“In most cases history is lost in the mists of time. They didn’t survive the onslaughts of the more warlike arrivals from the eastern Pacific who needed to become warriors in order to survive the voyages from the Marquesas Islands to NZ.” Trevor Hosking Page 100 and 101, A Museum Underfoot
The Waitaha are one of the earliest tribal groups for whom genealogies exist, along with Hāwea and Ngāti (or Kati) Māmoe. The Waitaha ended up pushed to the bottom of the South Island.
There were two canoes of the Waitaha. The first canoe, “Te Waka-a-Raki,” Raki’s waka made landfall in the far north, Te Aupori. One authority, the son of notable tribal leader Hipa Te Maiharoa believed they left descendants in the far north, “and that they were fairies.”
In other words, an ancient and reclusive race the Maori saw as fairies because of their pale skin.
Wi Pokuku, a Ngai Tahu leader and teacher at the Moeraki Whare Wananga said;
“The Uruao came not from Hawaiki but visited Hawaiki on the way. The ancestors of the Maori once lived in a land far to the north; “there were no South Sea islands then and no New Zealand.”
“Then came the Uruao that Matiti gave to Rakaihaitu. Te Kahui Tipua and Te Kahui Roko were brought to NZ as well as the Waitaha.”
“Matiti kept coming in this direction, and the waka landed at the other island. But that island was full of people, so Rakaihaitu went straight onto this island. There were no people in this island. Rakaihaitu was the man and Te Rakihouia and Waitaha were the iwi.“
Source: An Account of Waitaha Origins, by Wi Pōkuku
The manuscript account by Wi Pokuku which is published here was transcribed by Herries Beattie, who in the first half of the twentieth century collected many records relating to South Island Maori tradition.
Turnbull Library Record, Volume 29, 1 January 1996, Page 7
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TLR19960101.2.7#text-tab
Rākaihautū
Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand state that in many traditions the Polynesian explorer Rākaihautū is the person who discovered and shaped much of the South Island. His canoe, Te Uruao, made landfall near Whakatū. His descendants became the dominant tribe, Waitaha, named after a 13th-generation descendant.
In the South Island Waitaha established communities across Nelson–Marlborough and are believed to have been the first to quarry the argillite (sedimentary rock) in the eastern ranges of Nelson.
They also developed much of the Waimea Gardens complex – more than 400 hectares on the Waimea Plains near Nelson. Applications of wood ash, river sand and shingle enhanced soil texture and fertility, and even today these lands are more productive than surrounding soils.
Ngāti Māmoe oust Waitaha
Gifts of preserved eels and birds from Waitaha so impressed the North Island tribe Ngāti (or Kati) Māmoe that they decided to cross Cook Strait to capture the rich resources for themselves.
After migrating from the Ahuriri (Napier) district and down through Wairarapa and Wellington, they crossed to the South Island. Eventually they pushed Waitaha south from Marlborough.
Source: Hilary Mitchell and John Mitchell, ‘Te Tau Ihu tribes – Early traditions’, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/te-tau-ihu-tribes/page-1 (accessed 31 May 2024) Story by Hilary Mitchell and John Mitchell, published 8 Feb 2005, updated 1 Mar 2017
The oral history of Waitaha was kept safe in song, and was first shared with all people seven years ago when a part of the ancient traditions were given within the pages of “The Song of Waitaha: The Histories of a Nation”.
Within these pages is to be found a description of the three distinct racial groups from which the Nation of Waitaha was founded.
The “Song of Waitaha” was released to the world by Waitaha elders because of the hate and the prejudice that was being created by the Land Claims of different hapu, who had created themselves recent histories at the expense of the First Nations Peoples long resident in these lands of hopes and dreams. The layers in these lands are composite layers of thousands of years of living in peace.” – Len, Culdian Trust forum
The Waitaha in Marlborough
The South Island Waitaha have left traces from the communities they established across the Nelson–Marlborough area.
Wairau Bar
The Wairau Bar is the site of ancient Moa hunter grave relics. It is said to be one of the oldest occupied sites of NZ.
In 1942 about 2000 artefacts and 44 human skeletons were removed and examined in detail. These early colonisers were tall compared to most Polynesians. The skeletons were all found in shallow graves, with the heads pointing towards the east and the feet to the west.
The skeletons were tested for DNA and it was found that three of the four individuals had no recent maternal ancestor in common, indicating that these pioneers were not simply from one tight-knit kin group, but instead included families that were not directly maternally related.
As well as the burials, there was 12-miles (19 kilometres) of hand-dug canals linking the waterways of the alluvial plain together, bringing abundant fish resources into the region, as well as enhancing the gardening.
For more information see my walk at Wairau Lagoon, Marlborough.
Pelorous Sound
The Waitaha once lived at peace. In 1845 the remains of a large, non-defensive pa were found on the east side of Pelorus Sound.
The site is described in this walk:
Rarangi
There are caves in the Rarangi area from a time when the sea once reached further inland, evidenced by fish hooks and shellfish remains around the caves. There were stone walled gardens near the hills, evidence of a much earlier people who had lived in the area around 900 years ago, which is interesting because there were also stone walled gardens just across Cook Strait at Cape Palliser.
The Waitaha in the North Island
Waitaha and ancient Kahui people in Taranaki
As we read in the above account by Ngai Tahu leader and teacher Wi Pokuku, Te Kahui Tipua and Te Kahui Roko were brought as well as the Waitaha. The Waitaha and ancient Kahui people were together in Taranaki, as we can see from the place names. A catchment is an area of land where rain flows into a common river, lake or other body of water. In Taranaki there is the Waitaha Catchment, overseen by the Taranaki Regional Council.
As well as this there’s the Waitaha Stream, and a Kahui Road at Rahotu between Opunake and New Plymouth.
Click here for Te Kahui Maunga
There were ancient rock petroglyphs at a cave in Tongaporutu, which has been lost to the surf. Note the big foot with six toes.
“They are the last signs of what we know as Te Kahui Potama, which are the ancient people and they were known as the Maeroa,” says Ngati Wai spokesperson Haumoana White. Source: Transparency NZ
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.
The Maero or Maeroa
“There are stories current on this coast of a people called Maero, who are described as wild men of the woods, and 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.
They have sometimes been confused with the Patu-pai-arehe, or fairies—so called—but this is quite a modern idea. At Puke-koikoi, on the Whanganui river, was a hill occupied by the Maero before that river was inhabited by the present tribes, and which the Maero abandoned after the place had been visited by the newcomers— they did so, because the tapu of their homes was desecrated by the invasion of newcomers.” Source: Tanganta Whenua, The ancient inhabitants of Taranaki
South Taranaki
There is rock art on private land near Waverley, which has been attributed in the Journal of the Polynesian Society to the Waitaha. I saw this wooden replica at the Museum of South Taranaki in Patea.
Kohi Rock Art, Waverley, South Taranaki
Whanganui River
Left: Waitaha Pa, an ancient pa about 10 kms upriver from Wanganui.
My interest in the first people began with a walk between lock-downs in 2020.
The site is about 5kms as the crow flies from my childhood farm where I found an argillite adze.
Reverend Richard Taylor wrote in 1855: “The Wanganui natives state, that when they first came to reside on the banks of the river, almost all the chief heights were occupied by the Patu-paiarehe, who gradually abandoned the river, and that even until a few generations ago, they had their favourite haunts there.” | – see Articles from “Te Ika A Maui, NZ and its Inhabitants”, by Rev Richard Taylor, written in 1855; facsimile reprint in 1974 A.H. & A.W. Reed.
Atene, 34 kms upriver
These coffins found in a burial cave high on a cliff face near Atene (on the Whanganui River) in 1919. They were created with stone tools. The lids were hewn from a single, thick plank, with the edge lip (used for locking the lid firmly onto the coffin box) laboriously carved by scalloping out the central region.
The skulls have a European physiology where they have a square jaw, rather than the rounded rocker jaw typical of Polynesian / Maori.
These ancient skeletons were reinterred by Mr T.W.Downes.
Horowhenua
The Horowhenua site states the Waitaha were 7′ tall; “Home to Muaūpoko, Ngāti Raukawa Ki te Tonga and Rangitāne, Horowhenua has a rich cultural heritage. From stories of the fabled Waitaha people at 7 feet tall, Patupaiarehe or fairy people thought to have inhabited the Makahika Valley, to sophisticated tree forts and warriors said to possess the ability to walk on water – the Horowhenua holds many taonga close to its heart.”
The Mangaroa pa site, Lake Horowhenua
There is an ancient Waitaha pa site called Mangaroa on the northern shores of Lake Horowhenua. It was a unique engineering work – there was a causeway, canal, and canoe breastwork – as well as the locally unusual foundation construction of the pa mound itself. The site was likely used later by the Ngati Mamoe, the ousters and successors of the Waitaha people. The later Muaupoko people were not associated with it.
In 1942 Richard Rolston, my husband’s distant relative, commenced the systematic excavation of this pa mound. There were a series of shorelines, now well inland from the current beach of his time in 1950. The area supplying the clearest evidence is located between Lake Horowhenua and the sea. In this area shell middens of two age belts can be distinguished – an outer and inner belt. These middens are attributed to the local Muaupoko tribe (a pre fleet people) up to a century ago (in the 1850’s.)
The older middens are further inland and these have been attributed to the Waitaha people. There is a complete absence of pumice in their middens. The pumice comes from volcanoes. The Muaupoko midden belt on the other hand, lies on a band parallel to the present beach, of a sand formation heavily charged with water-worn lumps of pumice of all sizes from small pebbles to boulders a foor or more in diameter. Pumice artifacts also occur, including disk-shaped net floats and rubstones.
The Waitaha occupation of Horowhenua has been shown to be pre-pumice; the Muaupoko period post-dated it.
A burial chest from the bed of Lake Horowhenua has no counterpart nearer than the famous antique wooden coffins peculiar to North Auckland. Deeply weathered Kauri gum was found in one of the Waitaha middens of the Horowhenua dune belt.
The museum artifacts are on this page:
Waitaha artifacts
Note: There is also a separate, unrelated Waitaha tribe from the Bay of Plenty who descend from the explorer Hei. Ngāti Hei can trace its roots to the arrival of the Arawa canoe at Maketu around 1350AD.
Links
Kohi Cave engraving, Waverley, South Taranaki
The Mangaroa pa site of the Waitaha at Horowhenua
Here is the Supplemental Data relating to the Ancient Waitaha in the Horowhenua.pdf by G Leslie Adkin 1950 for a description of criteria for Waitaha artifacts.
The spreading of the drifting pumice and its incorporation in shore and in inshore deposits provides a valuable “marker” or horizon of fixed position, by means of which other geological deposits as well as both buried and surface ethnological material can be dated, at least as definitely as “pre-pumice,” “post-pumice,” or as “Taupo pumice” in age.
Tangata Whenua: Some Waitaha history
The Waitaha of the South Island
“The Grandmothers” is a modern work by the artist Warren Thompson who is of Waitaha descent.
These three predominant limestones, mounted appropriately outside Hurunui’s District Council, were not intended to represent the centre of this community, rather and more so, to represent a past community that was once the centre of this District.
The following statement which has since been removed from the Hurunui District Council site can be seen on the Wayback machine, a web archive:
“To correct any misconceptions, these drawings are pre-Maori. Although in stating that, will not necessarily correct controversy. Like it or not, perhaps we should shrug and simply say “that’s art”.”
Waitaha Statues: “The Three Grandmothers”, Hurunui District Council
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