to Ahipara and Pukepoto, and further to North Cape.

At their main centre Ahipara, the meeting house Te Owhaaki commemorates the mana bird of Ueoneone which brought to the district the Mataatua ariki women Reipae (who married into Ngati Whatua) and Reitu (who married Ueoneone of Ngapuhi). As noted, their descendants are found in Ngati Hine, Ngapuhi, Ngati Whatua, Te Rarawa, and it is said, all of the other northern tribes too, so relating them with Waikato, and with each other. Te Rarawa fought strongly and often to keep the related tribes mentioned above from capturing their lands, contended for by all because of their fertility in a region of generally poor soil. Their chief Pane, of the Kare Ao hapu, (and often called Nopera (noble or chief) Panekareao), was famous throughout Muriwhenua and played a prominent role before and after the Treaty signing. He it was at Waitangi who said of the Treaty and the cession of sovereignty the "the Shadow of land goes to the Queen, the substance remains with us", but after the Northland land sales he bitterly reversed his famous saying, when he felt only a shadow remained after all. Other important Te Rarawa connections are to the Takitimu descendants of Tamatea, noted in the next section.

From early last century, Te Rarawa were dominant in the region. In the population estimates published by Dieffenbach in 1843, Te Rarawa were given as 8,000 persons, Ngati Whatua as 800, and Nga Puhi (combining several related tribes then extant) as 12,000.

A2.5 Ngati Kahu

Ko Mamaru te waka,
Ko Te Parata te tangata,
Ko Kahutianui te wahine,
Ko Ngati Kahu te Iwi.

One of the earliest known canoes, some claim the first to strike the beaches of Tai Tokerau, was Mamaru, on which Te Parata was the chief man. The canoe had earlier sailed under the name of Tinana and the authority of Tumoana, Parata's uncle. Tumoana is also known in Tai Rawhiti (East Coast) and Ngai Tahu (Te Waipounamu, South Island) genealogies. Accordingly, when the carvings intended for an East Coast house to be named for Tumoana were recovered from a swamp where they were hidden during an invasion years earlier, they were given for the construction of the present meeting house (Tamatea) on Otakou marae in the South Island.

The tribal name originates from Kahutianui, who was awaiting the arrival of the Mamaru waka and who married Parata soon afterwards. From their daughter, Te Mamangi, Ngati Kahu are descended. Her great grandson was Haititai-Marangai, for whom the Ngati Kahu meeting house at Whatuwhiwhi is named. (We are aware some report Te Mamangi as male, but leave that question to the tribe.)

The Mamaru canoe first sighted the land now known as Rangiawhia, now called Karikari Peninsular. The crew paused there to rest before exploring what they assumed was a peninsular by following the coast line past Whatuwhiwhi, Patia and Puwheke (which looked to them like a huge wheke or octopus). Soon they realised that they had circumnavigated an island because they found themselves back at Rangiawhia (originally called Te Rangi-i-Tawhiao, or The Day We Circumnavigated). The first pa was established at Rangiawhia after exploring the rest of Doubtless Bay.

Initially there were three hapu on Mamaru waka, Te Rorohuri, Patu Koraha and Te Whanau Moana. Each settled in the area around Doubtless Bay and Rangaunu Harbour. Because of the marriage of Te Parata and Kahutianui, and as Kahutianui was an influential person and an able leader, the original hapu of Mamaru in time identified collectively as Ngati Kahu. Kahutianui's children in their turn became the founding ancestors of many more Ngati Kahu hapu. The original three hapu did not lose their identity and it is still a matter of pride to know of one's descent from them.

The Mamaru waka eventually beached at Taipa where a memorial for the canoe now stands. Te Parata and Kahutianui were said to have lived mainly at Taipa and at Taemaro. Their decendants settled the east coast area around Rangaunu Harbour. Several generations later they had spread south along the coast to Whangaroa, Matauri Bay and Te Tii, and in time intermarried with all the Northland tribes. Thus Ngati Kahu also claims descent from Puhi's mokopuna Rahiri. Through this connection, and the factions created by Rahiri's sons Uenuku Kuare and Kaharau, Ngati Kahu became involved in the fighting which affected the Northland area for many generations and which continued right up to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

The cradle of Ngati Kahu is Tokarau (Doubtless Bay). That name refers to the multiplicity of fishing grounds (toka) belonging to them. Their largest settlement in the eighteenth century was in Oruru-Taipa Valley. There was also Mamangi Pa at Otengi Point near Taipa, recently gifted back to the tribe by their Pakeha friends, the Adamson family, and several others extending to Kauhanga in Peria. It was said the area was so densly settled that news and messages could be shouted from Taipa to Kauhanga from one pa to the next. The earthworks of those pa are still clearly evident today.

Ngati Kahu had also an earlier name, Ngai Tamatea, but it largely dropped from usage following a severe defeat in battle in which their leading men were killed at Kohukohu. When descendants of the survivors restored their tribal mana, many years later, they decided (about 1926) to resume the name Ngati Kahu to which they are entitled as descendants of Te Mamangi, daughter of Parata and Kahutianui.

The origin of the earlier name Ngai Tamatea, records the relationship of Ngati Kahu with many other tribes. As earlier mentioned, Po-hurihanga (of Kurahaupo waka) and Maieke (of Te Ngaki) had a daughter Muriwhenua. She married Rongokapo and their son was Tamatea-urehaea (Tamatea the circumcised); he married Iwipupu and they had a son Kahungunu and a daughter Iranui. From the marriage of Kahungunu to Hinetapu came a son Kahukura-ariki, who married Mamangi of the Mamaru (and Tinana) canoes already described. Hence there are two versions, although converging and mutually strengthening, establishing the propriety of the name Kahu for the tribe, from both female and male chiefly lines of descent. The same data correlates several other tribal groups of Kahu descent well beyond the Muriwhenua district. Besides the Ngati Kahu of Tauranga for example, and the major tribe Ngati Kahungunu of Hawke's Bay, the link through the marriage of Kahungunu's sister Iranui to Hingaangaroa is also apparent to Ngati Ira (Wellington area) and cognate North Island tribes, extending again to Ngai Tahu and their Irakehu and Kati Kuri hapu in the South Island.

Ngati Kahu have yet another ancient link involving both Paoa and Po-hurihanga. Subsequent to the events described with reference to Ngati Kuri, these two chiefs went voyaging on the Riukaramea canoe. Paoa is said to have landed at Mangonui, a little south of Taipa, at about the same time as the Mamaru canoe arrived at Otengi just north of Taipa. The name Mangonui is due to their protective taniwha, a very large shark in this case, which accompanied Riukaramea into harbour. Paoa's son committed a sin (hara or breach of tapu) by attacking and attempting to kill this shark, so he was banished and left behind. There he married into the people of the recently arrived Mamaru canoe, later known as Ngati Kahu.

A2.6 Nga Puhi

The relationship with adjoining Nga Puhi also deserves mention, though Nga Puhi are not a party to this claim.

Two canoes are especially important for Nga Puhi, Nga-Toki-Mata-Whao-Rua on which Nukutawhiti was the chief man, and Mataatua on which Puhi was leader when Mataatua came to Tai Tokerau in the far north. Mataatua had first landed on the East Coast, and rested in a quiet little river estuary known as Otakou. From Toroa and the crew of Mataatua come several Bay of Plenty tribes. After disputes with his older brothers, Puhi decided to take the canoe and migrate to the north with his followers. The famous Nga Puhi ancestor Rahiri was descended from both canoes, and through his wives Ahuaiti and Whakaruru his descendants are connected to all the northern tribes. One of his descendants was Ue-oneone who married Reitu of the Waikato.

It is claimed that through the marriages of the Waikato women Reitu (to Ue-oneone) and Reipae (to Tahuhu potiki) can be traced relationships of all the tribes, Ngapuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngati Kahu, Te Aupouri, and Ngati Whatua.

A2.7 Te Kupenga o nga Tupuna

With undeserved brevity, we have attempted to outline the particular identity (the mana motuhake) of each of the five Tribes standing to claim both separately and jointly in these Muriwhenua proceedings. Besides their individual tribal status, the claimants share so much in common that they have elected to prosecute their claims in Muriwhenua as one body of closely related peoples. This final section briefly looks again at the background to what at first sight might seem a surprising unity.

Undoubtedly much is due to the efforts of the Hon M Rata as originating claimant on behalf of all. But he is claiming in accord with ancient traditional background in the region from which, some experts assert, all Maori tribes are descended or at least related. His Tribe, Ngati Kuri, is the most ancient in the region. Several elders also claimed that virtually all of the great migratory canoes (much better known than their own cited above) landed first in the Muriwhenua region, or at least, like Mataatua, came there after first landfall.

All the claimant tribes reported prior, older, names for their ancestral tribes, and all acknowledged prior existence of Tangata Whenua living there before their own ancestors arrived. Various names of those people were given to us; whether they are alternative names for the same or differing early indigenous peoples we must leave to the tangata whenua to research. But their existence, and inter-marriage with ancestors of the five tribes now claiming, further underpin the effort of these tribes to join together in this Muriwhenua claim.

Pohurihanga referred to the ancients as He Karitehe (to others, He Turehu), and they also were known as Te Kahui-a-Ngu. We heard that the descendants of Ngu, (or, of Ngo, who some thought might be the same person), Pei, Turoi, Kauwhata and Mahuika were known to Ngati Manu, descendants of Tohe. The kaainga (home place) of Ngati Manu was at Muriwhenua, North Cape, and a descendant nineteen generations after Ngu was Tohe for whom Ninety Mile Beach is named One-roa-a-Tohe.

The people accompanying Pohurihanga on board Kurahaupo were known as Ngati Kaha, during the early generations of intermarriage with the ancient tangata whenua. We noted earlier that Ngati Kuri spoke of these ancestors as Te Ngaki. In explaining the origin of Ngati Kaha (who are long since merged into the Ngati Kuri, Te Aupouri, Ngai Takoto and Te Rarawa Tribes of the present Claim) it emerged that older name referred to the header rope (kaharoa) of the great net belonging to Pohurihanga and brought with him on the Kurahaupo canoe. Their waka was sinking, and the damage was repaired at the Kermadec islands, using Po's kaharoa to bind the loosened timbers together.

The multiple linkages in Muriwhenua are well shown by the whakapapa of Wheeru, an important ancestor claimed by most inhabitant groups in Muriwhenua. Wheeru's descendants have at least six canoe descent lines from Kurahaupo (through Pohurihanga, Tohe, Waimirirangi, More); from Tinana (Tumoana, Haupare, Taranga, Tahuhu, Pororua, Ngataiawa and Taimania who married Wheeru); from Mamari (Ruanui 1st); Matawhaorua (Kupe) and Ngatokimatawhaorua (Nukutawhiti, Ruanui 2nd); and from Mahuhukiterangi (Whakatau, Ruanui 1st and Ruatapu). Others of their tupuna, such as Tamatea or Kahu, reveal networks of similar complexity.

Hence we adopt the terminology of Tipene O'Regan (1987:21) to refer to this Kupenga-o-nga-Tupuna, or in other words the network of ancestry. Within that network in Muriwhenua the five Tribes of Ngati Kuri, Te Aupouri, Ngati Kahu, Ngai Takoto and Te Rarawa stood before the Waitangi Tribunal in mutual support.