Te Kawau Ngati Whatua 1798 1840

edmondsallan - Hello - I searched and searched for his date of birth . I think I'll estimate it .( 1798 ??? ) However it could be very wrong !!!
Apihai Te Kawau was born towards the end of the eighteenth century. His father was Tarahawaiki and his mother was Mokorua, who was descended from the Waiohua people. Te Kawau's grandfather was Tupe-riri, principal leader of Te Taou hapu of Ngati Whatua who overran the Auckland isthmus around 1740, defeating the Waiohua who became the Nga Oho and Te Uringutu hapu of Ngati Whatua. Thus Te Kawau, the inheritor of several chiefly lines of Ngati Whatua and known as 'the man of many cousins', had connections which enabled him to become a unifying and leading person in Ngati Whatua on the Tamaki isthmus.
In his youth Te Kawau probably fought against Nga Puhi; Moremonui, a Ngati Whatua victory in 1807 or 1808, near Maunganui Bluff, was the major battle of the time. Later he was one of the leaders of the war expedition which became known as Te Amiowhenua or 'the encircling of the land'. In 1821 this expedition left Oneonenui, southern Kaipara, for the lower Waikato, where it was joined by Ngati Maniapoto and others led by Peehi Tukorehu. It passed through Rotorua to launch an attack against Heretaunga (Hawke's Bay), and reached Te Apiti (the Manawatu Gorge) before turning east into Wairarapa. There the war party fought Ngati Hikarahui, capturing Hakikino pa, near present day Masterton. It is said that the raiders killed and ate all the people they came across in these districts and that Te Kawau slept each night with a basket of human flesh for a pillow. At Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington Harbour) the war party attacked and captured the fortified pa of Ngati Ira on the island of Tapu-te-ranga, in what is now Island Bay. Tapu-te-ranga was a staging post for voyages across Cook Strait; one report claims that the war party crossed to the South Island. Moving north again, the expedition attacked Muaupoko and the Wanganui district, before the remaining section, under Te Kawau, became involved in the wars in Taranaki between their ally Tukorehu and some Te Ati Awa hapu. Other Te Ati Awa helped the war party to escape to Pukerangiora, the main Te Ati Awa pa. The siege that followed was raised by the Waikato chief Te Wherowhero, after the battle of Mangatiti. The war party added 800 men to Te Wherowhero's army, which returned to Waikato in May 1822 to fight Hongi Hika's Nga Puhi invasion at Matakitaki and at Mangauika pa, battles that were disasters for Waikato. In June 1822 Te Kawau returned to Tamaki and Kaipara, having covered 1,000 miles in one of the longest war expeditions ever undertaken.
Having helped the Waikato forces at Matakitaki, Te Kawau feared attack by Nga Puhi, who were also seeking revenge for the Moremonui battle in which two of Hongi Hika's brothers had been killed. Te Kawau now moved his hapu to Pukewhau on the Waipa River; other Ngati Whatua went north to Mahurangi Harbour. Despite these moves there was fighting over the next two years, warfare against Nga Puhi culminating in 1825 in the battle of Te Ika-a-ranga-nui. Te Kawau left Okahu to join his people at this battle, at the conjunction of the Kaiwaka River and the Waimako Stream, inland from Mangawhai, but arrived too late for what was a severe Ngati Whatua defeat. After Te Ika-a-ranga-nui the hapu of Ngati Whatua on the Tamaki isthmus scattered, leaving the isthmus depopulated. Only after Hongi's death in 1828 were Ngati Whatua able to return to Tamaki, where they resumed their cultivations at Mangere, Onehunga and Horotiu, and their land at Orakei. At Manukau Harbour, on 20 March 1840, Te Kawau signed a copy of the Treaty of Waitangi. Ngati Whatua were seeking British protection against their Nga Puhi enemies. Their Maori protector in the 1830s had been Potatau Te Wherowhero, and it may have been partly due to their long alliance with him that, although refusing to sign, he did not reject the treaty out of hand.
I am not so sure I like this " fella " as he appears to have attacked our " Relatives " way back . Mind YOU , some of our relatives were inclined to go hunting for a fight . We will have to watch that
" Fighting Gene "in our mokapunas." MAKE SURE IT " is kept under control or we will have some regrets if not some already - . Till we meet again - Regards - edmondsallan