Origins of Ngāpuhi Ngāpuhi, like most iwi, trace their pre-history back to the land of
Hawaiki, most likely from
Raiatea. The name
Ngāpuhi has many stories about its origin, but the most commonly known version is related to a story of an
ariki in Hawaiki who lived many generations before
Kupe, known as
Kareroaiki. Whilst pregnant, Kareroariki craved a human heart to eat, and as a woman of high status, her request was fulfilled. After eating the heart of another ariki, Kareroariki went on to give birth to three children, known as
Puhikaiariki,
Puhimoanaariki, and
Puhitaniwharau. The name "Ngāpuhi" is said to be taken from these children - literally,
Ngā Puhi or
"The Puhis". A common misconception is that the name
Ngāpuhi comes from Puhi of the
waka Mātaatua and maternal grandfather of
Rāhiri, however there is little corroborating evidence for this claim. The
kōrero (legends/stories) of Ngāpuhi about
Kupe's arrival to Aotearoa also differ from other iwi accounts. The more common version among other iwi is that Kupe was tasked with chasing down and killing
Te Wheke-a-Muturangi, the giant pet octopus of
Muturangi. He eventually followed the octopus to Aotearoa, where he cornered it and killed it in the
Cook Strait, plucking out its eyes and throwing them, becoming
Ngāwhatu (
lit. "The Eyes") also known as
The Brothers island group. The common Ngāpuhi version, however, states that Kupe fled Hawaiki to escape retribution for attempted
murder and
adultery.
Kūrāmarotini, also known as
Kura was married to another man,
Hoturapa, though she still desired Kupe. Kupe and Kura would meet in secret, with Kura anointing her body with
taramea oil so that Kupe could smell the fragrance. As Kura fell out of love with Hoturapa, her and Kupe devised a plan to kill him. Kupe asked Toto, Kuramarotini's father, for permission to go out with Hoturapa in a
waka to fish and set traps. After Toto agreed, Kupe and Hoturapa set out for the fishing grounds. After Toto let down the anchor, Kupe secretly gave an incantation to ensure the anchor would become ensnared. After they had fished, Kupe asked Hoturapa to pull back up the anchor. With Hoturapa unable to do so due to Kupe's incantation, Kupe told him to dive down to investigate as to why it was stuck. After freeing the anchor, Hoturapa rose up from the water only to discover Kupe had gone, leaving him behind to drown. However, as Hoturapa came from a priestly dynasty, he was able to utter
karakia to help send him back to shore, where he lived in secret. When Kupe arrived back from his fishing trip, he told the people that Hoturapa had been lost at sea and drowned, and eventually went on to marry Kura. However, news later came back that Hoturapa had actually survived, and Kupe and Kura, fearing that their ruse would be discovered, quickly absconded upon Kupe's waka,
Matawhaorua, to the island said to have been fished up by
Māui,
Te-Ika-a-Māui. During his journey, he was accompanied by a number of
taniwha, Niniwa (also known as Niwa or Niua), and Āraiteuru being two of these taniwha. Upon Nukutawhiti's arrival to the Hokianga, he gave Niniwa and Āraiteuru each a strand of seaweed, and said to both of them "Ka [w]hakakōhatungia kourua e hau hei kaitiaki o te Hokianga" (
"You two shall be cast into stone to be caretakers of the Hokianga"), thus the names of the two edges of the mouth of the Hokianga harbour; Niniwa at the northern end, and Āraiteuru at the southern end.
Foundations The main founding ancestor of Ngāpuhi is
Rāhiri, the son of Tauramoko and Te Hauangiangi. Tauramoko was a descendant of
Kupe, from
Matawhaorua, and Nukutawhiti, of the
Ngātokimatawhaorua canoe. Te Hauangiangi was the daughter of Puhi, who captained the
Mataatua canoe northwards from the
Bay of Plenty. Rāhiri was born at Whiria pā, near
Opononi in the
Hokianga. The early tribes led by Rāhiri's descendants lived in the
Hokianga,
Kaikohe, and
Pouerua areas. Through intermarriage with other iwi and expansionist land migration, the descendants of Rāhiri formed tribes across the Northland peninsula. These actions also fostered ties with neighbouring iwi. Auha and Whakaaria, for example, led expansion eastward from Kaikohe and Pouērua into the
Bay of Islands area, overrunning and often intermarrying with Ngāi Tāhuhu, Ngāti Manaia, Te Wahineiti and Ngāti Miru. These tribes in the east were the first to use the name
Ngāpuhi. As the eastern and western groups merged, the name came to describe all the tribes settled in the Hokianga and Bay of Islands. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Ngāpuhi tribes pushed further east through the southern Bay of Islands to the open coast, absorbing tribes such as Ngāti Manu, Te Kapotai, Te Uri o Rata, Ngare Raumati, and Ngātiwai. In 1823 Rev.
Henry Williams and his wife
Marianne established a mission station at
Paihia on land owned by
Ana Hamu, the wife of Te Koki. Ruatara and Hongi Hika themselves welcomed the missionaries' presence, but did not convert.
Hōne Heke attended the CMS mission school at
Kerikeri and Heke and his wife Ono, were baptised in 1835.
United Tribes of New Zealand and the Declaration of Independence On 28 October 1835, various
Northland chiefs, primarily from the Ngāpuhi tribe, met at Waitangi with British resident
James Busby and signed the
Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand, proclaiming the
United Tribes of New Zealand. In 1836, the Crown received and recognized the United Tribes' independence under King
William IV. By 1839, 52 chiefs from around Northland and central
North Island had signed the Declaration, including most Ngāpuhi chiefs and
Pōtatau Te Wherowhero,
ariki of the
Tainui tribes of the
Waikato (iwi).
Flagstaff War and re-erection of the flagstaff In 1840, the Ngāpuhi chiefs were all signatories to the
Treaty of Waitangi. However, from 1845 to 1846, Ngāpuhi fought against the British Crown over treaty disputes and European encroachment and interference. The Māori forces were led by
Te Ruki Kawiti and
Hōne Heke, who instigated the war when he chopped down the flagpole at
Kororāreka to commence what is sometimes called the
Flagstaff War. The British did not fight alone but had Ngāpuhi allies;
Tāmati Wāka Nene had given the government assurances of the good behaviour of the Ngāpuhi and he felt that Hōne Heke had betrayed his trust in instigating the Flagstaff War. The
outcome of the Flagstaff War is a matter of some debate. Although the war was widely lauded as a British victory, it is clear that the outcome was somewhat more complex, even contentious. The flagstaff which had proved so controversial was not re-erected by the colonial government. Whilst the
Bay of Islands and
Hokianga was still nominally under British influence, the fact that the Government's flag was not re-erected was symbolically very significant. Such significance was not lost on
Henry Williams, who, writing to
E. G. Marsh on 28 May 1846, stated that "the flag-staff in the Bay is still prostrate, and the natives here rule. These are humiliating facts to the proud Englishman, many of whom thought they could govern by a mere name." The legacy of Kawiti's rebellion during the Flagstaff War was that during the time of
Governor Grey and Governor
Thomas Gore Browne, the colonial administrators were obliged to take account of opinions of the Ngāpuhi before taking action in the Hokianga and Bay of Islands.
Post-Flagstaff War The
Waitangi Tribunal in
The Te Roroa Report 1992 (Wai 38) stated that "[a]fter the war in the north, government policy was to place a buffer zone of European settlement between Ngāpuhi and Auckland. This matched
Ngati Whatua's desire to have more settlers and townships, a greater abundance of trade goods and protection from Ngāpuhi, their traditional foe." The flagstaff that now stands at Kororareka was erected in January 1858 at the direction of Kawiti's son
Maihi Paraone Kawiti, as a signal to Governor
Thomas Gore Browne, that Maihi did not follow his father's path. In a
symbolic act, the 400 Ngāpuhi warriors involved in preparing and erecting the flagpole were selected from the "rebel" forces of Kawiti and Heke – that is, Ngāpuhi from the
hapū of Tāmati Wāka Nene (who had fought as allies of the British forces during the Flagstaff War), observed, but did not participate in the erection of the fifth flagpole. The restoration of the flagpole by Maihi Paraone Kawiti was a voluntary act on the part of the Ngāpuhi that had cut it down on 11 March 1845, and they would not allow any other to render any assistance in this work. The erection of the fifth flagstaff at Kororareka by the Ngāpuhi warriors who had conducted the Flagstaff War, and not by government decree, indicates the colonial government did not want to risk any further confrontation with the Ngāpuhi. The continuing symbolism of the fifth flagpole at Kororareka is that it exists because of the goodwill of the Ngāpuhi. Notwithstanding the achievements of Te Ruki Kawiti and Hōne Heke in pushing back colonial government control over the Ngāpuhi, in the years after the Flagstaff War over 2,000 km2 of Ngāpuhi land was alienated from Māori control. As part of Maihi Paraone Kawiti's erection of the fifth flagpole at Kororareka, he offered the Governor all the lands between Karetu and Moerewa to north of Waiomio and as far south as the Ruapekapeka Pa. Tawai Kawiti described this offer of land as being "a whariki" (or mat) for the flag to repose on. The offer was accepted but was paid for at half the land's value.
20th and 21st centuries Amidst cultural and economic decline, the twentieth century saw a steady migration of Ngāpuhi Māori from Northland into other regions of the North Island, mainly Auckland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty. In part, this has seen the organisation of Ngāpuhi into large geographic and urban divisions. The whārenui of Ōkorihi marae burned down in 2003. ==Waitangi Tribunal – Te Paparahi o te Raki (Wai 1040)==