Korero o ngā tupuna o Tapuika
The tupuna Tapuika was born in the village of Ngati Ohomairangi (Oho) Maketu, on the island of Raiatea, the Polynesian homeland of Hawaiiki. Ngati 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 Ngati Ohomairangi (Te Arawa)
Puhaorangi
Ohomairangi
Ruamuturangi
Taungatapu
Atuamatua
| *Tia | *Hei | Rākauri | Houmaitawhiti | Oro | Maaka |
| Tapuika | Waitaha | Ngatoroirangi | Tamatekapua | ||
* twins |
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 Ngati Ohomairangi and other villages. This eventuated in members of Ngati Oho deciding to leave Raiatea to seek out the lands discovered by Kupe for settlement. Tapuika and approximately 30 other Ngati 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.
Hapu of Tapuika
Tapuika and his descendants settled on the lands claimed for him and flourished with a proliferation of hapu. 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 hapu considerably. Today the hapu and Marae of Tapuika are:
Hapu
Ngati Marukukere
Marae
Tia
Hapu
Ngati Kuri
Marae
Tapuika
Hapu
Ngati Tuheke
Marae
Makahae
Hapu
Ngati Tuheke
Marae
Tawakepito
Hapu
Ngati Moko
Marae
Moko
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