The great events of the past are still preserved in Maori families by fathers telling them to their sons. In this way Tawai Kawiti was told the story of the 1845–6 wars in the North by his father, the well-known Ngati Hine chief Riri Maihi Kawiti, and he has now committed this family version of the famous war to paper. Te Ao Hou is glad to present it to its readers, for apart from its value as a story, it contains a good deal that has not been printed in the past. Riri Maihi Kawiti. (Photo: Stanhope Andrews)
HEKE'S WAR IN THE NORTH by TAWAI KAWITI Hone Heke. (Turnbull Library Photograph)
HOW KORORAREKA WAS WON Some four years after the signing of the Treaty at Waitangi in 1840, Hone Heke of the Ngatitautahi of Kaikohe journeyed to Wahapu to meet Kawiti. The object of this visit was the conveying of ‘te ngakau’ to the Ngatihine chief. This was an old custom observed by those who sought help to settle a tribal grievance. Various methods were used by different tribes to show that serious action was necessary. For instance, after a certain murder, a female relative of the victim conveyed ‘te ngakau’ by travelling from Hokianga to the Bay of Islands to enlist suport. In another case, the chief, driving a pig before him as an offering, travelled some considerable distance. The mission completed, the pig was killed and the carcase distributed throughout the district. This meat was a “ngakau”—a signal for the mobilization of all fighting men. Another was announced through a specially composed chant, and needless to say these appeals seldom fell on deaf ears. So it was with Heke, a distant relative of Kawiti. He brought with him a mere smeared with human dung. No explanation was needed, the meaning was obvious. Someone had defiled
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