Waituhi is a small settlement in the Gisborne District of New Zealand's

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

. It is northwest of the city of Gisborne, on the western bank of the

Waipaoa River The Waipaoa River is a river of the northeast of New Zealand's North Island. It rises on the eastern slopes of the Raukumara Range, flowing south for to reach Poverty Bay and the Pacific Ocean just south of Gisborne. For about half of this d ...

. It is notable as the historic site of Popoia

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 ...

, and as the setting for several novels and short stories of

Witi Ihimaera Witi Tame Ihimaera-Smiler (; born 7 February 1944) is a New Zealand author. Raised in the small town of Waituhi, he decided to become a writer as a teenager after being convinced that Māori people were ignored or mischaracterised in literat ...

. Members of the Te Whanau-a-Kai

Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki is one of the three principal Māori iwi of the Tūranga district; the others being Rongowhakaata and Ngai Tamanuhiri. It is numerically the largest of the three, with 6,258 affiliated members as of 2013. The rohe (territo ...

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 ...

(tribe) are the tangata whenua (“the people of the land”). In 2009 a project to develop a community drinking water supply was started.article
in Gisborne Herald d.d. 2009-02-17

History

Ruapani

Ruapani Ruapani was a rangatira (chief) of the Māori in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa (the Poverty Bay-region on the East Coast of New Zealand) in the 15th and 16th century. He is said to have been the paramount chief of all the Tūranganui-a-Kiwa tribes around 1525 ...

was regarded as the paramount chief of all the Tūranganui-a-Kiwa tribes around 1525. His influence also extended widely around the region. It is said that the aristocratic lines of descent from Paoa and Kiwa of the Horouta waka converged upon him and his rule was undisputed. Ruapani lived at a

, Popoia, near Waituhi. He had three wives. His first wife was Wairau. His second wife was Uenukukōihu and his third wife was Rongomaipāpā, who was a daughter of Kahungunu and Rongomaiwahine. When Ruapani died, Tūhourangi took Rongomaipāpā as his wife and founded the present Tūhourangi tribe in Rotorua, which is part of the Te Arawa confederation of tribes.article
in TE NUPEPA O TE TAIRAWHITI • SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 2007) The importance of Ruapani is clearly shown in the whakapapa (genealogy) lines of all the tribes in the Tūranganui-a-Kiwa district. With the emergence of these tribes, like

, Rongowhakaata and

Ngāi Tāmanuhiri Ngāi Tāmanuhiri is a Māori iwi of New Zealand and were formerly known by the name of Ngai Tahu, and Ngai Tahu-po respectively. They are descendants of Tahu-nui (also known as Tahu potiki, or Tahu matua) who is also the eponymous ancestor of t ...

— Ruapani's influence began to wane and he retreated inland to the home of his relations in the Lake Waikaremoana area, where he lived out his days. The

Ngāti Ruapani Ngāti Ruapani or Ngāti Ruapani ki Waikaremoana is a Māori iwi of northern Hawke's Bay and the southern Gisborne District in New Zealand. They take their name from the ancestor Ruapani, who lived at the Popoia pā on the Waipaoa River near W ...

still consider themselves as the descendants of Ruapani.

Rongopai

Rongopai is a great painted wharenui (meeting house) built at Waituhi for Te Kooti in 1887 by the Whānau-a-Kair hapū of the Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki

. Local leader and politician

Wi Pere Wiremu "Wi" Pere (7 March 1837 – 9 December 1915), was a Māori Member of Parliament in New Zealand. He represented Eastern Māori in the House of Representatives from 1884 to 1887, and again from 1893 to 1905. Pere's strong criticism of th ...

was part of the process in creating the wharenui. Rongopai has paintings rather than carvings and is significant to

Māori art 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 Co ...

because of this. Eria Tutara-Kauika Raukura (1834/5 – 1938), the leading

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 the Ringatu church, founded by Te Kooti, became a guardian of Rongopai in 1913, and he was still active there as a guardian and tohunga in the mid-1920s.Binney, Judith – Raukura, Eria Tutara-Kauika (1834/35 – 1938)
in

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography The ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'' (DNZB) is an encyclopedia or biographical dictionary containing biographies of over 3,000 deceased New Zealanders. It was first published as a series of print volumes from 1990 to 2000, went online i ...

Another marae at Waituhi is Pakohai. Another marae at Waituhi is Takitimu

Witi Ihimaera

Waituhi is the setting of several of

's novels, including ''Tangi'' (1973), ''The Matriarch'' (1986), ''Bulibasha, king of the Gypsies'' (1994) and ''Band of Angels'' (2005).synopsis and review
of ''Band of Angels'' As Millar states,
in Robinson, Roger & Nelson Wattie (ed.) - ''The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature”. 1998. pp. 254–256 much of Ihimaera's fiction is based on fact, but his work is never simply autobiographical. Waituhi, for example, the village setting for many of his narratives, is an imaginative recreation of the actual place. The fictional Waituhi's ‘physical cohesion rovidingan "objective correlative" to the ethos that binds the tangata whenua together’.

Opera

''Waituhi – The Life of the Village'' was an opera with music from Ross Harris; libretto by Witi Ihimaera. This four-act opera is based on the novel ''Whanau'' and is the story of the writer's life in an East Coast (New Zealand) village. It is scored for 23 soloists, chorus, and full orchestra. The opera was first performed at the State Opera House in Wellington in 1984.Waituhi – The Life of the Village
See also:
The making of a Maori opera
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Different meanings of 'Waituhi' in Māori

Waituha has some different meanings in

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 ...

: * A waituhi was a pool of water or bird trough with fixed snares over it.The claim relating to the forest
in The Pouakani Report 1993 * or: freshet, first signs of water in a stream. * Waituhi can also mean: to perform certain rites over a woman at or after childbirth; or * to perform rites over a child at the cutting of the navel-string. * Waituhi can also mean: red.
/ref>

Footnotes

Literature

Murton, Brian J. (1979) - Waituhi: A Place in Maori New Zealand
in: New Zealand Geographer. Vol. 35 Issue 1, pp. 24–33. {{Commons category-inline Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki Populated places in the Gisborne District