Te Wera Hauraki (?–1839) was a rangatira (chieftain) of the Ngāti Hineira and Te Uri Taniwha hapū of the Ngāpuhi iwi from the Northland region of New Zealand. From about 1818 to 1821, Te Wera went on expeditions and fought battles in the Bay of Plenty and the East Coast. In 1823, he was one of the leaders of the Ngāpuhi attack that defeated Te Arawa at Mokoia island in Lake Rotorua. Following the attack, Te Wera and his wife, Te Ao-kapurangi, negotiated a peace that prevented Ngāpuhi from taking further action against Te Arawa. After the conclusion of peace, he continued east and settled at Māhia Peninsula in Hawke's Bay, where he allied with Te Whareumu of Ngāti Rakaipaaka and Ngāti Hikairo and Te Pareihe of Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti, helping them to fight off incursions from other tribes, especially Ngāti Te Ūpokoiri and Ngāti Raukawa. He remained at Māhia until his death in 1839.
Early life
Hauraki was the son of Kaiteke or Kaitara, a leader of Ngāti Hineira and Te Uri Taniwha hapū of Ngāpuhi. His mother may have been Inu of Ngāti Pou. He had a brother, Te Kōpiri. He lived in Pukenui pa at Te Ahuahu, in the Bay of Islands in his youth.
Hauraki and Te Kōpiri fought as young men in the battle fought by Whāingaroa to drive Ngāti Pou from Taiāmai to Whangaroa and Hokianga. In 1817 Hauraki was living in the village of Motuiti, downstream from Kerikeri.
Expeditions to the Bay of Plenty and East Coast
In 1818, Te Wera joined his relative Te Morenga on a campaign to the Bay of Plenty. The force landed at Te Teko and marched inland up the Rangitaiki River. He had returned to Motuiti by October 1819. Probably on this expedition, he captured Te Ao-kapurangi, a chieftainess of Ngāti Rangiwewehi and took her as his wife. They had a child who was accidentally burnt, from which Hauraki took the name Te Wera ("the burning").
1819–1821 expedition At the end of 1819, Te Wera, Tītore, and others set out on another expedition to the East Coast, which lasted sixteen months. They may have helped Peehi Tūkorehu of Waikato to attack Rongowhakaata on the Waipaoa River in Poverty Bay and Pōmare to capture Te Whetū-matarau pā at Te Kawakawa (Te Araroa) on the Awatere River. They certainly attacked Te Māhia peninsula, where Te Wera captured 40 prisoners, including Te Whareumu of Ngāti Rakaipaaka and his sister, whom he probably married.
Mokoia campaign, 1823
In 1822, at the instigation of Te Rauparaha and Te Whatanui, Te Pae-o-te-rangi of Ngāpuhi was killed by members of the Tūhourangi iwi of Te Arawa at Lake Rotokākahi. Other members of his expedition were killed as they fled by Ngāti Whakaue at Ōhinemutu. When the news reached Ngāpuhi there was a protracted debate about how to respond. Te Koki and Ta-waewae called for an immediate attack, saying “blood has flown; do not let it get cold!” But Te Wera convinced Ngāpuhi to wait a year, saying, "leave it for next year, so that dried kumara and fish may be obtained for the belly that supports the legs."
Thus, in February 1823, Te Wera, Pōmare, and Hongi Hika led an expedition to the Bay of Plenty. The force landed at Tauranga and headed up the Pongakawa valley to attack Mokoia Island on Lake Rotorua, where the forces of Te Arawa had gathered in expectation of the Ngāpuhi attack. Te Ao-kapurangi, who was related to the people of the area, negotiated safe passage up the valley for the expedition. In exchange, she got the war party to agree that they would not attack the members of her own hapū on Mokoia. Hongi Hika agreed to this on the condition that everyone who was spared had to pass between her legs. She went into Mokoia with her co-wife, Tahu, and tried to convince her hapū to leave the island before the battle, but they refused.
According to Hongi Hika, Te Wera and Pōmare attacked the island first and were driven back. Hongi Hika then attacked with the main body of Ngāpuhi troops and they succeeded in landing. Takaanui Hōhaia Tarakawa says that Hongi Hika was at the front and was knocked down by a bullet to his helmet, while Te Wera and Pōmare were in the second wave. Te Arawa fell back after 170 men had been killed. Te Ao-kapurangi went into battle with Ngāpuhi, climbed up onto the roof of the wharenui Tama-te-kapua, which had been designated as the safehouse, and called her people to come into the house to safety (passing under her legs in the process), inspiring the saying Ano ko te whare whawhao a Te Ao-kapurangi ("this is the crowded house of Te Ao-kapurangi").
After the battle, Hone Te Hihiko, the son of Te Ao-kapurangi by her first husband came secretly to Mokoia island and met up with her and Te Wera. The next morning, when Ngāpuhi gathered to discuss continuing their campaign against Te Arawa and settling permanently in the area, Te Wera, called up Te Hihiko, saying, "Behold! O Ngāpuhi!... my back has been climbed by one who is now in your presence" and he insisted that Ngāpuhi make peace with Te Arawa and end the campaign. Tarakawa concludes that Te Wera and Te Ao-kapurangi's quick action saved Te Arawa from destruction. After this, Hongi Hika and the majority of the war party departed northwards.
Restoration of Te Whareumu, 1823
Te Wera had promised to return Te Whareumu and his people to Te Māhia peninsula, so he took his step-sons and continued eastward with Pōmare via Whakatāne and Ōpōtiki, where the local people were frightened by the force and fled inland. At Wharekura near Te Kaha-nui-a-Tiki, the local people, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, attacked Te Wera's force and killed his nephew, Marino. Te Wera avenged his death the next day at Whangaparaoa, when he killed the chief Te Pakipaki-rauiri. At the Waiapu River, Pōmare decided to lead his forces elsewhere.
At Tūranganui (modern Gisborne), Te Wera was met by Te Kani-a-Takirau of Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti who had clashed with him on one of his previous expeditions, but now wanted Te Wera to help him in his ongoing conflict with Ngāti Porou and to help find the tribe's leader, his grandmother Hinematioro. Te Wera agreed to do so, once he had returned Te Whareumu to Te Māhia.
When Te Wera arrived at Te Māhia, Te Whareumu's people, Ngāti Rakaipaaka, were scattered in the hills and Ngāti Hikairo had fled to Waikawa island, as a result of raids by Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti and Ngāti Raukawa in 1821 and 1822. Te Wera persuaded them to meet him at Pukenui Beach, at the neck of the peninsula. Te Whareumu was returned to his people and he called for them to allow Te Wera to settle permanently and help them restore the lands that they had lost to Ngāti Raukawa, saying "he will be a father to us; he will be our fort and he will shelter us from the winds that blow from the south." Te Wera was given lands on the peninsula and allowed to settle there as the community's leader. Although he had intended to stay only briefly, he ended up remaining at Te Māhia for the rest of his life. His force was armed with muskets, which the local people did not yet possess.
Campaigns in Hawke's Bay
Te Wera was approached by two local rangatira who wanted his help in getting revenge for injuries that they had suffered and he agreed to help them. Te Hauwaho of the Ngāti Pārau hapū of Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti, who was based in Heretaunga (Hawke's Bay), had lost his brother, Hungahunga, at the hands of Ngāti Te Ūpokoiri. Te Waikōpiro / Te Waikōpua of Wairoa had lost his young son Whakapararākau to people in the Wairarapa.
Together with Te Whareumu and Te Hauwaho, Te Wera led a force to Ahuriri (modern Napier), where they killed some women of Ngāti Te Ūpokoiri. They went south to Cape Kidnappers and attacked Kurupō Te Moananui of the Ngāti Hāwea hapū of Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti. Then they planned to move inland and attack Te Pareihe, the leader of Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti, but they were stopped at Waimārama by Tiakitai of Ngāti Kurukuru. Te Wera made camp at Tānenui-a-rangi on the Ngaruroro River near Pakowhai.
Te Pareihe and Tiakitai now came to Tānenui-a-rangi, intending to make an alliance. Te Wera's forces surrounded them, but they negotiated a peace. Te Pareihe's tau (song sung at the start of a speech) is preserved by Takaanui Tarakawa and John Te Herekiekie Grace. In it, he calls Te Wera his awhe pumahuru ("steadfast plume"). Te Pareihe wanted to reclaim his pā on an island in Lake Rotoatara (near Te Aute), which had been captured in 1822 by a Ngāti Tūwharetoa force from Lake Taupō under the command of Mananui Te Heuheu in the Kahupapa Battle and was now occupied by Ngāti Te Ūpokoiri. Ballara says that the combined force successfully took back the fortress.
Some of the forces of Te Wera and Tiakitai went with Te Waikōpiro to get revenge on the Wairarapa people.
Titirangi, 1824 In 1824, Te Mautaranui of Tuhoe and Ngāti Awa gathered a force in order to get revenge on Ranga-ika of Ngāti Kahungunu for killing the Tūhoe rangatira Rangiwaitatao. Among his allies was Pōmare of Ngāpuhi, who landed at Te Māhia with a war party armed with guns, joined Te Wera, and marched up the Wairoa River to the Ngāti Kahungunu stronghold at Titirangi, located on the Waiau River and defended by Te Whenua-riri, Hipara, and Ranga-ika.
According to Tūhoe tradition, when Ngāti Kahungunu scouts reported to Ranga-ika that a war party armed with pū (“guns”), he was completely unfazed, because he knew pū only as the Māori word for a type of trumpet. Pōmare attacked immediately and as his forces loaded their guns, the Ngāti Kahungunu defenders stood there asking one another why Ngapuhi were pointing the narrow end of their trumpets at them instead of the broad end. Te Whenua-riri and many other defenders were killed, but Hipara and Ranga-ika escaped.
Te Pakake, 1825 In 1825, Te Pareihe's tohunga, Toiroa, had a dream that Waikato would soon invade the region. In response, Te Wera returned to the Māhia peninsula and persuaded Te Pareihe to lead Ngāti Whatuiapiti back there as well. Many people of Ngāti Kahungunu refused to follow him. Instead, the tribes of Ngāti Hinepare, Ngāti Hāwea, Ngāti Tukuoterangi, Ngāti Rangikamangungu, and Ngāti Matepu settled at Te Pakake Pā, on an island at the mouth of Ahuriri lagoon. Soon after this, a force of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Waikato, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Raukawa, and Ngāti Maru led by Mananui Te Heuheu and Te Wherowhero arrived in the region and destroyed Te Pakake.
Attack on Tuatini At an uncertain point before 1827, Te Umu-ariki of Ngāti Awa and Tūhoe was killed along with three of Te Wera's men by people of Rongowhakaata and Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki at Turihaunga (near Whāngārā) in Poverty Bay. Therefore, Te Wera took three canoes north to get revenge. He reunited with Te Kani-a-Takirau, whose Te Aitanga a Hauiti hapū joined him. Te Wera led his troops to Tokomaru Bay, where Ngāti Porou had gathered at Tuatini pā under Te Rere-horua. After a couple of days, the Ngāpuhi men climbed up to the walls of the fortress, threw ropes over the palisade, and used them to pull down the posts, so that they could enter the fortress. Te Rere-horua, Kha-wai, and others were killed. Te Wera returned to Te Mahia after that, but a state of hostility endured until 1838, when the people of Tokomaru Bay asked the missionary William Williams to broker a peace with Te Wera for them.
Sometime after this, Te Wera joined Tiakitai on an expedition south to attack Hakikino at Maungarake (near Masterton in the Wairarapa). They captured many slaves, including the chieftainess Matahi of Ngāti Hika-rahui.
Attack of Te Momo-a-Irawaru, 1827
In 1827, a group of Ngāti Raukawa decided to make another attempt to settle in the Hawke’s Bay region, as a result of attacks on them by Ngāti Paoa and Ngāti Haua. They convinced the Ngāti Te Ūpokoiri and Ngāti Te Kohera to join them. The Ngāti Te Upokoiri contingent was led by Te Whiuwhiuhoia, Motumotu, and Te Puke. The Ngāti Te Kohera force was led by Te Momo-a-Irawaru.