Hakaraia

Warrior Peacemaker
by Mark Derby
The Waitaha people have always lived beside the water. For hundreds of years,
their rohe was the coastal land south of Tauranga. But in the early nineteenth
century, Waitaha had to flee inland to escape warring tribes. They were given shelter
at Lake Rotorua by their Te Arawa kin. Although this meant they were still by the water,
it was not their home. The people of Waitaha never stopped thinking about their own
whenua. And they never stopped hoping that one day they might return.

KO WAITAHA
TE IWI
Ko Otawa te maunga
Ko Te Rapa-rapa-a-hoe te awa
Ko Hei te tipuna
Ko Takakopiri te tangata
Ko Waitaha te iwi
Ko Te Arawa te waka.

The tpuna of the Waitaha iwi the chief

Hei and his son Waitaha arrived in Aotearoa
on the waka Te Arawa. As the waka passed
the entrance of Tauranga Harbour,
Hei claimed the land for his descendants.
By the nineteenth century, the Waitaha
people mainly occupied the land between
Tauranga Harbour and the Waiari River,
including the area inland up to the Kaimai
Ranges. It was a beautiful region with rich
soil for crops, many birds in the forests,
and many eels in the rivers. Today Te Puke
is the main town within the rohe of Waitaha.

THE RETURN
One miraculous day in 1836, some visitors arrived on the shores of Lake Rotorua.
They were from far away to the north. Two of the people were Pkeh the Reverend
Thomas Chapman and his wife, Anne. Another of the visitors was a man who looked
familiar. His whnau thought they were seeing a ghost. This was Mhika, who had
been taken from his iwi twelve years earlier by the same warriors who had seized
their land. None of his people ever expected to see Mhika again. But he had survived,
learnt to read and write at a mission school in Northland, and eventually converted to
Christianity. Along with his new religion, Mhika had a new name: Hakaraia.

29

HAKARAIA: THE PREACHER AND

PEACEMAKER
By the 1830s, Christian missionaries had begun to travel outside Northland
to spread their religion and ideas. Reverend Chapman and his family came
to the Rotorua area with the idea of establishing a mission. They brought
Hakaraia with them as a helper and interpreter. His Waitaha people were
astonished to see him again. It was close to a miracle, and being deeply
affected by this, many quickly agreed to be baptised.
In Rotorua, Hakaraia helped the Chapmans to build their mission
station, along with a school and hospital. He also began to travel on foot
to the territories of other iwi, encouraging them to follow a Christian
way of life and to give up warfare. Many people now accepted
Hakaraia as their spiritual leader. Most were Waitaha, but some
came from other iwi, especially the neighbouring Tapuika.
Because of his skills as a negotiator, Hakaraia even
convinced the iwi that occupied Waitaha land to
allow his peoples return.

KENANA: THE PROMISED LAND

In 1845, after years of exile, Hakaraia led his people back
from Rotorua to the Bay of Plenty. On Tapuika land beside
the Kaituna River (near present-day Te Puke), they built
a Christian community called Kenana, which means
Canaan or the promised land. To his followers,
Hakaraia seemed to prove that all of the Bible stories
were true. He had risen from the dead by returning
from captivity and like the story about the
Christian prophet Moses, he had led his people
back to their homeland.
For the next decade, Hakaraia raised his
family while his reputation as a devout
spiritual leader grew. He continued to
preach and to broker peace between
warring tribes. The colonial government
even paid Hakaraia to encourage this
difficult yet valuable work.
30

A NEW KING
The violent years of the musket wars were long over, but by the 1850s,
Mori were worried about a new danger. Large areas of Mori land
were being sold to European settlers, often without the consent of all
the owners. As well, many Mori were dying of Pkeh diseases, like
smallpox and measles. Some chiefs thought that these problems could
be better dealt with if Mori had their own king to rule alongside the
British monarch.
The movement to establish a Mori king was called the Kngitanga.
At first, the Kngitanga had entirely peaceful aims: to retain Mori land
and restore Mori mana. Hakaraia supported these aims. Then, in 1860,
the controversial land sale of the Waitara block in Taranaki sparked
a series of battles between Mori and the government. A truce was
eventually declared, but in the following months, the government began
to raise a large army. It wanted settlers to be able to farm the fertile
Waikato, home of the Mori king and centre of Kngitanga power.
By 1863, the country was at war again.
The p of the first Mori king, Ptatau Te Wherowhero,
at Ngruawhia in the Waikato (painted in 1847)

A ptaka (storehouse) on the shores of

Lake Taup: This was one of many ptaka
built around the North Island in the 1850s
to show support for the Kngitanga.

The flag flown at

Pukehinahina
during the battle

BATTLE AT PUKEHINAHINA

Hakaraia was greatly troubled. He fervently believed in the Christian principles

hed been taught, but he also believed that the government and its men werent
acting as the Bible instructed. Then, in February 1864, government soldiers attacked
Rangiaowhia, a Mori village in Waikato that grew food for the Kngitanga. Twelve
Mori were killed, some of whom were women and children. Hakaraia decided that
he could no longer remain neutral.

Hakaraia began recruiting warriors from the East Coast and helped them to
find routes to the battles in Waikato. This enraged the government, and it sent
hundreds of soldiers to the Tauranga area to stop Mori resistance. During his
years as a captive in the north, Hakaraia had learnt to build fortified p, and
along with his followers and allies (including Mori from Ngi Te Rangi and
other iwi), he helped to build a small but carefully planned p near the mission
station at Te Papa. This became known as Pukehinahina (Gate P). Inside the p,
Hakaraia held church services both in the morning and evening while over
two hundred men, women, and children waited for the attack.
The government troops attacked Pukehinahina on 29 April 1864. Soldiers
fired cannon and then charged, certain they would win. But the defenders had
been hiding in underground shelters and werent harmed. Mori warriors
poured out of their bunkers and drove the soldiers back. The British retreated in
chaos, leaving a hundred of their men killed or wounded. Because they had read
in the Bible love your enemies, the Mori gave the wounded soldiers water.

Pukehinahina around 1864

33

ON THE RUN
Hakaraia knew that the government wouldnt give up after their defeat at
Pukehinahina. He called on his Te Arawa whnau for support, and they
built another p called Te Ranga. Before the p was finished, the British
attacked this time killing over a hundred of the five hundred defenders,
many of whom were related to Hakaraia. Along with his son and a few
other survivors, Hakaraia escaped into the Kaimai Ranges overlooking
Tauranga.
As punishment for their involvement at Pukehinahina and Te Ranga,
in May 1865, the government confiscated large areas of Waitaha land.
But Hakaraia would never surrender, and the government sent another
large force of troops to capture him. Again he escaped and moved even
farther inland, to the King Country, where the second Mori king
Twhiao had been living in exile since the Waikato wars. Mori from
many different iwi came to live with Hakaraia, whom they called
Te Hpara (the shepherd). Some people claim that over the next few years,
Hakaraia was even more influential than Twhiao.
Around this time, other fugitives were also living in the King Country.
The most well-known was the East Coast leader Te Kooti. The government
regarded both Hakaraia and Te Kooti as dangerous criminals and was
determined to catch them. In 1870, it sent two separate forces of soldiers
to do the job. These soldiers finally tracked Te Kooti and Hakaraia and
some of their followers to the Waioeka Gorge, near ptiki. The final
attack was said to be like a mob of horses racing. Te Kooti escaped,
but Hakaraia was killed.

FORGOTTEN AND REMEMBERED

The government and the newspapers celebrated the death of a notorious
rebel. The early years of good work done by Hakaraia his peacemaking
and his Christian community were forgotten.
Hakaraia was once the most prominent Mori leader in the Bay of
Plenty. But in the years after his death, his name was barely mentioned.
Now, Hakaraia is being remembered as a principled man who turned to
war only because he thought peace was no longer possible. One hundred
and fifty years after Pukehinahina, a carved image of Hakaraia was placed
on the site of the battle to mark the anniversary.

34

GLOSSARY
mission: a place that teaches
Christian beliefs
musket wars: the inter-tribal conflicts
that began in 1818 and caused
the deaths of many thousands
of Mori
prophet: an inspiring spiritual leader

35

Hakaraia: Warrior Peacemaker

by Mark Derby

Hakaraia
Warrior Peacemaker

LEVEL

by Mark Derby

The Waitaha people have always lived beside the water. For hundreds of years,
their rohe was the coastal land south of Tauranga. But in the early nineteenth
century, Waitaha had to ee inland to escape warring tribes. They were given shelter
at Lake Rotorua by their Arawa kin. Although this meant they were still by the water,
it was not their home. The people of Waitaha never stopped thinking about their own
whenua. And they never stopped hoping that one day they might return.

THE RETURN

Thanks to Te Kapu Waitaha Trust for allowing us to take photographs on their marae.
Thanks also to Alison McCulloch for taking these photographs, which have been used as
inspiration for the design elements in the article Hakaraia: Warrior Peacemaker.

One miraculous day in 1836, some visitors arrived on the shores of Lake Rotorua.
They were from far away to the north. Two of the people were Pkeh the Reverend
Thomas Chapman and his wife, Anne. Another of the visitors was a man who looked
familiar. His whnau thought they were seeing a ghost. This was Mhika, who had
been taken from his iwi twelve years earlier by the same warriors who had seized
their land. None of his people ever expected to see Mhika again. But he had survived,
learnt to read and write at a mission school in Northland, and eventually converted to
Christianity. Along with his new religion, Mhika had a new name: Hakaraia.

All text is copyright Crown 2015 (apart from the pepeha on page 29,
which is used with permission from Te Kapu Waitaha Trust).
The images on the following pages are used with permission
from the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington:
page 31, reference PUBL-0014-15;
page 32 (top), reference 1/2-082343-F;
pages 3233, reference PA1-f-046-13-3
The image on the following page is used with permission:
page 35 copyright Alison McCullouch

SCHOOL JOURNAL LEVEL 4, MAY 2015

All other images copyright Crown 2015

For copyright information about how you can use this material,
go to: http://www.tki.org.nz/Copyright-in-Schools/Terms-of-use
Published 2015 by the Ministry of Education
PO Box 1666, Wellington 6140, New Zealand.
www.education.govt.nz
All rights reserved.
Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
ISBN 978-0-478-44673-9 (online)
Publishing services: Lift Education E t
Series Editor: Susan Paris
Designer: Liz Tui Morris
Literacy Consultant: Melanie Winthrop
Consulting Editors: Hne Apanui and Emeli Sione

Curriculum learning area

English
Social Sciences

Reading year level

Year 8

Keywords

Gate P, Hakaraia, history, Kngitanga,

Mori king, missionaries, musket wars,
prophets, Pukehinahina, Te Kooti, Waitaha