Te Hapuku (died 1878), sometimes known as Te Ika-nui-o-te-moana, 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 ...

leader of the

Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti, Ngāti Te Whatu-i-āpiti or Ngāi Te Whatuiāpiti is a Māori hapū (subtribe or branch) of the Ngāti Kahungunu iwi in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. The hapū were descended from Te Whatuiāpiti, who was a great-grandson of ...

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 the

Ngāti Kahungunu Ngāti Kahungunu is a Māori iwi located along the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The iwi is traditionally centred in the Hawke's Bay and Wairārapa regions. The tribe is organised into six geographical and administrative di ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...

, New Zealand, and a farmer and assessor. Born in the late 18th century in a small town called Te Hauke, in the first part of his life he was overshadowed in Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti by his father's cousin Te Pareihe, until the latter's death in 1844. In 1838 Te Hapuku visited the Bay of Islands where he signed the 1835

Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand The Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand ( mi, He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni), signed by a number of Māori chiefs in 1835, proclaimed the sovereign independence of New Zealand prior to the signing of the Treaty of ...

. In 1840 he initially refused to sign the

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi ( mi, Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a document of central importance to the history, to the political constitution of the state, and to the national mythos of New Zealand. It has played a major role in the treatment of the M ...

when it was brought to Hawke's Bay, but was eventually persuaded to sign. From the 1850s he was a keen seller of land, wishing to attract the economic benefit of European settlers. He now rests in the Urupa in Te Hauke with a cenotaph donated by the New Zealand Government.

References

1878 deaths Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti people Year of birth missing {{Māori-bio-stub