Our History

Kahutianui

Kahutianui is the tūpuna that gives her name to the hapū and iwi of Ngāti Kahu. Kahutianui is the daughter of Tūmoana and Kahukura-ariki. Tūmoana was the rangatira of the Tinana waka. His mokopuna, Te Pārata, is reputed to have refashioned the Tinana at Rangiātea [Ra’iātea] after Tūmoana had returned there from Tauroa, Aotearoa. After the refashioning, the Tinana was renamed Māmaru and guided by Te Pārata back to Aotearoa. It said that Pārata had returned with tohunga. The Māmaru landed at Rangiāwhia and was beached at Taiapā. This name refers to the ‘Taiapā’ that surrounded the kāinga known today as the Taipā Point. ​

On the arrival of the Māmaru, Pārata married Tūmoana’s daughter Kahutianui. The descendants and people of the Māmaru are spread out through the Ōruru Valley right to the base of Maunga Taniwha and along the coast to Tākou and said to head west to Whangapē. For various reasons, these people moved mainly south and unlike other iwi and tūpuna they were not a static and inbreeding community. At the end of Taipā beach towards Otengi, it is said that the waka Māmaru was buried.

It is said that the name of Ngāti Kahu prior to the naming of Te Paatu was Ngāi Tamatea. This hapū derives its name from Tamatea-iti, the brother of Kahutianui. Ngāi Tamatea fell at the hands of Ngāti Tama at Kohukohu, however, the Ngāi Tamatea line still exists today through Waipuiarangi’s marriage to Moroki from the Kahutianui line.[1] The Waitangi Tribunal Mangonui Sewerage Report (1988: 13 – 15) describes how Taipā was the center of the Ngāti Kahu:

“When the Māori settlers arrived on Māmaru canoe, possibly 700 years ago, they settled at Taipā, and the original dwelling place at Otengi headland is sacred to this day. The people’s main pā was built there. The main shellfish beds were nearby too.”[2]

“Two logs carried from the homeland to beach the canoe was then planted there. Two tawapou trees are there to this day. From cuttings, others have been established on the lands of related tribes. At Taipā an abundance of fish was found, and shellfish of great variety—toheroa, tipā (scallops), kokota (pipi), huai (cockles), karahu (periwinkles), kutai (mussels), tio (oysters), kina, pupu and koramarama (rock periwinkles), pāua, pātiotio (limpets), ngakihikihi (small mussels) and kotoremoana (shell-less pāua).”

“Fresh water was available by digging holes in the Taipā sands, a practice that continued to modern times. Otengi headland a defensive pā was built named Mamangi, after the daughter of Pārata and Kahutianui. Pārata and Kahutianui lived alternately at three important headlands of the Bay, at Karikari to the north, Otengi at the center, and at Taemaro on the east.”

“Otengi at Taipā was the main base, where there were direct lines of sight to the other headlands and to promontories inland. As the descendants settled the whole of the Tokerau (Doubtless Bay) lands, signal fires were used to maintain contact between them.”

In the course of time, the people multiplied and grew, supplemented from marriages with other Māori from the many other canoes that came. Originally there were three hapū or clans on the Māmaru canoe, Te Rorohuri, Patu Kōraha, and Te Whānau Moana. These names have always been maintained but in later years numerous sub-tribal groups adopted additional tribal names that came to apply to different localities. For convenience, we refer to the sub-tribes collectively as Ngāti Kahu, although the name was not revived until the 1920s, and although for the greater period of the time described, different groups of the same people preferred their separate hapū names.

By the eighteenth century, the main settlements were broadly in three areas. At the eastern peninsula leading into the Mangonui Harbour and in the surrounding valley and hills, the central area inland from Taipā and nearby coastal places, and at the Karikari Peninsula on the northern extremity of the bay. Pā were built in all these places and villages were everywhere.

It is likely that at every coastal headland there was a pā, many were built inland on well-drained hills at strategic spots on communication lines and at places with ready access to the resources of the dense forests and the open seas. On carefully chosen sites extensive gardens were established.

[1] Reverend Māori Marsden. (ND).

[2] Waitangi Tribunal. (1988). Mangonui Sewerage Report: pp. 12. Wellington New Zealand. Government Print.