The Ngāti Tūwharetoa–Ngāti Whitikaupeka War was a conflict which took place along the

Mohaka Mohaka is a small settlement in the northern Hawke's Bay region of the eastern North Island of New Zealand. It is located on the coast of Hawke Bay, 20 kilometres southwest of Wairoa. The Mohaka River reaches the coast close to Mohaka. Marae ...

and

Ōamaru River The Ōamaru River is a river of the centre of New Zealand's North Island. One of the headwaters of the Mohaka River, it flows generally northeast from its source southeast of Tūrangi, and forms the boundary between the Kaimanawa and Kaweka For ...

valleys in the Kaweka and

Kaimanawa Range The Kaimanawa Range, officially called the Kaimanawa Mountains since 16 July 2020, is a range of mountains in the central North Island of New Zealand. They extend for 50 kilometres in a northeast–southwest direction through largely uninhabited ...

s of the central

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. In revenge for the murder of Taniwha-pare-tuiri,

Ngāti Tūwharetoa Ngāti Tūwharetoa is an iwi descended from Ngātoro-i-rangi, the priest who navigated the Arawa canoe to New Zealand. The Tūwharetoa region extends from Te Awa o te Atua ( Tarawera River) at Matatā across the central plateau of the North ...

and Ngāti Kurapoto attacked

Ngāti Whitikaupeka Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...

, a

hapū In Māori language, 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 ...

Ngāti Kahungunu Ngāti Kahungunu is a Māori iwi (tribe) 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 Kahungunu iwi also comprises 86 hapū (sub-tribes ...

. After the war the area between the

Mohaka River The Mohaka river is on the North Island of New Zealand in the east central region of Hawke’s Bay. Mohaka is a Māori language, Maori word, roughly translated it means “place for dancing”. The iwi (Māori tribes) associated with the Mohaka R ...

and the Owhaoko Plateau became part of Ngāti Tūwharetoa's territory.

Murder of Taniwha-pare-tuiri

Taniwha-pare-tuiri was the wife of Turi-roa of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, who lived at Mohaka-Tapapa on the

. She went to dig fernroot at the nearby area of Poponui, drying it and placing it in ''

kete KETE (99.7 FM; "Three Angels Broadcasting Network") is a terrestrial radio station, licensed to Sulphur Bluff, Texas, United States, and owned by Brazos TV, Inc. KETE broadcasts a Christian preaching format, featuring programming from the Th ...

'' (flax baskets) along with perei roots which she found while digging. These roots look a lot like

kumara Kumara may refer to: Places * Kumara (Mali), a province * Kumara, New Zealand, a town * Kumara (New Zealand electorate), a Parliamentary electorate Other uses * Kumara Illangasinghe, an Anglican bishop in Sri Lanka * Kumara (surname) * The Fo ...

and when she passed by the Ngāti Whitikaupeka village of Paerangi, the local children told the adults that Taniwha-pare-tuiri was carrying kumara stolen from Paerangi, so a band of the men killed her and cooked her in an oven.

Course of the war

When the people at Mohaka-Tapapa learnt of Taniwha-pare-tuiri's murder, they immediately gathered a war party, led by the leader of Ngāti Kurapoto, Ranginui-a-Haweri, who was her nephew (the son of her sister Pahau-moko), her husband Turi-roa, and Whakarua. They sent a message to the Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Kurapoto at Taupō, who came down the

Taharua River The Taharua River is a river of the northwestern Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows south from its origins 25 kilometres southwest of Taupō to reach the Mohaka River of which it is one of the earliest tributaries. See ...

to join them. At Tutae-puehu, they encountered a woman of Ngāti Whitikaupeka called Hine-te-kikini whom they interrogated for information on the location of Ngāti Whitikaupeka. After she had told them what they wanted to know, they killed her and set up a block of

pumice Pumice (), called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of extremely vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicula ...

which was still known as Hine-te-kikini as of 1916. The war party took the fortresses of Rounui and Rouiti. Then they fought a battle, chasing Ngāti Whitikaupeka up the

, continuing up over Mount Te Ranga-a-Whakarua (named because it was first climbed on this occasion, by Whakarua), and along the

Ngaruroro River The Ngaruroro River is located in the eastern North Island of New Zealand. It runs for a total of 164 kilometres southeast from the Kaweka Range, Kaimanawa Range and Ruahine Range and then east before emptying into Hawke Bay roughly halfway be ...

, until they reached the Owhaoko plateau, where the Ngāti Whitikaupeka were defeated. The upper reaches of the Ngaruroro River are called Wai-a-Tapuritia, because Tapuritia was killed there. As a result of this conflict, the whole area from the Mohaka River to the Owhaoko plateau was added to the domains of Ngāti Tūwharetoa. The war was successfully cited to establish their right to this land in the Maori Land Court in the late nineteenth century.

Subsequent conflicts

Further conflicts between Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Whitikaupeka led Tū-te-tawhā to relocate his base from

Lake Rotoaira Lake Rotoaira (sometimes written ''Lake Roto-aira'') is a small lake to the south of Lake Taupō on the North Island Volcanic Plateau in New Zealand. It covers an area of 13 km2. Lake Rotoaira is one of the few privately owned lakes in New ...

(south of Lake Taupō) to the Karangahape cliffs at the south end of Lake Taupō, where he made his fortress on Motuwhara Island. Subsequently, he and his brother-in-law Tū-hereua went searching for a new location for a fortress. As the two of them came into

Kuratau Kuratau is a small village north of Omori and south of Whareroa Village, on the western side of New Zealand's Lake Taupō. The Kuratau Power Station was built on the Kuratau River near the town and completed in 1962. Lake Taupō is erodi ...

, unaware that it had been occupied by Ngāti Whitikaupeka, they were ambushed, but they successfully fought back, killing four ''rangatira'': Kuratau, Te Rae, Mori, and Te Tatō, and putting the rest of Ngāti Whitikaupeka to flight. This is known as the battle of Uwhiuwhi-hiawai. A generation later still, the Ngāti Whitikaupeka ''rangatira'' Tumakau-rangi joined

Te Rehu Te Rehu was a 17th-century Māori ''ariki'' (chieftain) of Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Apa from the region around Lake Taupō, New Zealand. Life Te Rehu was born at Orangi-te-taea on Lake Rotoaira. His father was Matangikaiawha, a descendent of ...

in an attack on

Tauranga Taupō Tauranga Taupō is a semi-rural area located at the mouth of Tauranga Taupō River, on the southern shores of Lake Taupō in New Zealand's North Island. Settlements The area includes three contiguous settlements: Oruatua, near the mouth of the ...

, in which the Tūwharetoa ''rangatira'' Te Iwikinakia, son of

Waikari Waikari is a small town in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. Its Anglican parish church is the Church of Ascension, 79 Princes Street, Waikari, where William Orange was vicar in the 1920s. The New Zealand Ministry for Cult ...

was killed. In revenge, Ngāti Tūwharetoa attacked the Whitikaupeka fortress of Kirimara at

Moawhango Moawhango is a rural community in the northern part of Rangitikei District of the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island. It is situated north of Taihape and 91 km northeast of Marton, New Zealand, Marton. Nearby Moawhango ...

. They took the fortress and most of the defenders drowned as they tried to flee across the river. There were no further conflicts between the two iwi after this.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ngāti Tūwharetoa-Ngāti Whitikaupeka War Ngāti Tūwharetoa Ngāti Whitikaupeka 16th-century conflicts 17th-century conflicts History of Manawatū-Whanganui 16th century in New Zealand 17th century in New Zealand Māori intertribal wars