Tehauroa was the daughter of King
Tahitoe of
Raiatea and his second wife, Metua'aro. Her grandfather Hihipa Tahitoe was the son of Vete'a-ra'i
U'uru, the chief of Opoa, and grandson of King
Tamatoa II of Raiatea from whom her family claimed the right to throne of Raiatea. She was the namesake of her grandmother Rere-ao, wife of Hihipa Tahitoe, who was the daughter of Queen Maevarua of
Bora Bora and sister of King
Tapoa I of Tahaa and Bora Bora. Her father succeeded to the throne after the deposition and banishment of the unpopular
Tamatoa V in 1871, and she was named as his heir. In March 1881, her father was in turn deposed by the Raiatean people for allowing the French to declare a
protectorate over the kingdom. Consequently, in April, she was
elected to succeed him to the throne with a council of twelve district chiefs, four from Tahaa and eight from Raiatea. Her
coronation was performed by Reverend Albert Pearse at
Uturoa Church with due solemnity and rejoicings. Another action of her reign was the revision of the Kingdom's law code. This version titled the
Code of Tehauroa (1884) was the last revision to the constitutional law code; it outlawed the sale of land, permitted up to that point, and made
Protestantism the only authorized religion. These changes were enacted to counter the influence of France, which had already declared Raiatea a French protectorate during her father's reign. In 1881, she unsuccessfully attempted to enlist the protection of the British to preserve the independence of Raiatea in accordance with the
Jarnac Convention of 1847. Remaining unmarried, Tehauroa died on 18 March 1884 after a short illness. A civil war nearly broke out between two rivals for the throne. To avoid French intervention a female-line cousin of the late queen, the equally pious ==References==