Waiouru History  -  NZFS Home

7. Settlers from Polynesia

Polynesians 2000 years ago must have known a huge landmass was up in the southern ocean because 100,000 whales and millions of birds migrated up (South is Up for Polynesians) there every spring. But cold rain, high winds and heavy seas would have killed some adventurers, and made others turn back.

The Ngei-ariki dynasty in Rarotonga is well-known;
1. Ngei-ariki
2. Rua-koehu
3. Horo-ika
4. Pou-paka
5. Pou-turu
6. Aparangi married Kupe
7. Hau-nui
8. Po-poto
9.Haunui-a-Nania

I think they kept building up their seasonal weather knowledge, improving their shipbuilding techniques, and devising warm waterproof clothing to get to get nearer and nearer that big southern land, just as NASA in the 1960s kept improving their spaceflight skills and equipment until they circumnavigated the Moon landed on it, and return to Earth.

The global warming around the 1200s not only caused the great lahar down the Whangaehu River we mentioned earlier, but also made all the weather around New Zealand warmer.

Consequently Poupaka, born in about 1150 AD, finally managed to sail far up into the colder and windier regions of Te Tai Tonga (The South Pacific) - and return safely! His son Pouturu would have kept improving the techniques and Pouturu's son-in-law Kupe and his crew on the Uru-ao (Entering a new world) finally managed to circumnavigate Te Ika A Maui, land on it and return to Rarotonga. A century later Kupe's great grandson, Haunui-a-Nania, came on the Mata-atua to settle at Whakatane. They found Te Tini o Toi (Toi's multitudes) were already there, where from I don't know.

Details of the Kupe's success might have reached the islands around Tahiti, or maybe similar far-south techniques were being developed there too. (Especially cruising within the shelter of a pod of whales, with the big bull whales in front breaking the waves)

Turi brought migrants from those islands to Patea on the Aotea waka. They had to build a fortified pa there because some of the colonists were killed by the earlier multitudes of Toi. Nevertheless one of the colonists on the Aotea, Haunui-a-paparangi, founded a dynasty on the lower Whanganui, even though his wife famously deserted him. Hence Te Ati Hau now in the Ruapehu district.

On the edge of the Murimotu tussock flats (now Karioi pine forest) there are hangi pits with charcoal that has been carbon-dated from about 1400 to the 1500s, and again in the 1700s.

The first inhabitants would have lived on the eggs and flesh of the millions of birds in the Murimotu tussock and in the Tongariro forest west of them, and then gradually developed gardens for kumara of the volcanic soil where it had been well-fertilized by the droppings of nesting mutton-birds. There would have been summertime bird-catching settlements for harvesting and preserving mutton-bird chicks up towards the Rangipo desert, and well-insulated winter quarters with plentiful firewood supplies at lower altitudes. But these pioneers of of the Ruapehu region were not Tahitians, they were Rarotongans.

See page 33 of this Kahui Maunga Treaty of Waitangi document.

8. Tangata Whenua

The people south east of Mt Ruapehu are known as Te Tini a Te Ha (The multitudes of Te Ha) and they can trace their ancestry back to this Rarotongan leader of the early 1200s.

1: Te Ha, born about 1200 in Rarotonga
2: Mo-uru-uru
3: Mo-reka-reka
4: Whaia
5: Whiro, born about 1300 in Rarotonga
6: Tai Te Ariki

Whiro killed his nephew, so he had to leave Rarotonga. He and his family sailed to Aotearoa and landed on Oakura beach (just sou-west of New Plymouth). He was told the land below Mt Ruapehu was good country, and was still unoccupied. His group traveled there by way of Makirikiri (a stream near Upokongaro), the Whangaehu river flats, the Mangamahu ridge and Karioi.

Whiro’s son, Tai Te Ariki, was killed in a border dispute near what is now the highest point on the Desert Road, near the Tukino turnoff. This place is still known at Te Roro o Taiteariki because his brain (roro) was dashed out by rocks.

Whiro's people continued to evolve as a highly ritualised tribal society for the next century or so with the establishment of a socio-religious base known as Te Wiwini o Tu at Tuhirangi, just south of today’s Waiouru township. (Tuhirangi is the name of the trig station where the microwave tower is)

In parallel to this, a wananga, or sacred school of learning, known as Te Rangi-wa-nanga-nanga, was established on the slopes of Ruapehu, and it only became inactive in recent times, due to Pakeha intrusion.

Nga Rimu-tamaka was the village where the hangi pits behind today’s pulp mill were found. Here the ritual rites of passage for deceased nobility were performed, before interment on the summit of Ruapehu. This interment on the summit was still in practice in the 1920s.

7: Herehunga
8: Mawe-tenui
9: Mawe-teroa
10: Powhakarau, born about 1400
11: Patareonge
12: Te Ikatauirangi
13: Paerangi

Paerangi was a charismatic leader who "flew" down from the mountain (or from the wananga there), and so Ruapehu became known as "The Stone House of Paerangi" and his descendants were known as Ngati Rangi, identifying with Ruapehu, and guarding its sacred nature.

That is a very abbreviated summary of early Ngati Rangi history, taken from the 2017 Treaty of Waitangi settlement document.

 9.  A Mountain Pass

9b. Our Westerly Winds

The prevailing westerlies that blow across the Waimarino and Murimotu plains (then over the Tararuas and across the Takapau plains) played a big part in the health of the Ngati Rangi colonists. (But not the Takapau ones!)

For thousands of years Polynesians had lived near the sea on small islands, and enjoyed good health from eating sea food.  The first-comers to Te Ika a Maui also settled near near the coast. Then many, like our Ngati Rangi people, moved inland.

Most inland groups stayed healthy, but one group that was kicked out of the Tūranganui (Gisborne) region after their leader murdered two promising young ariki, and ended up on the Takapau Plains, where they suffered strange weaknesses (including depression and sexual impotence) that they were sure were caused by makutu curses sent by the still vengeful Tūranganui tohungas generations later.

So their own local tohunga Ngāpū-o-te-Rangi, a skilled nutritionalist and psychotherapist, took them to O-kai-ure beach for some group therapy to get rid of their guilt feelings, and for a feed-up of sea food off the reefs there. A week or so later they returned home carrying big loads of seaweed to dig into their kumara beds. We know all this because
Ngāpū-o-te-Rangi instructed his son how to carry on this work in his well-worth-reading oriori, Pinepine Te Kura.

So why didn't Waimarino people need to visit the coast periodically before making babies? Thousands of years of heavy rains have washed lots of essential minerals - iodine, selenium, zinc - out of our soils and into the sea. Algae (photoplankton) and seaweeds absorb these minerals, tiny koura (micro-plankton) filter-feed the algae, fish eat the koura and seaweed, and Titi (Muttonbirds) eat the fish.

Then helped by our wonderful westerlies, thousands of Titi would fly 100km up to where their chicks were safely hidden in burrows at Puke-titi, Rua-titi, Manga-titi and other nesting grounds up here. And the iodine, selenium and zinc would return to the soil in those sea-birds' droppings. And those past generations of Ngati Rangi chose old Titi breeding grounds to grow their kumara, and preserved titi chicks as winter food. They were preserved in baskets of fat and stored high up the mountain in cold places. I've been told Waitonga Falls was one place.

Inland places like Titi, (Tararua ranges, Nth Taranaki), Ruatiti (Ruapehu, BoP), Ahititi (Ruatahuna, Gisborne, BoP), Titiroawa, Titiroa and Titipua (Southland), Titirangi (Northland, Auckland, Tolaga Bay Gisborne, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay & Marlborough), Puketiti (Ruapehu, East Coast), Mangatiti Stream (Waikato, Ruapehu, East Coast, BoP, Wairarapa & Taranaki), Maungatiti (Taranaki), Titinui (BoP), Titihuatahu (Northland), Titiokura (nth of Napier), and Tītīkōpuke (Remuera) tell of breeding grounds over many inland parts of the country, but look at our 'titi' map and you will see none on the Takapau Plains, because it was too difficult for those sea-birds to fly inland loaded with fish while the prevailing westerly winds were blowing from the mountains down to the sea.

Just under your throat is your thyroid gland. It secretes two hormones into your bloodstream that make sure the food you eat is burnt up fast enough to keep your body warm, your brain active, your leg muscles pumping and your sexual organs functioning. Iodine deficiency can make you feel tired, depressed, anxious and irritable, and can cause constipation and weight gain. Selenium deficiency can cause fatigue, depression, anxiety and dementia; it can interfere with reproduction and reduce immunity to harmful viruses.

When Pakeha brought big rats to this country, they ate the titi chicks on the mainland, and mineral deficiency diseases became widespread among both Maori and Pakeha living inland. So people bought tinned sardines, and iodine was added to table salt.

10. Dealing with Intruders

Somewhere before or about 1500AD, a leader emerged from this mountain wananga who made a significant impact. He was given the title Pae-rangi-o-te-Maungaroa (close to the spirit of the Milky Way) and he is the founding father of the local Ngati Rangi iwi.

13: Pae-rangi
14: Mataraha
15: Tu-tapu, born about 1500
16: Tama-te-anini
17: Taiwiri and Ururangi

The colonists who had arrived from Tahiti in the Aotea were more warlike, and descendants of  Haunui-a-paparangi (whom we mentioned last week) took control the Whanganui river valley. To deal with them, Paerangi’s great-grandson, Tama-te-anini arranged a strategic marriage.

He married his daughter Taiwiri to Uenuku-mahoe-nui to unite two dynasties; the warlike Ruatipua in the Whanganui River valley and the more religious people of Paerangi on the mountain plateau.

Taiwiri inherited the mana of the land between the Hautapu and Mangawhero Rivers, while her younger brother Ururangi and his descendants had the sacred responsibility of maintaining the whare wananga on the slopes of Mt Ruapehu.

Over the next two centuries, as stroppy new tribes became prominent on the hinterland of the tribal boundaries, other strategic marriages kept the house of learning on the slopes of Ruapehu safe from harm. Ngāti Rangi's tribal identity was modified by marriages with the descendants of Hau, and they became known as Te Ati Hau. It is through those connections that Ngāti Rangi became part of the Whanganui River confederation of iwi.

18: Rangituhia
19: Hinekowhara
20: Marukowhara b 1600
21: Tukiriwai
22: Waikaramihi
23: Tumanuka
24: Tuakiora I
25: Te Puaiti b 1700
26: Tuakiora II

In the mid 1700s, a large war party from the east killed a group of Ngati Rangi who were gathering food, including the mother of Tuakiora II. He rallied many warriors, and attacked the invaders near Tangiwai, killing nearly all 600 of them.

27: Te Hitaua
28: Te Peehi Turoa

In 1819, a Ngapuhi war party from Northland, newly armed with muskets, came marauding up the Whanganui river in a flotilla of canoes, destroying villages as they went and heading for the whare wananga. But at Kaiwhakauka, just below Retaruki, Whanganui forces led by Te Peehi Turoa felled trees across the river in a narrow gorge and dropped rocks on the enemy canoes. Any surviving enemy who came ashore was killed in close fighting, where their muskets were useless.

29: Te Peehi Pakoro, born about 1800
30: Topia Turoa

Topia Turoa had to deal with the British invaders: he was engaged throughout his life in a series of conflicts, firstly to assert his authority and that of his tribe within the Maori world, and then to establish Maori unity so that they could counter the threat posed by European law and culture.

And that is VERY brief summary of Chapter 5 of the 2017 Treaty of Waitangi settlement document.

11. European Imports

We have all heard how guns, whiskey and diseases brought terrible changes to Maori life between 1800 and 1850. But I have been fascinated by the changes brought about on the Murimotu plains by paper and the arts of writing and reading, by potatoes, pigs, and iron pots, by shovels, saws and scissors, by horses and ploughs, by wool blankets, leather boots, calico, canvas, reading glasses, telescopes, mirrors, matches, bricks, nails, fish hooks....

But alas, there is very little recorded about when these innovations arrived and what effect they had. We shall have to leave those changes to our imagination.

Next
12. Old Boundaries