Herea Te Heuheu Tūkino I

As paramount chief he based himself at Waitahanui pa on the Tongariro River delta, where he slowly built up his prestige and authority.

He died around 1820 and, after a brief pause, his son Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II succeeded him as paramount chief.

His descendants, the Te Heuheu family, continue to hold the paramount chieftainship of Ngāti Tūwharetoa today.

He raised a war party and marched to fight off the Tūhoe invasion, but did not manage to join up with the Tūwharetoa forces before the Battle of Orona, where they suffered a devastating defeat.

Therefore, he brought his forces to Motutere, home of Te Rangi-tua-mātotoru, the elderly paramount chief, and began preparing the village’s defences.

Herea was famous warrior and had close connections with Ngāti Maniapoto through his mother and his wife Rangiaho, but he was genealogically the most junior candidate.

Te Wakaiti was also a strong warrior with good connections and he had possession of the main tribal atua, Rongomai.

They ignored her and demanded that she go and speak to Te Wakaiti, and he sent her back out to tell them, “if they come near me, I will drill them full of holes so that daylight shines right through them.” This insult convinced Whatu-pounamu and the other ariki to turn around and appoint Herea as paramount chief instead.

Therefore, he travelled to the Rangitoto Range and took instruction from Huahua of Maniapoto in the use of the pouwhenua club, which was Te Wakaiti’s favoured weapon.

Following the principle of maroro kokoti ihu waka (a flying fish that gets split by the bow of a war-canoe), he attacked the group and killed their chieftain Te Pohoiti.

Then he attacked other members of the tribe, who were out planting kumara, and killed them too, including a young boy called Pango.

Grace also records another song, written by Karangi of Pakawa, a relative of Te Pohoiti, which denigrates Herea as a “carved calabash” (ipu whakairo).

[18] Once he had returned from Rangitoto, Herea travelled with Whatu-pounamu and the other ariki to Pūkawa and challenged Te Wakaiti to a duel, quickly defeating him.

[20] Angela Ballara argued that the paramount chieftainship was still a very loose institution in this period and only became solidified in the 1830s or 1840s under Herea’s son, Te Heuheu II.

[1] The Waitangi Tribunal concluded that his authority was based on his military prowess and his knowledge of tribal lore and that his position was one of ‘first among equals’.

In the dawn of day, you are gone – As I, like snowy-breasted shag, bird of the stream and lake, Swoop swiftly over plains and view your battlefields again.