Te Rangi-ita (Ngāti Tūwharetoa)

Ngāti Tama were an iwi of Te Arawa that had settled on the west bank of Lake Taupo.[6][7] Te Rangi-ita's great-uncle,[8] the Tūwharetoa ariki, Rua-wehea, who lived at Whaka-uenuku at Karangahape, established himself as the overlord of Ngāti Tama, but he exercised this position in an arrogant manner.[9][10][11][7]

Therefore, when Rua-wehea came to visit the Ngāti Tama at Whanganui, they burnt some weeds, so that he would think that food had been prepared for him, then they welcomed him onto their marae, and killed Rua-wehea, along with all of his companions,[12][7] except for the young Te Rangi-ita, who escaped. [12][13]

When he heard what had happened, Rua-wehea's cousin, Waikari, who was also an ariki of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, gathered a war party of 800 men of Tūwharetoa, at his base on Motu-o-puhi island on Lake Rotoaira, just south of the southern end of Lake Taupo. Then he led this force to attack the main Ngāti Tama village, Keri-tāne, located on the north bank of the Waihāhā River, where it flows into Lake Taupo.[14][15] They attacked the village in a dawn raid and slaughtered many of Ngāti Tama without a fight.[16]

While the fighting was going on one of the Ngāti Tama rangatira, Rongo-hape, made a break for it, fleeing towards where the Tūwharetoa canoes were tied up. The only one who had been left to look after the canoes was the young boy Te Rangi-ita, the sole survivor of the massacre at Whanganui. When Rongo-hape reached the canoes he jumped from the shore, but missed his landing and fell into the water. Te Rangi-ita grabbed a paddle and whacked him over the head as he surfaced, killing him, and earning himself a reputation for prowess.[14] [17][16] As a result of this deed he received the name Te Rangi-ita (‘the sky strikes with intent to kill’) instead of his earlier name Te Pukeihaua.[18][3]

Mānuka tree.

During the Ngāti Tama-Ngāti Tūwharetoa war, Waikari had attacked and killed the Ngāti Raukawa rangatira Poutū. His cousin, Te Ata-inutai, subsequently gathered a war party to get revenge for this killing. He led this force down the Waikato River and along the east coast of Lake Taupō.[19] After taking Pōnui at Rangatira Point and killing Waikari at Koro-tanuku (modern Tauranga Taupō), Te Ata-inutai came to Whakāngiangi (near modern Te Rangi-ita), where most of the Tūwharetoa warriors had gathered under the command of Te Rangi-ita and Tūmata-ngaua (they had been warned of his approach by Tūwharetoa a Turiroa, who had escaped the slaughter at Pōnui). [20][21][19]

Te Ata-inutai's forces attacked the fort, but its defences were too strong for them, so they settled into a siege. During the siege, Te Ata-inutai was struck by a spear made of mānuka wood, which pierced both of his buttocks.[20] He shouted up to the defenders, asking who had hit him, and when Te Rangi-ita revealed that he had thrown the spear, Te Ata-inutai called him down and made peace with him, giving him his daughter, Waitapu as a wife. [20][22][19]

After this Te Ata-inutai returned to Whaka-puhunga, while Waitapu and Te Rangi-ita settled at Marae-kōwhai north of Lake Taupō, near Mōkai.[23] The genealogical links (whakapapa) resulting from the marriage between Waitapu and Te Rangi-ita are recounted in a waiata by Peou, which is included in Apirana Ngata and Pei Te Hurinui Jones' collection of waiata Nga Moteatea.[24]

For a long time, Te Rangi-ita and Waitapu had only daughters and, as a result, Te Rangi-ita stopped visiting Waitapu. She said to him "The river at Nukuhau is still open," meaning that she was still able to bear children (Nukuhau was a village located at the source of the Waikato River), but Te Rangi-ita did not listen, so she left Marae-kōwhai, travelling home to her father, who performed special karakia ('incantations') and told her that if she returned to Marae-kōwhai and had sex with Te Rangi-ita, she would bear a son, which is what happened.[25][23] In Hoeta Te Hata's account, however, the rituals were carried out by a nameless tohunga (priest), Waitapu came home already pregnant, and Te Ata-inutai planned to kill his grandchild if it proved to be male, but Waitapu covered the baby's front and tricked him into believing that she had given birth to another daughter.[26]

When Te Ata-inutai heard of the birth of Waitapu's first son, he set out for Marae-kōwhai in order to perform the tohi baptismal ritual for the newborn, who was called Tama-mutu. On his way home, however, Te Ata-inutai was ambushed and killed at Waipapa, below the Pou-a-kani cliff by a war party of Ngāti Tūwharetoa led by a rangatira called Kewha (according to Pei Te Hurinui Jones), in revenge for the earlier deaths of Hine-te-ao and Waikari.[27] Hoeta Te Hata says that the killer's name was Kūha and that the murder took place on the Mangakino Stream. According to him, Te Ata-inutai was taking his oldest granddaughter, Pare-kāwa, back to Marae-kōwhai.[28]

Eventually, Te Rangi-ita and Waitapu's youngest son Tū-te-tawhā arranged for Whiti-patatō of Ngāti Raukawa to lead a war party that avenged Te Ata-inutai's murder by attacking the Ngāti Tūwharetoa settlement of Tuhinga-mata.[29] Although Te Rangi-ita called on Whiti-patatō to lead his force to Marae-kōwhai quickly, he stopped in the Kainga-roa district, saying "Not yet! I am going to rove (tihoi) about this plain" or "my path must be a hidden one (tihoi), from which the plain received the name Tīhoi.[30][29]