Ngāti Whātua whānau commemorate 200 years since the battle of Te Ika a Ranganui at Kaiwaka. Photo / Te Rawhitiroa Boscch.
Ngāti Whātua whānau commemorate 200 years since the battle of Te Ika a Ranganui at Kaiwaka. Photo / Te Rawhitiroa Boscch.
Opinion by Ngarimu Blair
Over 1000 Ngāti Whātua Nui Tonu members last week commemorated 200 years since the battle of Te Ika a Ranganui.
The event honoured ancestors and aimed to heal past animosities, fostering future collaboration with Te Tai Tokerau.
Ngāti Whātua emphasised moving forward, highlighting infrastructure projects to boost economic prosperity for their people.
This time last week I joined with over 1000 of my fellow tribespeople from Ngāti Whātua Nui Tonu to commemorate 200 years since the battle of Te Ika a Ranganui at Kaiwaka.
All of our various hapū and iwi from the wider rohe from Maunganui to Tāmaki and the Kaiparain between were well represented. These included our hosts Te Uri o Hau, Ngāti Mauku, Te Taoū, Ngāti Rango and Ngāti Whātua ki Tāmaki-Ngāi Tuperiri. Our very close relations, neighbours and allies from Ngāti Manuhiri and Te Roroa also attended.
I was not prepared for the emotion, being a modern warrior of sorts only allowed to express that side legally through sports. But early on in the ceremony I was overcome, first with sorrow then immense pride in my tūpuna and my people today. I waiwaitia nuitia ōku karu - uncontrollable tears flowed.
Over 300 of our tūpuna fell that day to a collection of northern tribes led by Hongi Hika and Te Whareumu.
Each had their own reasons for being there. Our side was severely outgunned although the great Ngāti Rango fighting chief, Murupaenga, still had his counterparts fearful and on the run early in the engagement despite having only a handful of muskets against many hundreds.
The name, Te Ika a Ranganui, reflects many slain as if heaped up together just like fish flailing about in a net.
A hapless Murupaenga left the battlefield calling a lament to his fallen kinsmen strewn across the Waimako stream and valley - “E tama mā haere atu rā, pōpō noa ana te koukou, ē tāwaia ana e te riroriro - farewell to you all oh valiant ones. I am like the owl being jeered at by the grey warbler, I unable to do anything”.
Survivors fled and many were met by Te Kawau from Tāmaki who was on his way to the battle still, via Manukau then cutting in west from Muriwai.
He took survivors to Waikūmete near Titirangi and sent them on waka to Te Rauroha of Ngāti Pāoa at Mangapiko. Hongi eventually arrived there and more great chiefs of Ngāti Whātua were killed including Te Rewharewha, Te Tīnana Nui and Te Wana ā-riri.
Te Kurataiaho Kapea of Ngāti Rango and Te Uri o Hau. i. Photo / Te Rawhtiroa Bosch.
It is said Te Rewharewha “died a great death” with many spears needed to stop him advancing.
For the next nine years the various groups were hunted by the northern tribes, taking shelter where they could through Mahurangi, Waitākere, Wharekawa, Maunga Tautari and Te Horo-Te Awamutu.
It would not be until 1835 that a permanent return could be made by all the dislocated tribes to their homelands throughout the Ngāti Whātua region. The same was for the Hauraki peoples and those of the Manukau who were similarly targeted.
The hospitality of firstly Ngāti Pāoa then Ngāti Haua then Waikato is never forgotten.
Nōhea te hono e motu - these links can never be severed.
In central Tāmaki certain land blocks were given, such as at Pukapuka in Ōrākei and at Onehunga, in recognition of that hospitality.
Te Wherowhero, whose father, Te Rauanganga, had earlier called on the services of Murupaenga, Te Kawau, and Ōtene Kikokiko at the epic battle of Hinga Kākā, was instrumental in returning many hapū and iwi to their homes and vacating his, as the balance of power evened out once more.
Other parts of Ngāti Whātua also gifted lands in the aftermath to maintain or start new alliances.
We took it to a whole new level however by including Pākehā in the new era in the list of allies to secure our future from the threats and upheaval again of mindless warfare.
Ngāti Whātua opened up its territory to Pākehā and almost all the land was either gifted, leased and sold with most lost in legal title by the 1900s.
Ngāti Whātua ki Tāmaki were, for example, reduced to 700 acres by the 1860s and a quarter by 1951.
Did these wars soften ourselves up and others for Crown and private land speculators? Āe mārika. No doubt. For Christianity too? Ehara, Ehara. You bet.
That we are even alive to commemorate such an event last week is nothing short of a miracle. That hit me early in the morning as our taua (warriors) advanced in silence down the valley to the Waimako stream to honour the fallen and commence the series of karanga, karakia, ngeri, haka, waiata and mihimihi to follow.
Our customs and knowledge were all brought to bear in this event to awaken the ancestors (whakaoho), mourn them (whakatea), to clear (whakawātea) and to heal (whakaora).
This event showed how far we have come since 1825 and in a few short years. It was a high-quality seamless production with all parts of the iwi knitting together in an authentic expression of our aroha for our tūpuna and elders still with us but with a keen eye for the future, and seeing this as another platform to launch a new development phase.
Last week was also about not only acknowledging the past but knowing better why we are the way we are. We are moving forward and our tamariki can see and feel it and touch it. Nau mai te anamata - bring on tomorrow.
Part of moving forward is healing. So it was with immense aroha and feeling of pride that so many of Te Tai Tokerau (northern iwi) joined with us on our side of the river this time to mourn all who fell as one.
Some were worried old animosities would be aroused, however there were numerous hohou rongo, peace makings and marriages following Te Ika a Ranganui spoken of by Te Kurataiaho Kapea at Waitangi when the tono (invitation) was laid and in the formal speeches.
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei deputy chairman Ngarimu Blair at the 200-year anniversary of the battle of Te Ika a Ranganui commemorations at Kaiwaka. Photo / Te Rawhtiroa Bosch.
I am the product of such a marriage between Moetara’s son, Te Ahi Māwhiti, and Pairama Ngūtahi’s (of Te Uri o Hau) daughter, Mihi Te Rina.
A huge chunk of the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei papakāinga descend from this union. We have our Ngāti Hine whānau in east Kaipara at Puatahi from a similar arrangement in the aftermath through chiefs Kawiti and Mate Rangatira.
I’m hoping the day was healing also for Ngā Puhi in regards to Moremūnui in 1807 when we heavily defeated them at the battle, Te Kai a te Karoro. It was named for the seagulls feasting on the slain on the beach and sand dunes.
This battle laid the seeds of wrath in a young Hongi Hika who witnessed the devastation.
A key aim of ours for the day was to put the past to bed. To never forget but to set up a future of positive collaboration with our close neighbours and our past foe.
The Kaipara and Te Tai Tokerau deserves a much better deal from the country and Auckland, the economic engine room that Te Kawau founded on September 18, 1840.
Our rohe with our Waiohua whanaunga is now the host to contemporary refugees of sorts with hundreds of thousands of Māori having to carve out an existence and living here.
Many I’m sure have an ambition to return permanently one day to their own marae, papakāinga and maunga and awa. But jobs and economic activity are needed back in those places.
Te Ika a Ranganui has laid a positive platform for Te Tai Tokerau and Tāmaki to collaborate for the future prosperity and peace of our people.
There are major infrastructure projects planned for the north and they must be maximised to lift as many of our people out of their low incomes as possible.
Ngarimu Blair, the Deputy Chairman of the Ngāti Whātua Orakei Trust.
Kei ō tātau ringaringa te anamata - the future is in our hands.
What I am most proud of and excited about is a future we are in control of. Not any politician, political party, mayor or government.
Kia hūkere te hoe kia pākaru ai ngā ngaru nunui e hoa mā. Kua tae ki te wā - Let’s all paddle harder and crash through the large waves ahead. It’s our time.
