During the height of the Musket Wars the number of warriors rose to about 2,000 and the group travelled mainly on foot around the North Island coast.
[3] This heke was a consequence of the so-called Girls’ War, which was a fight that occurred on the beach at Kororāreka, Bay of Islands in March 1830 between northern and southern hapū within the Ngāpuhi iwi.
It was within Māori traditions for a taua to conduct muru against hapu who had no involvement in the events that caused the death of the chief.
Sometimes, especially in the north, chiefs would intercede to give a cultural explanation to settlers and arrange a suitable payment of goods in compensation.
His wound was tended to by a doctor and the man recovered but a taua decided to take muru for the accident by attacking a local farmer /artist.
[citation needed] Taua would typically restrict their activity to the fighting season, between late November and early April, when food and fishing was plentiful.
Their intimate knowledge of New Zealand's natural environment enabled them to appear and disappear swiftly and noiselessly and successfully complete their mission.
As Maori at the time were strongly committed to the idea of "utu" (revenge), the aim would be to kill all members of the enemy war party and leave no survivors.
Taua (aka War Party) is a 2007 short film written and directed by Te Arepa Kahi.