1 Historical Account
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1 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT The Crown's acknowledgement and apology to Ngāti Tūwharetoa in part 3 are based on this historical account. Ko Tongariro te maunga, Tongariro is the mountain, Ko Taupo te Moana, Taupo is the lake, Ko Ngāti Tūwharetoa te iwi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa is the tribe, Ko Te Heuheu te tangata! And Te Heuheu is the man! Te Heuheu Tūkino I, Herea (c.1750-c.1820) Figure 1: Te Heuheu Tūkino I, Herea (Tapeka Marae, Waihi) "Kei muri i te awe kapara he tangata ke, he tangata ma, kore te kiri ahua, ki te uhi matarau, mana hei kimi te mana o te ao." "Behind the tattooed-faced man, comes a new man, he has white skin, he has no tattoo, he attempts to inherit the earth." (Herea Te Heuheu Tūkino I, n.d.). Ngāti Tūwharetoa 1.1 Ngāti Tūwharetoa are descended from Ngātoroirangi through the eponymous ancestor, Tūwharetoa, and from Tia. Tūwharetoa was born and grew up at Kawerau, and during his lifetime his people expanded south. Ngāti Tūwharetoa retain connections to their whanaunga at Kawerau, but their homelands have long been established in the Taupo district. Lake Taupo (Taupomoana) and Tongariro maunga lie at the heart of Ngāti Tūwharetoa's rohe. Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II, son of Herea, described the rohe of Ngāti Tūwharetoa through reference to his own body: "[He] considered his body to be similar to the land, one of his thighs on titiokura, the other on otairi, one of his arms on pare te tai tonga, one on tuhua mountains. His head on tongariro, his body lying on taupo". Ngāti Tūwharetoa Before 1840 1.2 The hapū of Ngāti Tūwharetoa each had their own independent rangatira, but remained mindful of the lineages that united them. According to Ngāti Tūwharetoa tradition, the senior rangatira, on behalf of their hapū, installed an ariki (paramount rangatira) towards the end of the eighteenth century. Herea Te Heuheu Tūkino became the first ariki of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, and established Te Whare o Te Heuheu ('the House of Te Heuheu'). The ariki lineage embodies the mana motuhake of Ngāti Tūwharetoa which endures to this day through each of Te Heuheu's direct descendants. At 1840, Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II held this position. Te Heuheu Tūkino II, Mananui (c.1780-1846) Figure 2: Mananui Te Heuheu [seated] & Iwikau, Tanpo [sic]/Te Kawaw & his nephew Orakai. (George French Angas [delt], Giles, J W, fl 1847, Angas, George French 1822-1886; J. W. Giles [lith], Plate 56. 1847, Angas, George French 1822-1886; The New Zealanders Illustrated. London, Thomas McLean, 1847. Ref: PUBL-0014-56; Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand) "… I am king here, as my fathers were before me, and as King George and his fathers have been over your country. I have not sold my chieftainship to the Governor, as all the chiefs round the sea- coast have done, nor have I sold my land. I will sell neither. A messenger was here from the Governor to buy the land the other day, and I refused: if you are on the same errand I refuse you too. You White people are numerous and strong; you can easily crush us if you choose, and take possession of that which we will not yield; but here is my right arm, and should thousands of you come, you must make me a slave or kill me before I will give up my authority or my land … Let your people keep the sea-coast, and leave the interior to us, and our mountain, whose name is sacred to the bones of my fathers…". (Mananui paraphrased by Wakefield, 1839-1844) Ngāti Tūwharetoa's Rejection of Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi 1.3 During a visit to Waitangi in 1840, Iwikau, younger brother of Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II, and Te Korohiko added their marks to the Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi. The two rangatira acted without the authority of Mananui Te Heuheu, who chastised them upon their return home. Angered, Mananui took a large war party and travelled to meet representatives of the Crown who had brought te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi to Ohinemutu for signing. At a public meeting attended by Crown officials, Mananui renounced Te Tiriti/the Treaty on behalf of the iwi, and publically rejected the mana and authority of the Queen, exclaiming: "I kore rawa au e whakaae ki te mana o tena wahine iwi ke kia eke mai ki runga ki enei motu; ko au ano hei rangatira mo enei motu. ko tenei, tu atu, haere!" "I will never ever agree to the authority of that woman and her people intruding on our islands; I am a chief of these islands, this is my response, stand up! and leave! go!" Te Heuheu Tūkino III, Iwikau (1846-1862) Figure 3: Mananui Te Heuheu & Iwikau [standing], Tanpo [sic]/Te Kawaw & his nephew Orakai. (George French Angas [delt], Giles, J W, fl 1847, Angas, George French 1822-1886; J. W. Giles [lith], Plate 56. 1847, Angas, George French 1822-1886; The New Zealanders Illustrated. London, Thomas McLean, 1847. Ref: PUBL-0014-56; Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand) Iwikau became the third ariki after Mananui was killed in a landslide which overwhelmed his village at Te Rapa in 1846. "… that the English were, by degrees, obtaining the best of their lands, and that they would soon be "eaten up and cease to be;" and for these reasons they were determined to have a King of their own and assemblies of their own…". (Governor Gore Browne reporting the comments of Iwikau Te Heuheu Tūkino III, 1857) Pre-1865 Crown Purchasing 1.4 In the years after 1840, the Crown did not establish an official presence within the Taupo region, where Ngāti Tūwharetoa continued to exercise mana over their rohe and live in accordance with their own tikanga (customary law). Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, Ngāti Tūwharetoa opposed Crown purchase negotiations involving lands and tribal communities inside boundaries Mananui had marked with pou whenua at Pourewa in Rangitikei, and at Titiokura. The group Mananui sent south in 1842 to establish a community at Te Reureu to protect the pou became known as the Ngāti Waewae hapū. The pou at Rangitikei was near to the north-eastern limit of the Crown's Rangitikei-Turakina purchase in 1850. 1.5 In 1850, the Crown commenced negotiations with members of another iwi to purchase the Ahuriri block. In January 1851, Iwikau Te Heuheu expressed his opposition to land purchasing and reminded the Crown of the boundary marked at Titiokura. In November 1851, the Crown signed a deed with another iwi to purchase the Ahuriri block, which included some Ngāti Tūwharetoa lands, without Ngāti Tūwharetoa's agreement. 1.6 From 1855, the Crown negotiated with other iwi to purchase other lands in inland Hawke's Bay, where it was aware that Ngāti Tūwharetoa had interests. It was not until 1863 that their claims were acknowledged when twelve Ngāti Tūwharetoa men were paid for their interests in lands already acquired by the Crown from other iwi. 1.7 In the 1860s, as part of the protracted and contested purchase of the Rangitikei- Manawatu block, Ngāti Tūwharetoa hapū Ngāti Waewae sought a large reserve around the large Te Reureu settlement. In 1872, the Crown set aside a 4,400-acre reserve along the Rangitikei River, parts of which Ngāti Waewae retain today. Kīngitanga 1.8 The New Zealand Constitution Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1852, provided New Zealand with a system of representative government. The vote was given to all men over 21 years of age who owned or rented property of a certain minimum value which was held under a Crown title. However, because most Māori land at this time was in customary tenure, in practice relatively few Māori men were eligible to vote for the General Assembly that first met in 1854. Although section 71 of the New Zealand Constitution Act provided a mechanism for districts to be proclaimed, within which Māori custom and law could be given a level of official recognition, this provision was never used, despite repeated requests from Māori for this. 1.9 In the 1850s, Iwikau and Ngāti Tūwharetoa were at the forefront of discussions amongst some iwi and hapū about establishing a Māori king to promote Māori authority in New Zealand and lead a confederation of assenting tribes. As Hītiri Te Paerata explained in 1888, in supporting the Kīngitanga movement, Māori wanted to "set up a head whose mana was to overshadow the land and protect it". The Kīngitanga movement was motivated by concerns about the rapid alienation of Māori land as a result of Crown pre-emptive land purchasing, and the desire to ensure that Māori could exercise mana and tino rangatiratanga over Māori communities. 1.10 In November 1856, Iwikau convened a significant hui at Pūkawa called Hīnana ki uta, Hīnana ki tai (search the land, search the sea) to discuss the selection of a king. At the hui, attended by thousands from iwi across the island, Iwikau delivered the following haka, which underscored how important it is to Ngāti Tūwharetoa to hold on to their lands: Ka ngapu te whenua When the land is put asunder Ka ngapu te whenua When the land is put asunder Ka haere ngā tangata ki hea? Where shall the people stand? Aua Aua Ko Ruaimoko Oh Ruaimoko Tawhia! Hold it! Puritia! Grasp tightly to the land! Tō mana kia mau! Be firm! Kia ita! Aha Ita! Ita! Let not your mana, your land Kia mau tonu! Be torn from your grasp! (Iwikau Te Heuheu Tūkino III, 4th Nov 1856) 1.11 From a pou hung strands of flax, each symbolic of the sacred maunga of the chiefs present at the hui, with Tongariro maunga represented by the apex of the pou.