Te Arai o Wairau

Ko Tainui te Waka

Ko Tokomaru te maunga

Ko Wairau te awa

Ko Wairau Pā te marae

Ko Ngāti Toa te iwi

Ngāti Toa Rangatira (Ngāti Toa) is descended from an ancestor named Toa Rangatira from the Tainui tribes of Kāwhia. He was named after a dispute his paternal grandfather, Tūpāhau, had with a rival tohunga named Tāmure. Although heavily outnumbered in battle, Tūpāhau made peace. Tāmure complimented the leniency of Tūpāhau by remarking "Tēnā koe Tūpāhau, te toa rangatira”. A grandson was born to Tūpāhau shortly afterwards and was named Toa Rangatira to commemorate this event.

Toa Rangatira was known as a formidable warrior and enthusiastic gardener. He was famed for his ability to provide protection and sustenance to the people of Kāwhia. He displayed unique skill with taiaha and possessed unmatched leadership qualities and military prowess. Because of this, his descendants and others coalesced into the Ngāti Toa tribe.

Descendants of Toa Rangatira migrated from Kāwhia in the early 19th century in a series of migrations collectively known as Te Heke Mai i Raro. The migration and consequence conquests, under the leadership of Te Rauparaha included the allied tribes of Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Koata and Ngāti Raukawa of the Tainui/Waikato region, and Ngāti Mutunga, Te Āti Awa and Ngāti Tama of the Taranaki region. Together they established dominion throughout the Cook Strait region.

Ngāti Toa later established settlements in the Wairau district centered on the coastal sections of Karauripē (Cloudy Bay), and along the fertile mouth and banks of the Wairau River. Among these settlements were Wairau Pā in the Wairau Valley and Ōtauira Pā in Waikutakuta (Robin Hood Bay).

Cultivations and food gathering areas were located throughout Karauripē and Wairau, particularly at Waikārapi (Vernon Lagoons) and Kaparatehau (Lake Grassmere). Some significant battle sites are located at Te Kōwhai, Te Karaka, Ōpua and Tuamarino.

The proximity of these settlements to anchorages and resources reflected the close trade association Ngāti Toa had with early Europeans whalers and pioneers. Ngāti Toa traded flax, timber, fresh water supplies, food, labor for muskets, gunpowder, tobacco, and new technologies. Land was also leased or gifted, particularly to those who had married into the iwi.

One notorious land deal was the Blenkinsop Indenture of 1832 in which Caption John Blenkinsop had negotiated permission to draw sufficient water and timber from the Wairau as required for the simple one-off payment of an 18-pound cannon.

The agreement, signed by Te Rauparaha, Te Rangihaeata, Te Whiti and others, was in fact a deed of sale for the entire Wairau Valley. Enraged, Te Rauparaha tore up the deed. The cannon is now placed outside the Marlborough District Council offices.

On 17 June 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Te Tiriti) was brought to Karauripē by Thomas Bunbury aboard the HMS Herald. Nine rangatira signed Te Tiriti including Nohorua, Te Kanae, Te Whāiti, Pūkeko, Te Wī, Eka Hare, Puke and Māui Pū, and Ihaia Kaikōura from Rangitāne. Nohorua also had his son-in-law, Joseph Thoms, sign Te Tiriti so he would share the blame if his children lost their land because of singing Te Tiriti. Ngāti Toa Rangatira hoped that by signing Te Tiriti the British would halt duplicitous land deals.

The first test of British justice would emerge with the rape and murder of Rangiawa Kuika and her son by a Pākehā named Richard Cook in 1842. Kuika was a niece of Te Rauparaha, and sister to Wairau chiefs Wī Te Kanae and Rāwiri Puaha. Although Cook’s wife was to testify that he was guilty, she was disqualified from giving evidence. The result of this was that ngāti Toa had lost faith in the British Crown to adjudicate fair outcomes for Māori.

Te Arai o Wairau

The Blenkinsop deed later re-emerged after Colonel Wakefield of the New Zealand Company (NZ Company) purchased it from Blenkinsop’s widow for £300. The NZ Company, now claiming ownership of the Wairau, began surveying the land to sell to immigrants from England. The surveyors were evicted by Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata as they maintained that the land had not been sold. A group of armed settlers form Nelson went to Wairau to arrest Te Rauparaha and after a tense standoff, another Ngāti Toa woman, Te Rongo, wife of Te Rangihaeata, was killed by a stray bullet. Enraged, Te Rangihaeata demanded utu resulting in the deaths of 22 British settlers. Four Ngāti Toa were killed in the ensuing musket battle. This indecent was fought on the banks of the Tuamarino River on 17 June 1843, exactly three years after the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi at Karauripē.

Governors Shortland and Fitzroy, investigating the incident, later exonerated Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata, and in 1844 declared that the Wairau had not been sold. Despite this, in 1846 Governor Grey ordered the military to forcefully expel Te Rangihaeata from Ngāti Toa territory, and illegally detained Te Rauparaha, keeping him under house arrest without trial in Auckland.

Ngāti Toa were forced to secure the release of Te Rauparaha by selling over 600,000 acres of land in Wairau and beyond to the Crown for £3,000, and about 70,000 acres in the Porirua district for £2,000. Further forced land alienations in the following decades left Ngāti Toa virtually landless. Additional Crown policies severely undermined the rangtatiratanga of Ngāti Toa reducing the power and influence of senior chiefs and the ability to determine tribal authority. Combined, these actions and their efforts had a profound impact on the trust Ngāti Toa had in the British regime.

In 2014 Ngāti Toa settled historic Crown breaches of Te Tiriti including land seizures, the illegal detention of Te Rauparaha, and the Crown’s part in the events leading up to the Wairau Incident. Ngāti Toa is now in a better position to partner with the Crown, its local body agencies, including the Ministry of Education, and other various departments, to reaffirm the rangatiratanga of Ngāti Toa within its rohe.

Ngāti Toa are now a key player in local and economic affairs through negotiated Statutory Acknowledgements, Deed of Recognition and commercial redress. The iwi is now better able to reclaim its authority in the cultural, social, political, and economic spheres of Wairau and beyond.