Ngāti Tama–Ngāti Tūwharetoa War
[2][3] Ngāti Tama (full name Ngāti Tamaihu-toroa)[4] were an iwi of Te Arawa that had been driven out of the Bay of Plenty region and migrated south, where they settled in Tainui territory on the west shore of Lake Taupō, establishing a number of villages in the area, including: Ōpurakete, Waihora, Marae-kōwhai, Hingarae, Keri-tāne at Waihāhā, Whanganui, Hikurangi, and Purukete.
One of their ariki, Rua-wehea, who was a grandson of Tūwharetoa and lived at Whaka-uenuku at Karangahape,[9][10] had built up a great deal of mana and therefore was able to establish himself as the overlord of Ngāti Tama.
[11] He exercised this position in an arrogant manner – whenever he encountered Ngāti Tama while travelling in his canoe, he would blow his pūkāeaea (bush falcon trumpet) and shout out curses, "Cooked heads!
When Poutū heard how Rua-wehea treated the people of Ngāti Tama, he advised that they should kill him and gave Te Atua-reretahi a whale-bone mere called Paroparo-humeia with which to do the deed.
[15][13][7] The next time that Rua-wehea came to visit the Ngāti Tama at Whanganui, blowing on his pū kāeaea, they burnt some weeds, so that he would think that food had been prepared for him, then they welcomed him onto their marae, and led him into a house with a low doorway,[16][7] where Rongo-hape was waiting at the window, Rongo-haua at the centre of the room, and Te Atua-reretahi at the back of the room or hiding behind the door.
[16] When Tuwharetoa visited Ngati Tama, they denied all knowledge and suggested that his canoe might have capsized, but they found his body hung up at Hingarae and worked out what had happened from the head wound.
[22] Pei Te Hurinui Jones says that the rope holding up the body of Rua-wehea broke during the night and his corpse drifted out onto the lake, where it was found by a canoe of Tūwharetoa.
Once all the forces were gathered, he led a war party of 800 men to attack the main Ngāti Tama village, Keri-tāne, located on the north bank of the Waihāhā River, where it flows into Lake Taupō.
As Tūmata-ngaua snuck through the village, he made a special effort to identify Roroihape, the famously beautiful daughter of the rangatira Rongo-hape.
[23] At dawn the next morning, the Tūwharetoa forces attacked Keri-tāne and slaughtered many of Ngāti Tama without a fight, including Rongo-hauā and Te Atua-reretahi.
He killed Waikari at Koro-tanuku, but at Whakāngiangi, he was wounded by Te Rangi-ita and made peace with Tūwharetoa by marrying his daughter Waitapu to him.
[32][33] Te Ata-inutai's grandson Tū-te-tawhā and his relative Whiti-patatō avenged that death by leading an attack on the village of Tūwharetoa a Turiroa.
[36] The earliest preserved accounts of the conflict are given by John White in his unpublished volume on the history of Te Arawa, which he composed between 1879 and his death in 1891,[37] and by Samuel Locke in 1882, as part of an accumulated record of Māori traditions from Taupō and the East Coast, which he says that he translated from written accounts produced by unnamed Māori tohunga.
