Manu-Tongātea

Manu-Tongātea (also known as Mātotoru[1]) was a Māori rangatira (chieftain) of Ngāti Ruanui and Mātaatua descent, who was probably based at Marokopa in Waikato, New Zealand and led a military expedition to the Bay of Plenty area, in around the late sixteenth century.

The locals fled, but Manu-Tongātea, now a young boy, was caught and tied up in a kete basket in order to be eaten in the morning.

When the party arrived at Lake Rotoiti, they found a village that had been attacked by Kai-ahi and the local chief married his daughter Wawara to Manu-Tongātea, although she was already engaged to another man.

[7] Pei Te Hurinui Jones records a mournful waiata which Wawara sang about the arranged marriage, in which she weeps for the loss of her betrothed, describes her new husband as a 'shadow', and concludes: Give me a cloak-pin!

[8] In a version told to Bruce Biggs by Elsie Turnbull, Manu-Tongātea is instead a man of Maungatautari, who committed adultery with a lady of Marokopa and was tied to a wooden pole, but was released as a result of his cries and left a kokako-feather cloak for his unborn son, who was therefore named Kōkako.