Our History / Ngā Kōrero Hītori | Tapuika Iwi Authority

Korero o ngā tupuna o Tapuika

The tupuna Tapuika was born in the village of Ngāti Ohomairangi (Oho) Maketu, on the island of Raiatea, the Polynesian homeland of Hawaiiki. Ngāti Oho are the descendants of the heavenly being Puhaorangi and the maiden Kuraimonoa. His father Tia and his brother Hei were the twin sons of Atuamatua the high priest of the Marae Taputapuatea.

Whakapapa o Ngāti Ohomairangi (Te Arawa)

Puhaorangi
Ohomairangi
Ruamuturangi
Taungatapu
Atuamatua

*Tia

Tapuika

*twins

*Hei

Waitaha

Rākauri

Ngatoroirangi

Houmaitawhiti

Tamatekapua

Oro

Maaka

Tapuika grew to adulthood on Raiatea eventually marrying and beginning a family with the birth of his son Makahae. An increase in the population led to scarcity of land and food resources resulting in ongoing wars between Ngāti Ohomairangi and other villages. This eventuated in members of Ngāti Oho deciding to leave Raiatea to seek out the lands discovered by Kupe for settlement. Tapuika and approximately 30 other Ngāti Oho departed in the waka Te Arawa from Faaroa Harbour Hawaiiki for Aotearoa.

After several near calamities the waka Te Arawa eventually made landfall at Whangaparaoa in Aotearoa. As the waka travelled along the coast the tupuna began to taumau or lay claim to the new lands by naming the land after parts of their body rendering the land sacred. When the Te Arawa waka was midway between Motiti Island in the Bay of Plenty and Wairakei stream Papamoa, Tia stood to taumau the lands for his son Tapuika.

"Mai i ngā pae maunga ki te toropuke e tu kau mai ra ki te awa e rere mai ana waiho te whenua ko te takapu a taku tamaiti a Tapuika."

"From the hills standing before me, to that flowing river I claim these lands as the belly of my child Tapuika."

Despite the battles of the 18th – 19th century and the machinations of the Native Land Court in the late 1800’s through to the 20th century the descendants of Tapuika have remained on the lands claimed for their tupuna from the arrival of the waka in Aotearoa to today.

Te Takapu o Tapuika (tribal rohe) today commences at Wairakei stream over the Papamoa hills to Puwhenua in the west, inland to Kaharoa to the Pueto stream to Te Hiapo heading in an easterly direction to Little Waihi, Maketu and returning along the coast back to Wairakei Papamoa.

Hapū of Tapuika

Tapuika and his descendants settled on the lands claimed for him and flourished with a proliferation of hapū. In the 1820’s the flax trade bought great prosperity to Tapuika resulting in the purchase of their own ships to export flax and vegetables to the markets in Auckland and Sydney. With prosperity came new methods of agriculture and the event of the musket escalating tribal warfare between those iwi with long held tribal rivalries and greed.

Wars, land loss, diseases such as influenza reduced the number of hapū considerably.

Today the Hapū and Marae of Tapuika are: