Tūwharetoa i te Aupōuri, also called Tūwharetoa-waekae-rakau, was a Māori ariki (chieftain) in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand and the eponymous ancestor of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi, who probably lived in the sixteenth century. During his life, he established control over a large section of the Bay of Plenty. In his old age, his children and grandchildren invaded Taupō, which became the centre of the iwi's rohe.
Tūwharetoa was the son of Mawake-Taupō and Ha-ahuru. Through his father, he descended from Te Arawa, Mataatua, and ultimately from Ngātoro-i-rangi, who arrived in New Zealand on the Arawa canoe, and the atua, Rongomai-nui.[1] Through his mother, he was descended from Hapuonone, a tribe that had been settled at Ōhiwa before the arrival of Arawa, and from Mataatua.[2] This ancestry gave him great mana and a strong claim to the land. On account of this, the tribal elders married him to Paekitawhiti who was also of very high rank. From this marriage were born the pre-eminent chiefly lines of Ngāti Tūwharetoa. At the birth of their first and only son, Rongomai-te-ngangana, Tūwharetoa took the baby up Otukaira hill to announce the birth of the future ariki.
After this, Mawake-Taupō told Tūwharetoa to go out with a band to visit the surrounding tribes and lands. At the Mōtū River, he visited the village of Rongomai-ururangi, then paramount chief of Ngāitai.[3] Rongomai-ururangi's daughter led a poi dance to welcome the band, which responded with a haka. Tūwharetoa and Hinemotu fell in love and she ran off with him. They married at Mawake-Taupō's pā at Kawerau and settled at Waitahanui, where they had eight children. Once he had succeeded his father as leader of the tribe, he also married Te Uiraroa.
John Te Herekiekie Grace reports that Tūwharetoa was a remarkable warrior, a wise advisor, and a master wood carver. With the help of his ally Tūtewero son of Maruka, Tūwharetoa established control of a region encompassing Ōtamarākau, the Awa-o-te-atua (Tarawera River), and Kawerau.
See main article: Ngāti Tūwharetoa invasion of Taupō. When Tūwharetoa was an old man, Tūtewero was attacked by a group called Marangaranga / Maruiwi but handily defeated them. Ngāti Tūwharetoa were ashamed that this conflict had taken place without them, so Tūwharetoa's sons Rakahopukia, Rākei-poho, Rākei-makaha, Taniwha-paretuiri, and Rongomai-te-ngangana formed a war party of 240 men and attacked the Marangaranga / Maruiwi. They suffered a terrible defeat at Kaka-tarae near Runanga Lake, but the survivors were able to avenge their defeat.
According to Locke, as the war party was returning from this expedition, they travelled to Hinemaiaia on the coast of Lake Taupō, where they deposited their dead. Then they travelled north along the coast, past Maniaheke and Kowhaiataku to Lake Rotongaio, where an argument with the priestess Hine-kaho-roa culminated in her uttering a powerful curse and comparing Tūwharetoa's ancestors, Rangitu and Tangaroa, to fernroot (i.e. treating them both as food). According to Locke and Te Hata, when the war party departed and reported this to Tūwharetoa at Kawerau, a special sacred force was summoned to Kawerau by Tūwharetoa, who neutralised the curse by sacrificing a lizard. However, Tūwharetoa felt compelled to send an expedition against Ngāti Kurapoto to avenge the insult represented by the curse. According to Grace, the war party returned home to find that Tūwharetoa had died, and the expedition was dispatched by Rakei-Uekaha.
This invasion force, led by Tūwharetoa's grandsons Rongo-Patuiwi and Taringa, his great-grandson Waikari, and his son Rereao defeated Ngāti Kurapoto on the northeast shore of Taupō and Ngāti Hotu on the southern shore and occupied both territories.
Tūwharetoa died at an advanced age at Waitahanui. He was buried at the nearby cemetery. According to the section of Ngāti Tūwharetoa that now lives by Lake Taupo, the tohunga Te Ngako later disinterred his bones and moved them to Te Atuareretahi cave in the hills above Kawerau. According to the section still based in the Bay of Plenty, Te Ngako interred the bones in a hole in the trunk of a great tōtara tree, that was still alive as of 1959.
Tūwharetoa married three women and had children with all of them. His senior wife was Pae-ki-tawhiti, by whom he had a daughter and a son:
Tūwharetoa's second wife was Hinemotu, by whom he had one daughter and seven sons:
Tūwharetoa's third wife was Te Uiraroa, with whom he had five sons:
She subsequently remarried to Awanui-a-rangi, with whom she was ancestor of Te Rangihouhiri (ancestor of Ngati Te Rangihouhiri) and Manu-Tongātea.
On a visit to Rotorua, Tūwharetoa slept with Rangiuru, the wife of Whakakauekaipapa, the ancestor Ngāti Whakaue, resulting in a son, Tūtānekai, who is famous for his romance with Hinemoa.