Tapua (c.1730-c.1800) was a

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

rangatira In Māori culture, () are tribal chiefs, the hereditary Māori leaders of a hapū. 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 ...

, ''arikinui'' (senior chief) of the Ngati Hao

hapū In Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief and normally opera ...

, of what became the Ngapuhi confederation. His base was the

Kaikohe Kaikohe is the seat of the Far North District of New Zealand, situated on State Highway 12 about 260 km from Auckland. It is the largest inland town and highest community above sea level in the Northland Region. With a population of over ...

and nearby

Hokianga The 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. The original name, still used by local Māori, is ...

area of northern

Aotearoa ''Aotearoa'' () is the current Māori-language name for New Zealand. The name was originally used by Māori in reference to only the North Island, with the name of the whole country being ''Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu'' ("North Island and South ...

(

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

). Tapua was also the

tohunga In the culture of the Māori of New Zealand, a tohunga (tōhuka in Southern Māori dialect) is an expert practitioner of any skill or art, either religious or otherwise. Tohunga include expert priests, healers, navigators, carvers, builders, teache ...

of Ngati Hao and famed as a great warrior in the tradition of the fighting ''rangatira'' (chiefs) of Ngapuhi. Tapua saw

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

's ship when it visited in 1769,"Patuone, Eruera Maihi"
Te Ara becoming one of the first

Māori people The Māori (, ) are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand (). Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several ce ...

to have contact with Europeans.

Descent

Tapua's father was Takare and his mother, Ripia, a ''tohunga'' in her own right and one of the powerful women of Ngapuhi. Although he traced descent directly from Rahiri and Rahiri's first-born son Uenuku, his ''whakapapa'' (genealogical connections) were also strongly with the Pewhairangi (Bay of Islands) area where he maintained a

pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. Pā sites o ...

at Okura, a reach of the

Kerikeri Kerikeri () is the largest town in Northland, New Zealand. It is a tourist destination north of Auckland and north of the northern region's largest city, Whangarei. It is sometimes called the Cradle of the Nation, as it was the site of th ...

inlet.

Wife and children

Tapua's wife was Te Kawehau who also traced descent directly from Rahiri through Kaharau, the second-born son of Rahiri. Their children were Tari, Te Anga, Te Ruanui, Patuone and Nene. Tari married the Pewhairangi chief

Te Wharerahi Te Wharerahi (born c. 1770) was a highly respected ''rangatira'' (chief) of the Ipipiri (Bay of Islands) area of New Zealand. Origins and mana Aside from other connections, he was Ngati Tautahi. His mother was Te Auparo and his father Te Ma ...

while Te Anga and Te Ruanui were killed in battle, fighting with Tapua against Ngati Pou. It was thus that Patuone inherited the male leadership of the family and ''hapu''.

References

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Descent

Wife and children

References

Further reading