Ranana is a settlement up the

Whanganui River The Whanganui River is a major river in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the country's third-longest river, and has special status owing to its importance to the region's Māori people. In March 2017 it became the world's second natura ...

from

Whanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

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 ...

. Originally known as Kauika, it grew after 1848 as local Māori moved out of fortified pā settlements in peacetime. It was renamed by the

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

Richard Taylor in 1856 for ''Rānana'', 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 ...

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The town's Catholic church, built in the 1880s for the

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 ...

Ngāti Ruakā of the

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 ...

Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, is still in use. Nearby is

Moutoa Island Moutoa Island is an island of shingle approximately long, up the Whanganui River, New Zealand between the towns of Rānana and Hiruharama. Surrounded by rapids, it has been the site of many battles, the most famous being on 14 May 1864, betwe ...

, site of a famous battle in 1864. Ngāti Ruakā and Ngāti Hine Korako have two traditional meeting grounds in Ranana: the Rānana or Ruakā Marae and Te Morehu meeting house, and Te Pou o Rongo Marae and Tūmanako meeting house.

Education

Te Wainui a Rua is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of as of .

References

Whanganui River Populated places in Manawatū-Whanganui Settlements on the Whanganui River Whanganui District {{ManawatuWanganui-geo-stub