“Whakamana te puna mauri ora o Ngāti Rārua, mo ngā hekenga a muri ake tonu”
“Realise the wellspring of vital identity that is Ngāti Rārua for all the migrations yet to come”
TE HEKENGA
“I wehe mātou o Ngāti Rārua i raro i te korowai o Ngāti Mangō me kii ngā iwi e toru, ko Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Koata ko Ngāti Rārua. I te wā o te hekenga he nui te raruraru he nui ngā pakanga i waenganui i a mātou nei ngā iwi o te uru o te rohe pōtae ko te taha tika ki o mātou whanaunga nō Waikato nō Ngāti Maniapoto hoki. I taua wā i whakaarohia a Te Rauparaha ki te wehe atu i Kawhia me ngā whenua tūpuna o Ngāti Toa Rangatira, ko mātou ko Ngāti Rārua o Ngāti Koata.”
“We of Ngāti Rārua departed Kawhia under the cloak of Ngāti Mangō, formed from the three tribes of Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Koata and Ngāti Rārua. There was a lot of inter-tribal warfare during this time. We left under the leadership of Te Rauparaha.”
Mai Hawaiiki Nui, Hawaiiki Roa, Hawaiiki Pāmamao. Our whakapapa genealogy, our rich Polynesian heritage connects us to the vast Pacific Ocean – Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. Our ancestors were voyagers, navigators and explorers who traversed the Pacific Ocean.
The great Polynesian migration during the 13th century is when our tūpuna – ancestors arrived Aotearoa on our ancestral waka Tainui. Our people settled in Kawhia Moana.
Generations later in the 18th century, intertribal warfare within Tainui results in Ngāti Rārua forging allegiances with Ngāti Koata and Ngāti Toa Rangatira under the headship of Te Rauparaha.
Ngāti Rārua departs our homelands in Kawhia and Marokopa, taking shelter and also forging allegiances with Taranaki Iwi of Te Atiawa and Ngāti Tama.
A series of migration conquests to Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka-a-Maui takes place, and by the 1820’s Ngāti Rārua has taken occupation of Whenua throughout Te Tau Ihu.
Wairau is one of the first pā where Ngāti Rārua settles. Soon after the first wave of Pākehā settlement begins in Nelson Whakatu colonisation becomes widespread across Aotearoa New Zealand.
The signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840 results in the alienation. Māori Land confiscations by the crown plagues the country in what would result in the NZ Land Wars. By the 19th century Ngāti Rārua are left virtually landless.
Over 170 years later, Ngāti Rārua is one of eight Iwi in Te Tau Ihu to sign a Treaty Settlement Deed with the Crown the New Zealand Government. The tribal entity of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Rārua is established to represent the beneficial interest of Whānau, Hapū of Ngāti Rārua.
In 2019, Ngāti Rārua o Te Wairau Society is established in the beneficial interest of Whānau from the Hapū of Ngāti Paretona and Te Arawaere of Wairau Pā.
