Kawiti Te Ruki

edmondsallan - Hello - I think it is time to take a look at another of our extended family who lived mainly in " Hokianga " a Nga Puhi leader & warrior . Kawiti was born, probably in the 1770s, in northern New Zealand. He was descended from Nukutawhiti, commander of the Nga-toki-mata-whao-rua canoe, which made its landing at Hokianga. He was the 11th generation from Rahiri, ancestor of Nga Puhi; Huna was his father and his mother, Te Tawai. They were of Ngati Hine, whose identity with their territory runs thus:

Tokerau is the mountain
Taumarere the river
Ngati Hine the hapu
Hineamaru the ancestress.

When Kawiti reached maturity, he was admitted into Te Whare Wananga mo nga Tohunga, at Taumarere, one of the ancestral villages of Ngati Hine. As he gained a reputation as a fighting warlord, Europeans gave him the nickname 'The Duke' (Te Ruki). Kawiti and his first wife, Kawa, had three sons: Taura, Wiremu Te Poro, and Maihi Paraone Te Kuhanga. His second wife was Te Tiwha, and they had a daughter, Tuahine. His villages were at Otuihu, Pumanawa, Waiomio, Taumarere, Orauta and Mangakahia; his carved whare, Ahuareka, stood in Waiomio, a short distance from where Te Rapunga meeting house now stands.
Kawiti was a notable warrior and detested being bottled up in a fort. He favoured rugged terrain as his battleground, and preferred to pursue an opponent and fight in hand-to-hand combat to the death. His fighting pa, therefore, were sited on hilly slopes at points which offered safe exit routes into thick bush. His pa were Otarawa, immediately below Te Pouaka-a-Hineamaru; Tikokauae at Motatau; Wahapu (Te Wahapu Inlet) at Ahikiwi; Ruapekapeka and Puketona.
At the battle of Moremonui, at Maunganui Bluff, in 1807 or 1808 Kawiti saw Nga Puhi fall before the assembled might of Ngati Whatua; Hongi Hika barely escaped with his life. In 1824 Te Whareumu of Nga Puhi came to Kawiti, chanting his ngakau, a special request for assistance to avenge the deaths of his relatives at Moremonui. He had presented Kawiti with a pig, and when Kawiti shared the pig among his people it was a sign to Te Whareumu of Ngati Hine support. The battle of Te Ika-a-ranga-nui, on the Kaiwaka River, followed in 1825, and on this occasion Ngati Whatua fell before the assembled might of Nga Puhi; the deaths of Taurawhero, Koriwhai and other Nga Puhi at Moremonui were avenged. Kawiti also earned the reputation of a peacemaker among his people. This was evident at Te Ika-a-ranga-nui when a serious disagreement occurred between Hongi and Kawiti. Kawiti, who had kinship ties with Ngati Whatua, realised that Hongi would annihilate that tribe, so just before the battle took place, he took a number of them as hostages to protect them. Hongi heard about Kawiti's hostages and went to Taumarere to demand their release; they were his 'possessions' by right of conquest. Hongi threatened to invade Ngati Hine territory, but Kawiti warned him off.
Hongi did not carry out his threat. Sentries, posted by Kawiti along the route to Whangaroa as a precaution, reported that no preparations for full-scale war were being made at Hongi's camp. This allowed Kawiti and Ngati Hine to embark at once on their mission of peace to return Ngati Whatua safely to Kaipara. Mate Kairangatira of Ngati Hine was left with Ngati Whatua to cement the peace pact made between the two tribes, and to warn Hongi of the consequences should he ever attack Ngati Whatua again.
Kawiti also intervened at the battle known as the Girls' War, at Kororareka (Russell) in 1830, and helped to speed up peace negotiations between Nga Puhi and the Kororareka people. Nga Puhi were seeking to avenge the loss of their chief Hengi. To avoid full-scale war between Nga Puhi and the people of Kororareka, Kawiti induced Kiwikiwi to surrender the lands of Kororareka, which were Kawiti's by right of conquest, to Nga Puhi as atonement for the loss of Hengi. I think we have researched a " big un " here . His mana & actions are huge among the ancestery of his people's Till we meet again _ Regards - edmondsallan