Aotea is not a name readily associated with Rangitāne. Aotea was the name chosen by Te Rangiwhakaewa, our eponymous Rangitāne tupuna who lived about 14 or 15 generations ago. Te Rangiwhakaewa built a whare athis settlement known as Tītīhuia at Tawakeroa near Tahoraiti just south of Dannevirke and decided to name it Aotea to remind him of his connections to Te Taihauauru, the west coast of the North Island; this was Aotea Tuatahi. The name refers to the Aotea waka, the canoe of Whakaewa-i-te-Rangi, an ancestress of Te Rangiwhakaewa, after whom he was named. The Aotea waka was led by Turi, who with his descendants, settled what is now the Whanganui and Taranaki regions.
A while later Te Rangiwhakaewa was at his whare Aotea at Tawakeroa when he was visited by Hikawera. Hikawera was sent as an emissary for his son Te Whatuiapiti to ask Te Rangiwhakaewa for assistance in his dispute with the descendants of Rakaipaaka. Te Rangiwhakaewa agreed to the request and so a taua was soon brought together consisting of the war parties of Te Rangiwhakaewa, Rākairākāhu and Tūtawhanga, under the command of Te Rangiwhakaewa. Following a well-devised plan, the descendants of Rakaipaaka were soon overrun and Te Whatuiapiti regained his lands at Heretaunga.
In the late 1880s, a decision was made to build a wharenui, at Tahoraiti. At a similar time, the Ngāti Hāmua Rangitāne people at Te Ore Ore, east of Masterton were building a new wharenui under the supervision of Te Kere and Potangaroa. Unfortunately, these two tohunga had a falling out and Te Kere left, his parting words were “You’ll never finish this whare within eight years”. Potangaroa took up the challenge and within a year the whare had been completed. Potangaroa named the whare ‘Ngā Tau e Waru’ (Eight Years) as a slight on his adversary Te Kere. The whare, 96 feet in length, was reputed to be the longest meeting house in the country at the time. Meanwhile, Te Kere found the Ngāti Mutuahi hapū building a whare at Tahoraiti and joined the project along with Taepa from Te Arawa who supervised the carvings. Te Wi and Te Maewa, both from Ngāti Tū from the Whanganui area, did the interior. When the whare at Tahoraiti was finished and opened in 1883, it was 99 feet in length, a classic case of Māori oneupmanship! The whare was named Aotea and has been referred to as Aotea Tuarua to distinguish it from the whare of Te Rangiwhakaewa.
Aotea Tuarua was a focal point of the Māori community at Tahoraiti up until the mid-1950s. A number of older members of the Dannevirke community have spoken of the times they used to go to Tahoraiti for the Aotea Rugby Club’s annual Green and Gold Ball, which was a very popular event for the townsfolk and they specifically remember Wi Duncan and his Nightowls band.
