The Maruiwi

Maruiwi, or, as preferred by Elsdon Best, the Mouriuri were some of the earliest inhabitants of NZ. I first learned about the Maruiwi from an information board at Lake Okataina in the Rotorua lakes area, which said, “the first people to settle in the area were the myriads of Maruiwi … “

Their territory stretched from the Tāmaki isthmus to the eastern Bay of Plenty and Hawke’s Bay.

In Taranaki the Maruiwi were known as “Te Kāhui Maunga.”

According to Rāwiri Taonui the Maruiwi were from the Kahutara canoe which made landfall at Ngāmotu near New Plymouth, along with the Taikōria and Ōkoki canoes. The descendants of the three crews were later known as Te Tini-o-Maruiwi, Te Tini-o-Ruatāmore, Te Tini-o-Taitāwaro, Te Tini-o-Pananehu, Koaupari and Te Wīwini.

Source: Rāwiri Taonui, Canoe traditions – Canoes of the west coast and lower North Island, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/canoe-traditions/page-7 (accessed 1 July 2025).

According to Elsdon Best the Maru-iwi were one of the aboriginal tribes of NZ.

Kahutara, Taikōria and Ōkoki

Wi Pokuku, a Ngai Tahu leader and teacher at the Moeraki Whare Wananga said Te Kahui Tipua (a race of giants) and Te Kahui Roko were brought to NZ with the Waitaha. That the Kahui Tipua came out with the Waitaha is also maintained by the South Island Wairewa tribe.

Kahui means a flock, a name which is only applied to the tangata-whenua people. Te Kahui Tipua were the ancient people known as the Maeroa. They were described as wild men of the woods, who probably were the remains of some of the original people driven to the forests and mountains by the incoming crews of the heke. Even so late as the fifties of last century, they were supposed to inhabit the great forests in inland Taranaki.

Tamaki, Auckland

Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki trace their descent from the Maruiwi. The son of Maruiwi, Tāmaki, went on to lead the people of Te Tini o Maruiwi to settle the land now bearing his name.

When the explorer Toi Te Huatahi arrived in Tāmaki he found it to be extensively settled already by the Maruiwi peoples as firstly evident by the many occupation fires visible from his arrival. Hence, Toi called this land Hawaiiki tahutahu, ‘Hawaiiki of Many Fires’.

Source: Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki – Te Tini o Maruiwi, Te Tini o Toi

Rangitoto Island

Peretū was a key Maruiwi ancestor.

“Peretū (pere, dart; tū, pierced) was so named for his father died of a wound in battle caused by a hand-thrown dart, a weapon that was commonly used by these ancient peoples.

Above: the waharoa (gateway) of Peretu, Rangitoto Island.

The headland where Peretū resided is named Ō-Peretū (Fort Takapuna). Peretū had other Pā across Tāmaki, one such in the North being Te Raho-Para-a-Peretū at present day Castor Bay, North Shore, and another in the south known as Te Pounui a Peretū (Ponui Island).

At that time Peretū utilised Rangitoto for the purpose of a “Rāhui-Kākā” (Parrot Preserve), a bird then very abundant on that island. The many Kākā would thrive on the plentiful bush foods of Rangitoto for the island was covered in a forest of Rātā and Pohutukawa trees. For this reason the slopes of Rangitoto are known as “Ngā Huruhuru a Peretū” (The hairs of Peretū) in ancient times and today. Note that this period preceded the second eruption of Rangitoto.

Some of Toi’s crew stayed and intermarried with Peretū’s people. Uika, Toi’s cousin, was one who stayed in Tāmaki and intermarried. Uika settled at present day North Head, known thereafter as Maunga-a-Uika or Maungauika.

Also in these ancient times was the name Ngā Pona Toru a Peretū (The three knuckles of Peretū) which refers to the three summits of Rangitoto. Peretū had three fingers on each hand; this was not a deformity, but a sign of his descent from a godly ancestor.“

Source: Ngai Tai ki Tamaki, Tipua, Tūrehu and Patupaiarehe

Maungawhau / Mount Eden

Maungawhau (the mountain of the whau plant) is one of Tamaki’s tapu places.

Its impressive crater is known as Te Kapua Kai a Mataaho – the food bowl of Mataaho. It was here that ceremonies were held to placate him and prevent the renewed release of the volcanic forces he could influence.

Maungawhau was the pa- of Hua Kaiwaka, the grandfather of Kiwi Tamaki. He consolidated the descendants groups of the Isthmus as indicated by his identification as the ‘waka eater’, a metaphor
for his gathering together tribes and thus bequeathed his successor a united Waiohua alliance “as numerous as ants”.

Maungakiekie pā / One Tree Hill

Kiwi Tāmaki and his iwi lived in relative peace at Maungakiekie pā until tensions with the neighbouring Te Taoū iwi erupted when he and his warriors killed members of Te Taoū at a funeral feast. This led to a battle at Paruroa, now known as Big Muddy Creek, on the Manukau Harbour. Kiwi Tāmaki was killed in the battle, which occurred around 1740.

By the time Europeans came to New Zealand, Maungakiekie pā had been abandoned and the mountain had also become known as Te Tōtara i Āhua, because of the single native tōtara tree that stood at the top. Source: Maungakiekie-One Tree Hill – roadside stories

The totara was planted in the 17th century by Ngati Awa.

Maruiwi Pa sites

Maungakiekie is the site of what is claimed to be the world’s largest prehistoric and neolithic earth fort, given that prehistoric and neolithic refer to Pre-European contact in New Zealand. It is located in the Auckland suburb of One Tree Hill. Maungakiekie Pa

Maungakiekie was occupied by Tamaki, the son of Maruiwi. It became the stronghold of Kiwi Tāmaki, paramount chief of the Waihua iwi, or tribe, which dominated the area in the early 18th century. His pā housed about 4,000 warriors. You can still see the terracing and kumara pits from the pā today. The pa was abandoned before the coming of the European.

Nearby Maungawhau pa, Mount Eden, Auckland – the pa of Hua Kaiwaka, the grandfather of Kiwi Tamaki.

The diorama at the Kiosk tearooms on Maungawhau / Mount Eden

There were some large pas in Hawkes Bay. Heipipi Pa at Bayview, Napier is described in page 303 of The art workmanship of the Maori race in New Zealand as, “A celebrated pa of the autochthonous people overlooking the outlet of the Petane Valley, near Napier.” Autochthonous means “native to the place where found; indigenous.” In 1896 it would have meant the pre-Maori people, Ngati Mamoe and before them Maruiwi.

Source: The art workmanship of the Maori race in New Zealand

The Rev W Colenso made a sketch of this pa, with its pallisade of huge tree trunks with carved figures on top rising from the river bank. Colenso said he paced a whole mile outside the river fence of this pa. The Ngati-Porou in their tales said, “this pa is so large a child might be born at one end, and grow to manhood, and yet be quite unknown to the people living at the other end.”

Elsdon Best mentions a similar case – Mohoaonui Pa near Ruatoki, Whakatane. “Such were the works of old!”

Source: page 127 of The art workmanship of the Maori race in New Zealand

“The whole land was occupied by the tribes of the tangata-whenua (men of the country) whose ancestors held these lands long before the historical vessels came from the Hawaikian Fatherland, which lies far away, across the great ocean of Kiwa.

When the ancestors of the present Maori people became numerous in NZ, then wars arose between the two races, and many battles took place, and the long peace of the Great White World was broken at last. Then was known the evil that came with war and strife. The clash of arms was heard in the old-time homes of Te-tini-o-Toi (the descendants of Toi), the sound of war trumpets echoed far and wide, the rivers and lands of the descendants of Maui were stained with the blood of Maru-iwi and Te Maranga-ranga, of Te Po-kiki and Te Po-kaka.”

In one such incident the Maruiwi from the Waimana near Whakatane area fled from their land in terror. In his paper “Maru-Iwi: Te Heke a Maru-iwi ke te Po (The descent of Maru-Iwi to the Shades), Elsdon Best wrote about their deaths. Old Hamiora, tohunga of Ngati Whare gave Best this story;

“Far away across the White World was borne the wailing of Maru-iwi as they chanted a song of farewell to the Land of the Ancient People, for the Maori had come, the Maori of Hawaiki, of the Dark Ocean, trained to war and slaughter in the crowded isles of Polynesia.”

They pressed on down the eastern slopes of Titi-OKura to Mohaka past lake Te Pohue and only stopped to rest when they reached the vicinity of Rukumoana Road.

It was nightfall and a scout raced in to break the news that Tuwharetoa were almost upon them. In the panic that ensued the stage was set for a tragedy of epic proportions, a tragedy that still pervades the deep and treacherous Pokopoko ravine 500 years later.

Struggling along the old track in Hawkes Bay from Titiokura to Puketapu to Moteo, they may have lost the track in the tall fern. The poor people met their deaths in a deep chasm, a canyon with perpendicular walls, while fleeing in the dark. Unknowingly they stepped into the abyss, while others pressed on and themselves were forced into the gulch by the pressure of those behind them.

Hence came the expression, “Te Heke a Maru-iwi ki to Po, Te Heke a Maru-iwi ki te Waru.” These have come to be used as synonyms for death.

Source: Taylor White – the fleeing Maru-iwi walk over the Glenshea Cliff at night | Paperspast

Marutuahu

Also the Auckland Museum have a stone I didn’t see on display, known as Marutūahu, a sacred stone or mauri. The stones held a particular kind of energy, and were used in fishing and other customs. They were placed in a fishing net to attract fish, and were also put in bird snares as a lure.

The Te Kahui Tipua weren’t the only race of giants.

The Pananehu in the Opotiki area were also a division of the Maruiwi folk, referred to as “the giant people.” As time passed, the names Te Wakanui and Te Panenehu gradually merged into the new identity of Whakatōhea.

Opape near Whakatane was originally Opepe, so named because of this historical narrative;

“Ngai Tama we have a really important historical narrative about the people who were there previously and were the early settlers. They were called Pananehu. Many of the women at that time were tiny women with small cervixes. When they mated with the Pananehu who were the giant people as we refer to them, many of those children died in pregnancy because the women’s cervixes were too small. The original name of Opape was Opepe. The name commemorated this event. Ngai Tamahaua has a waiata entitled “Me Penei Ana.” The waiata is unique to the hapu. It memorialises the loss of the children. We’re the only ones who sing it on ceremonial occasions and at tangi.” Source: Treaty of Waitangi claim Wai 1750, #C39

The Pananehu, Nukutere canoe and the Flood tradition

At Ohope I learned that Opape from our previous walk was given as the landing place for the Nukutere canoe. The Pananehu, the giant people, were the tribe associated with this canoe.

The Nukutere was the canoe of Whiro-nui. According to Maori tradition it arrived eight months before the Flood, called Te Tai-a-Ruatapu (see Rua-tapu). Both insects and lizards were brought in it. The ancestors of Porourangi, from whom spring the men of Ngāti-porou, came in this canoe.

Whiro-nui: “Great second night of the moon.” A chief who arrived in New Zealand in the Nukutere canoe, some eight months before the Deluge known as Te Tai-a-Ruatapu. Whiro was married to Arai-ara, by whom he had a daughter, Hutu-rangi, who was given as a wife to Paikea.

The captains of the Nukutere were Tamatea-Nukuroa and Taoturangi.

The Deluge was known to the Maori as Hurianga-i-Mataaho.

Source: Encyclopedia Mythica

Ngāti Awa remember the connection to the Kaahui people or the people “that walked here before the floods.” Source: Wikipedia, Te Ati Awa

Do these traditions recall events from the flood of Noah?

Ancestors before the Maruiwi

The Ngati Whatua of the Kaipara area state there were people in the north before the arrival of the Maruiwi from the south;

“ANCESTORS Ancient traditions of Ngati Whatua trace the tribe’s ancestry back to fairy people called patupaiarehe or Turehu (literally those who arose from the earth). They speak of an ancestral figure called Tumutumuwhenua and his wife Kui whose descendants were well established in Kaipara before Te Tino o Maruiwi made their way from the south.”

https://taporatimes.weebly.com/history.html

Nuku-tawhiti

The tradition of Nuku-tawhiti bears trace of great age. This Nuku-tawhiti, whose name is of interest etymologically, is almost certainly the Nu’u of the Hawaiian deluge legend, the Polynesian Noah (see also Deluge). Tupu-tupu-whenua was also called Kui, or had a wife named Kui, and they went down under the ground. Kui is now incarnate as a little insect.

…

Nuku-tawhiti is the father of Papa-tahuri-iho, and grandfather of Papa-tahuri-ake. The name of the house built by him in New Zealand was Whatupungapunga.

Source: Encyclopedia Mythica, Nuku-tawhiti

The Toi tribes (a mixed Maori-Maruiwi folk)

MAORI AND MARUIWI. THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST POLYNESIAN SETTLERS AT WHAKATANE. ORIGIN OF THE MIXED TOI TRIBES

Maruiwi – Original Inhabitants of Aotearoa?

Ancestral Māori pa site opened in Bay of Plenty

Early Auckland History. The Men Who Carved Tamaki’s Hills—Story of the Maruiwi Race—A Long Vanished Tribe. By JAMES COWAN.

Tamaki, the son of Maruiwi

Auckland City Council: The story of the mighty Maungakiekie