Post by Kiwi Frontline on Aug 29, 2017 13:18:49 GMT 12
REVISING NZ HISTORY 4: WIREMU KINGI – WAIKANAE TO WAITARA
Maori living in a time of change
My first few articles on New Zealand history have dealt with the big picture – the total culture and population. The focus now turns to the actors – the people whose ideas and actions defined early events.
Their lifetimes spanned two very different societies and social systems.
They were born into a world of violence and bloody intertribal warfare, and came to see the steady, if slow, establishment of law and order.
They lived through a most extraordinary cultural revolution within Maori society, a complete transformation from a time when disputes over land ownership (taonga) were settled by might (with the spear, tao), to a rule of law.
They left behind the old culture and moved towards another, very different way of life.
Two who lived in Kapiti were
* Wiremu Kingi (William King, Te Rangitake; referred to here as Kingi) of Waikanae
* Tamihana Te Rauparaha (son of the renowned Ngati Toa warrior) of Otaki.
Wiremu Kingi: coming south
Kingi played a key role in the rebellion that led to war in Taranaki and Waikato. The story of Tamihana is the very opposite, a peacemaker who came to live in comfort as a country squire.
Kingi’s story is told in two parts: his coming to Waikanae and his decision to go back to Waitara, and then his refusal to accept a Commission decision that a fellow Te Atiawa chief, Teira, could sell land at Waitara even though Kingi acknowledged that the land was his.
The story starts in the second and third decades of the nineteenth century. Intertribal warfare had driven weaker Maori tribes from their land.
Many Te Atiawa had moved from Taranaki where they had been attacked and killed by Waikato, and joined Ngati Toa (led by Te Rauparaha) in a move south, driving out tribes living in Kapiti and settling there. Kingi was one of them.
Te Atiawa sell land for protection?
In those turbulent times, many Maori across the country were eager to sell land for guns, both to protect themselves and with which to attack others.
The incoming settlers also provided welcome protection against threatening neighbours.
In 1839, the New Zealand Company made a number of purchases. The Te Atiawa leader Warepori, who had come to Wellington in the 1832 migration, sold all the land between Rimurapa (Sinclair Head) and Turakirae, and from the sea to the summits of the Tararua Range.
Te Atiawa did this partly from insecurity: no more of their tribe were joining them, and many Taranaki people had left......
Continue reading Dr John Robinson’s # 3 series published in the ‘Kapiti Independent’ here > kapitiindependentnews.net.nz/new-zealand-history/
Maori living in a time of change
My first few articles on New Zealand history have dealt with the big picture – the total culture and population. The focus now turns to the actors – the people whose ideas and actions defined early events.
Their lifetimes spanned two very different societies and social systems.
They were born into a world of violence and bloody intertribal warfare, and came to see the steady, if slow, establishment of law and order.
They lived through a most extraordinary cultural revolution within Maori society, a complete transformation from a time when disputes over land ownership (taonga) were settled by might (with the spear, tao), to a rule of law.
They left behind the old culture and moved towards another, very different way of life.
Two who lived in Kapiti were
* Wiremu Kingi (William King, Te Rangitake; referred to here as Kingi) of Waikanae
* Tamihana Te Rauparaha (son of the renowned Ngati Toa warrior) of Otaki.
Wiremu Kingi: coming south
Kingi played a key role in the rebellion that led to war in Taranaki and Waikato. The story of Tamihana is the very opposite, a peacemaker who came to live in comfort as a country squire.
Kingi’s story is told in two parts: his coming to Waikanae and his decision to go back to Waitara, and then his refusal to accept a Commission decision that a fellow Te Atiawa chief, Teira, could sell land at Waitara even though Kingi acknowledged that the land was his.
The story starts in the second and third decades of the nineteenth century. Intertribal warfare had driven weaker Maori tribes from their land.
Many Te Atiawa had moved from Taranaki where they had been attacked and killed by Waikato, and joined Ngati Toa (led by Te Rauparaha) in a move south, driving out tribes living in Kapiti and settling there. Kingi was one of them.
Te Atiawa sell land for protection?
In those turbulent times, many Maori across the country were eager to sell land for guns, both to protect themselves and with which to attack others.
The incoming settlers also provided welcome protection against threatening neighbours.
In 1839, the New Zealand Company made a number of purchases. The Te Atiawa leader Warepori, who had come to Wellington in the 1832 migration, sold all the land between Rimurapa (Sinclair Head) and Turakirae, and from the sea to the summits of the Tararua Range.
Te Atiawa did this partly from insecurity: no more of their tribe were joining them, and many Taranaki people had left......
Continue reading Dr John Robinson’s # 3 series published in the ‘Kapiti Independent’ here > kapitiindependentnews.net.nz/new-zealand-history/