The Girls’ War is the name given to fighting on the beach at Russell, New Zealand, then known as Kororāreka, in March 1830 between the northern and southern hapū (subtribe) within the Ngāpuhi iwi (tribe).
The Girls' War is so named because it began with insults and curses being exchanged between young, high-ranking Māori women, rivals for the affection of Captain William Darby Brind.
[4] In response to the curses, Ururoa (also known as Rewharewha), a chief of Whangaroa and brother-in-law of the late Hongi Hika, led warriors to raid the kūmara gardens of the Ngati Manu on 5 March 1830.
Reverend Samuel Marsden had arrived on a visit and over the following weeks he and Henry Williams attempted to negotiate a settlement in which Kororāreka would be ceded by Pōmare II as compensation for Hengi's death, which was accepted by those engaged in the fighting.
[4] However, the duty of seeking revenge had passed to Mango and Kakaha, the sons of Hengi; they took the view that the death of their father should be acknowledged through a muru, or compensation-seeking expedition, against tribes to the south.
[6][5] An underlying cause of the fighting was a dispute as to the boundary line of the Kororāreka block that had been surrendered as a consequence of the death of Hengi some seven years previously in the Girls’ War.